Audio video bridging (AVB) industry body the AVnu Alliance has announced four new promoter members, as well as the first successful multi-company ‘AVB plugfest’. The new members are display and visualisation company Barco, microphone and audio manufacturer Shure, signal processing equipment maker Analog Devices and automotive IT company Pelagicore.
“Our new members are very influential in our core markets of automotive, professional AV, and consumer. They bring a diverse range of experience in providing audio and video solutions for demanding conditions,” said Rick Kreifeldt (pictured), AVnu Alliance chairman and VP, Harman International. “Coupled with the success of our first plugfest, this clearly shows the momentum that we are achieving within AVnu Alliance.”
The member plugfest was the first step in the alliance’s efforts to ensure interoperability among AVB-enabled networked products. Kevin Stanton, chair of the technical working group and principal engineer at Intel, declared himself very pleased with the success of the event. “We achieved a high degree of interoperability among multiple independent AVB endpoint and switch implementations, an important milestone on the path to an AVnu certification programme,” he said.
The AVnu Alliance promotes the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 AVB standards, and the related IEEE 1722 and 1733 into professional AV, automotive and consumer applications. It also supports the creation and implementation of compliance test procedures and processes that promote interoperability of AVB-enabled networked products, helping to ensure AV devices work together to provide a professional level of quality. These efforts will enhance the network backbone, complementing the ongoing work of existing organizations and standards bodies specifying higher-layer AV protocols and applications in each market space.
“Open networked visualisation solutions are the way forward in the A/V industry. Barco is at the forefront of the convergence process of audiovisual and IT technologies and is therefore thrilled to join AVnu Alliance,” said Jan Willem Brands, Barco CTO. “The AVB standards aim to build more reliable and easier to use network centric audio and video applications.”
Christine Schyvinck, executive vice president of global marketing and sales for Shure Incorporated, commented: “Ever since Mr Shure founded the company, we have been focused on customer satisfaction and making continuous improvements to ensure they have quality products that help them meet their needs. “We are pleased to be joining AVnu Alliance in support of an open digital audio network standard for the pro audio industry because this protocol will make it easy for our products to connect seamlessly and ‘talk’ to other manufacturers’ products, which will ultimately allow us to better serve our customers.”
