Three ways to adopt AES70:
For developers who are looking to add media networking control to their products, AES70 offers a standards-based solution that can save development time while also offering unprecedented interoperability solutions to increase the value of networked products.
There are multiple ways that AES70 can be implemented depending on what is most appropriate for a particular product or organization. In all situations, the OCA Alliance is here to provide resources and tools to help with development and promotion of the AES70 standard.
Reference designs or hardware implementations
As can be seen with other media networking technologies on the market today, there are often benefits to using a hardware reference design or existing hardware implantation to incorporate these technologies into a product. This option provides a way for a developer to get up and running quickly and focus on integration of the technology into products rather than lower-level implementation details that might otherwise be needed.
There are hardware reference designs, such as the OCA Microdemo, that can be used to aid in development of a hardware implementation. Additionally, commercial modules are available that include AES70 implementation along with other device functionality, such as DSP.
A list of these products can be found on the OCA Alliance AES70 Products page. Some advantages of using a reference design or commercial hardware implementation include:
- Decreased development time
- Support from commercial providers
- More focus on product development vs. protocol implementation
Commercial libraries and tools for bespoke development
Though AES70 is a straight-forward standard to incorporate into a product, in many situations it can be highly beneficial to us a commercial library or software implementation to speed up development. This is particularly true for developers who are working on ecosystems of products that include hardware, software interfaces, and controller elements. The use of a commercial software library can provide a developer with enormous flexibility to build whatever is needed and can integrate into development environments quickly so more time can be spent build products. A number of different software implementations are available in a number of difference languages to provide the right set of tools for any kind of development or team.
A list of these products can be found on the OCA Alliance AES70 Products page. Some advantages of using a reference design or commercial software implementation include:
- Readymade tools to start developing quickly
- Many development options depending on the needs of the team
- Documentation, updates, and support from commercial providers
Standards are open to anyone to use
One of the undeniable benefits of open public standards is that they are available for anybody to implement and use. While commercial designs and libraries are available, the standards documentation allows any developer to build their own, custom implementation from the ground up. This allows complete customization and flexibility that never incurs any additional licensing costs.
The OCA Alliance is here to provide tools and resources free of charge to any developers of AES70 products and provides additional tools and resources to alliance members to support the development and proliferation of the AES70 ecosystem. Some advantages of building your own AES70 implementation include:
- Complete freedom and customization
- No additional licensing costs
- Development is not dependent on any other partners or companies
Standards-based – not tied to any vendor
AES70 is an independent standard published by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) which is open, licence-free and available for all to use. The OCA Alliance welcomes new members to promote and support its work but membership is not required to use the standard.
Rapid development and speed to market
AES70 is a modular, object-oriented architecture supported by a growing community and numerous publicly available resources. If you have an established team they can quickly get up to speed and implement the protocol. If you are just starting or are short of resources there is a growing community of members who can assist you.
Comprehensive & scalable structure
While the protocol is extremely comprehensive there are always special cases for niche devices. The standard is designed to easily accommodate any special requirements.
No licensing costs
Documentation for the standard is available on this website and from the AES website. You do not have to become an Alliance member to use it and there are no licensing costs at all, either initial or recurring.
Confidence in interoperability with other vendors products
If you implement the AES70 protocol in your device you can be confident that it will work successfully in a system with devices from other manufacturers.
Low hardware overhead
The hardware requirements for AES70 are low and it may well be possible to implement the system in existing devices with little spare capacity as well as allowing you to design new products with cheaper hardware.