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This white paper’s subject is Networked audio system design with ES100™.

The design concepts in this paper support systems varying from small touring

event setups to medium scale integrated live installations. That does not mean

that these design concepts are the best solution to all system speciﬁ cations, other

network topologies and audio protocols should always be considered in the initial

phase of the design project. The advantage of these Yamaha System Solutions

design concepts is that they are based on Ethernet / ES100™, both open protocols

that use computer networking components widely available on the market. Other

compatible brands of both network and audio equipment can be included in the

design concepts, assuring maximum ﬂ exibility and project efﬁ ciency for system in-

tegrators. It is also good to know that the design concepts are not just a theoretical

exercise; we have built, tested and installed many systems based on these design

concepts so you can be conﬁ dent that they will work in real life.

We assume the reader is a system integrator with detailed knowledge of analogue

and digital audio, and basic knowledge of networking technologies as covered in

the ‘Yamaha System Solutions - an introduction to networked audio’ white paper.

The Yamaha Commercial Audio team.

YAMAHA System Solutions white paper

ES100™ networked audio systems

1. System design

2. EtherSound

3. ES100

4. ES100 audio routing

5. Redundancy issues

6. Connectivity issues

7. ES100 audio only redundant ring design

8. ES100 integrated redundant ring design

9. Yamaha ES100 devices

10. Programming ES100 devices

11. Documentation

12. Troubleshooting

13. Example 1: 48ch FOH - MON - stagerack

14. Example 2: 32ch FOH - MON - dual stagerack - amprack

Networked audio system design with ES100™

The complete package

Summary of content (16 pages)

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YAMAHA System Solutions white paper Networked audio system design with ES100™ This white paper’s subject is Networked audio system design with ES100™. The design concepts in this paper support systems varying from small touring event setups to medium scale integrated live installations. That does not mean that these design concepts are the best solution to all system specifications, other network topologies and audio protocols should always be considered in the initial phase of the design project.
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1. System design Customer’s requirements Design options Design tools The first step in any design is to chart the customer’s requirements. Sometimes the requirements can be found in a formal tender if a consultant has already been involved in the customer’s system specification process.
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2. EtherSound The beginning At the turn of the century, three R&D engineers at Digigram studied Ethernet compliant audio distrbiution methods, with CobraNet as the world standard at that time. CobraNet has been developed to function in large scale, complex applications - but the three engineers didn’t have such a broad application scope in mind - they narrowed it down to the live sound reinforcement market, requiring much simpler topologies and protocols. They ended up with EtherSound version 1.
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3. ES100 EtherSound version up ES100 Integrating ES100 After the first EtherSound licenses were distributed and products were built - e.g. by Digigram, Fostex/Netcira and Auvitran - the Digigram engineers decided to fill up the upstream connection with audio as well - so audio can travel not only from the first device to the last, but also from the last to the first. With EtherSound version 1.X and higher this was possible - but only with hardware that supported this bi-directional mode.
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4. ES100 audio routing ES100 routing Left clicking sends a downstream ES100 channel to the This way the routing stays valid whatever the order of the device’s physical output, right-clicking sends the upstream devices in the daisy chain. (see figures 3 and 4) . This limits ES100 channel to the input. the total channel count to 64. An ES100 packet stream consists of 48.000 packets per second, with each packet carrying 64 samples. This arrangement uses an Ethernet bandwidth of appr. 85Mb.
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5. Redundancy issues Redundancy rating Safety rating Redundancy monitoring A networked audio system combines network devices with audio devices. Compared to analogue audio systems the network is the unknown factor - with serious effect on a system’s performance in case of an emergency such as a cable break or device power down. To cope with this, networks normally have redundancy built in so the system can recover automatically from emergency events.
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6. Connectivity issues Cables Connectors Multiple access points & large systems ES100 systems use CAT5E cabling or higher. Connected straight from an OUT port to an IN port - under ideal conditions - the cable can be up to 100 meters long. For direct connection most ES100 devices have touring grade Ethercon connectors. With patch fields also EtherCon connectors and cables can be used. However in real life conditions are never ideal.
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7. ES100 audio only redundant ring design No IT ! An ES100 audio only system supports 64 audio channels and a serial connection for the head amp control. No further IP over Ethernet services can be integrated. The big advantage of such a system is that the system does not include any IT components. The network is built with a number of ES100 devices and the same amount of cables. Nothing else is required.
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8. ES100 integrated redundant ring design Why integration ? Sharing an ES100 application with other Ethernet connections can be very efficient. Many IP over Ethernet services such as DMX, video, VoIP etc. can be added to the system using the same cabling. Also control protocols such as DME designer, Studiomanager and Media control systems such as AMX and Crestron can be integrated.
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9. Yamaha ES100 devices. MY16-ES64 & MY16-EX SB168-ES DME satellite-ES The MY16-ES64 offers a 64 channel connection to an ES100 network. However, the card can only route 16 of these channels to the host device (a console or a DME). The other 48 channels can be connected to the host by daisy chaining up to three MY16-EX cards. The SB168-ES offers 16 high quality mic/line inputs and 8 line outputs at 48kHz. The mic/line inputs can be remote controlled by Yamaha digital mixing consoles and DME engines.
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10. Programming ES100 devices Set and forget. What to set Because the ES100 protocol includes the audio timing it does not allow any other Ethernet traffic on the ring as that would cause waiting queues and disturb synchronisation. Hence, it is not possible to connect a computer to a closed ES100 ring for programming and monitoring unless a 3rd party device is used featuring a ‘3rd port’. First set the system to ring mode by enabling one device as PPM.
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11. Documentation The importance of documentation The layer 1 diagram The VIMP list Troubleshooting analogue systems is an art of its own, but relatively easy compared to troubleshooting a network - in an analogue system every connection is visible as a cable. In a networked system the functional connections are completely separate from the physical - visible - cabling. Without proper documentation about how the connections are programmed it is extremely difficult to troubleshoot a system.
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12. Troubleshooting 1. Find information. 2. Ping the default VLAN. Step number one: find the system’s documentation. Without the documentation it takes up to 10 times longer to troubleshoot. The information should normally come as a paper copy, or as pdf on a CD, USB stick or website.
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13. Example 1: 48ch FOH - MON - stagerack Mixing consoles. Stagerack. Network. The system includes two PM5Ds for FOH and MON locations. Both consoles have one MY16-ES64 card and two MY16-EX cards for a total of 48 channels from the stagerack. The 16 channels left in the 64 channel ES100 ring can be used to connect any combination of FOH and MON console outputs to the stagerack outputs.
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14. Example 2: 32ch FOH - MON - dual stagerack - amprack Mixing consoles. Stagerack and amprack. Network. The system includes an M7CL-32 for FOH and an LS932 for MON. Both consoles have one MY16-ES64 card and one MY16-EX card for a total of 32 channels from the stageracks. The 32 channels left in the 64 channel ES100 ring can be used to connect any combination of FOH and MON console outputs to the stagerack and amprack outputs.
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The complete package The complete package Yamaha System Solutions White paper ‘Networked audio system design with ES100™’ Yamaha’s expanded Commercial Audio portfolio facilitates a single manufacturer solution to the most complex of audio installation and touring challenges. We offer digital mixing and processing as well as multi-channel, networking amplification and a wide range of advanced output devices.