Opinion

The audio world has its own version of the IP debate, and if you’ve spent any time around broadcast engineers in the last few years, you’ll have heard it. MADI is old technology. AoIP is the future. Dante, Ravenna, AES67 - that’s where everything is heading, and anyone still specifying MADI is stuck in the past. I’ve heard this argument a lot. I’ve also spent years working with both technologies at major live events, and my view is considerably more nuanced. ...

Every year I go to a trade show and hear the same thing: SDI is dead, IP is the future, and anyone still running coax is holding back progress. I’ve been hearing this for the better part of a decade now. And yet, when I’m on-site at a major live event - wiring up comms systems, routing audio under pressure, troubleshooting at midnight before a show goes on air - SDI is still there, doing exactly what it’s always done. Quietly and reliably. ...