Live Production Networking

[bpeterman11]

Hello all,

I work for a production company, and travel with a mobile unit. We typically work in convention halls, arenas, gyms, houses of worship, and anywhere in-between. We are looking to add some wireless control software and apps, to control the physical consoles. To accomplish this though we are needing to set up 3 separate networks, and ideally a fourth as an umbrella (and that one would have connection to the internet). The reason we need 3 separate ones, is because our audio console runs on a completely different protocol than our lighting and media consoles. Also their are certain shows where we are sending 2 or 3 full hd graphics through our computer network so I am worried about the bandwidth being taken up by that. The fourth network would serve as a connection to our server back in the office, and allow us to trouble shoot issues and screen share what we are seeing.

With all that being said, I was hoping for some suggestions on how to go about this. And what routers, access points, and switches would be good for this. Or if what we are wanting to do is even possible

 

[kanewolf]

Are you able to do it via wired networking now?

 

[bpeterman11]

Are you able to do it via wired networking now?

We are running a 24 pair cable (i believe) and are connecting the equipment wire to wire

 

[kanewolf]

I would work incrementally. Use 5Ghz WIFI and put the least critical devices on WIFI. See how that goes for a few shows. Add something further away and see if it still works. You will want to use good commercial WIFI hardware. Engenius or Ubiquity at a MINIMUM. Maybe CISCO. Remember that WIFI is not full duplex, unlike wired networking. That increases latency because a device can ONLY receive or transmit, but not both at the same time. I wonder if there are any point to point optical links that you could use? Theatrical smoke might impede that but it would be a good area to investigate.

 

[bpeterman11]

I would work incrementally. Use 5Ghz WIFI and put the least critical devices on WIFI. See how that goes for a few shows. Add something further away and see if it still works. You will want to use good commercial WIFI hardware. Engenius or Ubiquity at a MINIMUM. Maybe CISCO. Remember that WIFI is not full duplex, unlike wired networking. That increases latency because a device can ONLY receive or transmit, but not both at the same time. I wonder if there are any point to point optical links that you could use? Theatrical smoke might impede that but it would be a good area to investigate.

In the past I've used wireless routers with different pieces, but never multiple WiFi networks at once (well at least that are ours). I was looking at the Ubiquiti AP AC Pro's, they looked like the most user friendly out of the ones I looked at. I was more so wondering if I would run into any issues if I setup four wireless networks in the same area? All this being said, the wireless control will only be used pre-show for programming. When we are live we will be at the boards

 

[kanewolf]

5Ghz has enough unique frequencies that you could setup 4 APs for different uses.

 

[bpeterman11]

5Ghz has enough unique frequencies that you could setup 4 APs for different uses.

Thank you so much Kanewolf! One last question though. Would there be a way to connect the network with the internet access to the other three, without them communicating to each other? if that makes sense

 

[kanewolf]

5Ghz has enough unique frequencies that you could setup 4 APs for different uses.

Thank you so much Kanewolf! One last question though. Would there be a way to connect the network with the internet access to the other three, without them communicating to each other? if that makes sense

One word: VLANs. It is an advanced networking topic but a managed switch can support VLANs and isolate traffic between them. If each group has unique address subnet, they won't talk to each other also.