User:Doctorgage/HiQnet

HiQnet is a digital audio communications protocol developed by the Harman International corporation. It is is a proprietary standard implemented only on certain equipment produced by brands Harman owns, such as JBL, AKG, Crown and others. Its purpose is to provide consolidated configuration and control of connected devices such as microphones, mixing consoles, amplifiers, and speakers.

HiQnet was developed by the Harman Pro Group System Development & Integration Group (SDIG) during 2004, and announced in January 2005. Harman is an active contributer to the 802.1BA - Audio Video Bridging (AVB) Systems open standard currently under development, which will support the same goals as HiQnet.

The HiQnet protocol encompasses device configuration and control as well as audio stream transport. Over Ethernet, its asynchronous control messages are a Layer 3 protocol, transported inside TCP/IP packets, whereas it relies upon Cobranet, an earlier Layer 2 protocol, for audio stream transport. HiQnet implements UPnP to automatically configure attributes, such as Cobranet bundles and IP addresses. While Cobranet operates only over Ethernet, HiQnet can also use USB and Serial as transports for control messages.

HiQnet is managed by a software package called System Architect, written in C# with the .NET framework. System Architect uses a plugin architecture to support individual products.

(1) http://hiqnet.harmanpro.com/ (2) http://proavmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1618&articleID=601946 (3) http://www.proaudio-central.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92:spreading-the-net&catid=61:rad&Itemid=28 (4) Live Sound International, March 2005, pages 82-85: http://www.livesoundint.com/archives/2005/mar/roundtable3.pdf (5) http://www.harman.com/EN-US/OurProducts/Professional/Pages/Software.aspx