Merging dLive control network with existing facility network

[JPageParticipant]

What are some considerations for putting the dLive surface and mixrack on an existing facility network?
I’m mainly wanting easy control of the board with dLive Director and ipad apps, but I don’t want the potential for the surface and mixrack to lose connection.

Are static IPs preferable? Is DHCP slower on startup?
Is there any special accommodations the IT people need to make?

[BrianParticipant]

You can definitely connect the normal network port on either the MixRack OR the Surface into your general facility network to allow remote control via DLive Director or other apps. However do NOT connect more than one network connection to each MixRack/Surface system. If you connect two (or more) devices (MixRacks or Surfaces) to the network, it creates a network loop because the GigaAce connection between the devices also includes network data on it. This will certainly cause weird network issues.

You cannot mix a GigaAce connection with any other network traffic however. I ideally you connect the MixRack and Surface directly together using an appropriate network cable. No switches, wall plates, etc to complicate things. However, you can route the data through a network switch under some very specific guidelines. Without going into a lot of detail, you have to use a dedicated VLAN for that GigaAce connection, and once again you can only have that single GigaAce connection on the VLAN. You can’t use the same VLAN for two GigaAce connections, or have any other traffic on that VLAN.

As far as static vs DHCP addresses – A&H support will tell you to use static addresses only. There is a known problem where if a A&H device expects a DHCP address, but isn’t issued one, it will wait for an extended period of time before it will finish booting. This can slow a boot process down by minutes when this occurs. Of course if the device gets a DHCP address like normal, it will boot in a normal amount of time. Still, by using static addresses, you take this potential issue away completely.

[RuneSParticipant]

We have all our MixRacks on a large venue wide network. (up to 9 stages) We use static addresses, and it just works. (connect either the mixrack or surface to the network…not both)

HOWEVER, there is one huge issue with the setup. (might not be an issue for you though) A dLive surface will ‘always’ connect to the last MixRack it was connected to. Regardless of what MixRack is connected to the gigaACE ports! This means that if you move surfaces around, you risk that the surface connects to a different MixRack (than the one it is physically connected to via gigaACE) somewhere else in the building. And when you recall your showfile…show stopper.

AH’s answer to me regarding this behaviour is that the dLive is not ‘a network device’. Very odd since I can’t imagine a single scenario where you would want the surface to connect to a different MixRack than the one it is connect to via gigaACE. If you wanted to connect it to a MixRack on the network…you wouldn’t use gigaACE.

(sorry for the rant)

[msteelParticipant]

We also have two mix racks and 3 surfaces on large network. We use static addresses as well.

We generally do not move things around, but one time when we did, I accidentally set two surfaces to the same IP address. One day an event was going on in one room, and a surface got powered on in a room across the street. The duplicate address caused the first surface to crash in the middle of the event. So there are some dangers with static IP address as well because of the human error potential.

[DaveParticipant]

Very odd since I can’t imagine a single scenario where you would want the surface to connect to a different MixRack than the one it is connect to via gigaACE.

When the people running the broadcast mix haven’t figured out how to solve a particular problem, you can’t leave leave FoH to go take care of it, and you don’t have a way to run Director.

I haven’t actually had to do that, but only because I’ve got a computer running Director at FoH.

[Author]

Posts