06.30.2009 — Harman Professional’s HiQnet System Architect version 2.0 is designed to simplify professional audio networking.

The platform, which launched at InfoComm 09, is an audio configuration and control interface for designing specialized audio networks for a wide array of applications. For CE pros working in commercial venues, the Harman HiQnet products stream Ethernet AVB and leverage IEEE.

“We’re showing them a technology that allows plug and play over Ethernet,” says Rick Kreifeldt, VP of System Development and Integration Group (SDIG) for Harman International.

Harman showed several new Ethernet AVB products including a dbx SC 32 Digital Matrix Processor, an Ethernet AVB architectural wall-plate from BSS Audio and a Crown CTs amplifier. The demo system was connected with an Ethernet AVB switch.

The system can be a backbone for audio/video distribution and is designed for both commercial and residential applications, according to Kreifeldt. He adds that the “cost is drastically reduced” versus other A/V distribution solutions.

IEEE, Ethernet and Netgear

Harman's InfoComm announcements were more than three years in the making, including participation in the IEEE AVB 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) Task Group initiative. Harman chose to work around IEEE due to its “high reliability without a lot of configuration,” says spokesman Daniel O’Connell. “[Many CE pros] don’t want to learn to be an IT guy.”

A preview of System Architect demonstrated how it will use the new venue design concepts to provide Ethernet AVB routing not just on a device-by-device level, but also to entire physical and logical spaces within a system, with one simple drag of the relevant signal.

Technologies that allow A/V distribution with no new wires were big at InfoComm with many manufacturers focusing on retrofit applications.

Harman also announced an agreement between its BSS Audio division and Netgear to launch what they call the world’s first AVB (IEEE Audio Video Bridge) switches for networking multichannel audio and video over standardized Ethernet. It also unveiled a pair of 16-port and 24-port co-branded switches featuring specialized AVB hardware and software for use in a wide array of fixed installation audio video applications.

Standardized multichannel audio and video over Ethernet enabled by AVB, according to Harman, offers considerable cost-per-node savings in deploying complex A/V systems, while advancing integration, ease of use and system functionality and control.


Among the Furman family Ethernet AVB products at InfoComm 09 was the dbx SC 32 Digital Matrix Processor.