OCA AESX210 to debut publicly in early 2015
Published: ASIA
WORLD: With networking technologies forming the focus of this year’s AES convention, the Open Control Architecture (OCA) Alliance – a non-profit organisation with manufacturer members working together for the common goal of standardising networked control and monitoring – reportedly made considerable progress in raising awareness of its latest standards project, AESX210. The project is currently working to render OCA into a ratified AES standard, with public drafts stated to be available early in the New Year.
‘In the AES we are very aware of the importance of networked technologies for the future of professional audio,’ said Bruce C Olsen, Audio Engineering Society Standards Committee chair. ‘Any wide-scale audio implementation will require network technologies from different vendors to work together, and that means standards. Transporting audio streams is not enough; it will be necessary to monitor and control audio devices from many vendors across the network, and the AESX210 standards project, based on existing work of Open Control Architecture, is intended to achieve just that.’
The Alliance also showed the benefits of the standards-based Open Control Architecture on its exhibition booth with a live demonstration of control and monitoring across networked audio devices from different manufacturers, interconnected by common Ethernet and under common control and monitoring by the OCA protocol. A Focusrite RedNet 4 with Ethernet networked studio interface, a Bosch Audio Processing Switch (APS) and a d&b audiotechnik D80 amplifier were all controlled by a proof-of-concept OCA software application, developed by Alliance members.
Current members of the alliance are Attero tech, Audinate, Bittner Audio, Bosch Communication Systems, d&b audiotechnik, Focusrite, Harman Professional, Loud Technologies, PreSonus, RCF, Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup, TC Group and Yamaha Commercial Audio.