Audio and Video over IP Networks
With the audio/video (A/V) industry, the same thing happened as with telephony and security cameras. First we used separate networks, now we run everything over IP.
This means that as a A/V professional, you need to understand basic networking principles.
There are some challenges of running A/V over an IP network:
- Traffic that is sensitive to delay and jitter, such as live streaming or multi-room audio.
- Traffic with high bandwidth requirements.
- Network redundancy for critical A/V systems.
How difficult this will be depends on the technology your A/V solutions requires.
Basic Networking
You will always need to learn about basic networking. The difference between routers and switches, IPv4 vs IPv6, what a VLAN is, etc. You also need to learn about protocols such as UDP and Real-time Transport Protocol. You might have heard about Audio Video Bridging (AVB).
Time synchronization might be important so you'll have to learn about NTP and PTP.
How much you need to dive into this depends on your requirements. Do you only work with local networks and switches? You can skip most of the router material where you learn about basic routing and routing protocols.
Do you also run A/V over WAN networks? Dive into routing as well.
For a great overview of basic networking you can follow the CCNA 200-301 course. You can skip the parts that are not relevant to you:
https://networklessons.com/cisco/ccna-200-301
Quality of Service (QoS)
QoS is critical for A/V over networks. Since we have many different applications on an IP network, we have to prioritize traffic that are time sensitive. We can achieve this with QoS.
QoS is a complex topic and will take time to understand. You can find our course here:
https://networklessons.com/quality-of-service
Multicast
You also might run into Multicast. Most applications use unicast, which means we send a packet from one source to one destination.
With multicast, we send traffic from one source to multiple destinations which is more efficient.
Your A/V applications might use multicast. Depending on your requirements, this can be a complex topic. You can find our Multicast course here:
https://networklessons.com/multicast
Lab
There is a lot of theory to learn with networking. It's best to apply the things you learn immediately in a lab. This also makes it a lot more fun. Build a network with routers and/or switches and the A/V application(s) you use. Connect everything, see if you can make it work. Look at what the packets look like on the network with Wireshark. See if you can prioritize traffic with QoS.
You can find a detailed explanation how to build a home lab here:
https://networklessons.com/miscellaneous/how-to-build-a-network-home-lab
Conclusion
Learning networking takes time and depending on your A/V requirements, there could be quite some technology you need to learn.
Start with taking a good look at your requirements for your A/V application, then look at what technology you need to learn.
Also something to keep in mind that is basic networking hasn't changed much throughout the years. Even if you find it difficult, the things you learn today will be useful your entire career.