Milan Product Types

[joev]

What types of product ranges is Milan expected to appear in?  i.e., will there be mainly professional products, such as those existing in the current AVB world?  Are there expected to be home products, teleconferencing, recording, video production, or other types?  Are there any known plans for being able to use a Mac or Windows PC as a source?  That would likely be useful for smaller churches or theaters that run playback of effects or music off of a computer.

Hoping to see where this is going so I can specify when useful and possibly anticipate future infrastructure needs if they adopt later.

Thanks

[henning]

Hi Joev,

it is quite hard to make such a prediction. It means to put the benefits of Milan against the efforts for each application and type of product which is quite an exercise. Also some effects must be expected from the fact that quite some markets have a very conservative stance on networking and avoid innovation if it doesn't expose enforcing benefits. Infrastructure decisions are slow and big.

Having observed AVB for many years and worked on Milan since day 1 I believe that it's main benefits are in all cases taking effect where ...

a) A very easy and fast handling by users is required with a very low educational effort

b) The requirements for reliability don't allow for any failures and compromises

c) Manufacturers want to enjoy the freedom of basing their system architecture on an open standard that gives them more options for innovation and functionality while in the same gaining a lot of confidence in future proof-ness of their network standard. 

d) Cost calculations are very tight and don't allow for license cost to third parties.

e) Requirements for uncompressed real time media traffic with high bandwidth

f) Guaranteed synchronised timing with high precision at lowest effort is most important

a), c), d) and f) point towards MI products

a), b), c), d) and e) point towards Pro Audio live and installed

a), b), c) and e) point towards Video in live productions

Time will show how far these markets or segments will perceive Milan as the best possible solution to go for but we can already see, that in Pro Audio a number of prominent manufacturers have made their choice in this direction. I would personally expect that Milan is very attractive for MI products due to its very easy handling, reliability and license freedom. The Video industry is very complex in its market structures and will most likely be very slow in going for a change like Milan. The advantages are however compelling for some applications.

Macs do support AVB directly and it would be very logic if that would also count for Milan.

Windows platforms have some trouble with the time precision required by AVB/Milan. Win is not a real time OS so a direct support is to my knowledge quite tricky. Maybe other experts could jump in here but I expect that external interfaces to USB3 will become the best solution. 

That's what can be said as a 'brief' answer but it is of course a complex question with many parameters to take into account. A lot of this is going to be 'evolution' which cannot be fully foreseen.

My two cents ....

Henning