Networking Basics

The skill this trade added to every department at once

Ten years ago a technician could spend a whole career in AV without touching a network. Today the stage box talks to the console over one, the camera's picture and the command that moves it travel on one, the LED processor, the lighting console, the touch panel on the lectern and the projector in the ceiling are all addresses on a switch. When the network is wrong, the show is wrong, and it is wrong in ways you cannot see by looking at a cable.

Inside: Before You Begin - What a Network Is - Network Gear & Cabling - Addresses & How Devices Talk - Ports, Protocols and Traffic - AV Over the Network - Control Systems - Control Protocols and Show Control - Troubleshooting Networks - Glossary.