Telos Will Introduce ‘Livewire,’ Putting Ethernet to Work

Is Ethernet the “next big thing” in radio facility design? Telos Systems will introduce what it calls a new approach to audio systems interconnection at the NAB show next month. The company plans to seek a high profile for the product, called Livewire, including a paper by founder Steve Church as part of the Broadcast Engineering Conference. Among the possible ramifications for radio users: less wiring and less need for sound cards or routing switchers.
“Livewire is an audio network based on standard Ethernet, with some very interesting capabilities,” the company writes in presentation material obtained by Radio World in advance of the show.
“Livewire adapter terminals convert microphone, line-level analog and AES/EBU digital audio devices to high-priority Livewire audio streams, and streams back to discrete audio signals.”
PC-based recording and playback applications send audio to the Livewire network via NIC cards, eliminating the need for sound cards, Telos wrote. It says the system offers guaranteed reliable delivery and low latency, and any source can be routed to any destination a network – “replacing the need for costly routing switchers in larger plants.”
The system would allow the transport of multiple simultaneous linear PCM digital signals over Ethernet. For example, a 100BT link would carry 48 signals, 24 in each direction. “A 1000BT link can carry hundreds,” it stated.
The company has several products in its development pipeline and hopes to ship them later in 2003. For information visit www.telos-systems.com/livewire.