What is AES67?
High-Performance Audio Network Interoperability Standard
AES67 is an open standard published by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in 2013, designed to enable high-performance audio streaming interoperability between different audio networking systems (such as Dante, RAVENNA, Livewire, Q-LAN, etc.). It is the universal language connecting the future professional audio world.
Breaking Silos, Achieving Interoperability
Before AES67, different AoIP (Audio over IP) protocols often operated in silos, making direct communication between devices difficult. AES67 provides a common set of technical specifications covering key areas such as synchronization, media clock, transport, encoding, and stream description, enabling devices supporting different proprietary protocols to 'converse' via AES67 mode.
Core Technical Features
Nanosecond Synchronization
Uses IEEE 1588-2008 (PTPv2) Precision Time Protocol to ensure clock synchronization errors across all devices in the network are within microseconds or even nanoseconds, achieving precise phase alignment.
Standardized Transport
Uses standard RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) for audio data encapsulation, supporting both unicast and multicast transmission modes to adapt to different network architecture needs.
High-Quality Audio
Supports linear PCM encoding (L16, L24), with sample rates ranging from 44.1kHz to 96kHz and beyond, meeting the rigorous sound quality requirements of professional broadcasting and recording studios.
Layer 3 Network Support
Based on IP protocols (Layer 3), audio streams can be transmitted across routers and subnets, no longer limited to LANs, suitable for large campus or WAN applications.
AES67 and ST 2110-30
SMPTE ST 2110 is the core standard suite for the broadcast industry's transition to full IP production. Its audio part, ST 2110-30, is directly based on the AES67 standard. This means that AES67-supported devices can typically integrate seamlessly into modern broadcast systems compliant with ST 2110 standards, protecting users' existing investments.