Archwave and WorldCast Systems sign RAVENNA Partnership

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Partnership with Archwave AG of Switzerland will open new market segments for RAVENNA: While experiencing strong support by more than 20 renowned partner companies from the professional broadcast market, RAVENNA now receives interest from SOC providers: Archwave, a manufacturer providing cost-sensitive solutions-on-the-chip, has now expressed major interest in RAVENNA by entering into an official partnership and collaboration agreement with ALC NetworX, the company behind RAVENNA.

Archwave provides easy-to-integrate ASIC solutions which allow manufacturers to provide rich-featured I/O capabilities in their audio products, specifically tailored to the needs of high-quantity and price-sensitive market segments. Under the collaboration agreement, ALC NetworX transfers RAVENNA implementation know-how to Archwave in order to speed-up development of a low-cost RAVENNA SOC solution based on Archwave’s DM1500E / DM2500N BeBop platforms.

Arie van den Broek, CEO of Archwave: “For a longer period, Archwave has been investigating for a powerful and proven audio-over-IP technology for porting to our ASIC-based platforms. After careful consideration we came to the conclusion that RAVENNA’s foundation on open technologies, its strong user-base in the most demanding markets and its future vision, were the deciding factors for choosing a state-of-the-art technology platform.

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By expanding the range of currently available FPGA-based high-performance RAVENNA solutions with a selection of cost-efficient, yet powerful ASIC-based modules, we are offering customers a wide and flexible choice for RAVENNA implementations, serving existing markets and unlock new market-segments such as Sound Reinforcement and M.I. as well. The collaboration with ALC NetworX will enable a fast route-to-market, while RAVENNA’s standards-based architecture will retain the pathways open to support other standards like AES67 or AVB  as well.

We are excited about the cooperation with ALC and RAVENNA partners to drive a powerful audio-networking technology to a broad market acceptance.”

Andreas Hildebrand, Senior Product Manager of ALC NetworX: “We are delighted to see a growing interest in RAVENNA even beyond the Professional Broadcast market. With Archwave, a company with an extraordinary market reputation in providing highly competitive SOC solutions to audio device manufacturers has joined the RAVENNA community. While Archwave’s current business focus is on price-sensitive market segments, we also expect significant benefits for pro-audio device manufacturers by lowering the entry costs through the use and integration of Archwave‘s SOC solution.”

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WorldCast Systems, and specifically its audio codec division, APT, well-known for their world-class IP codecs and one of the heavy-weight companies engaged in the field of IP-based signal distribution, has decided to support the RAVENNA IP-based real-time media networking technology.

Nicolas Boulay, CTO, WorldCast Systems: “Based on our market knowledge we believe that RAVENNA has significant potential to become the audio standard not only for in-house audio distribution but also for transmitting audio over wide area networks.  RAVENNA’s ability to provide multi-channel audio on a single network connection combined with its real-time capabilities and inherent time synchronization is of great interest to us as a manufacturer of multi-channel AoIP codecs.”

Andreas Hildebrand, Senior Product Manager of ALC NetworX, complements: “We are pleased to see WorldCast Systems, one of the most renowned manufacturers of ACIP-compatible codec devices, joining the RAVENNA group. The massive interest of companies providing ACIP-compatible codec products just comes naturally as both protocols are based on IP using similar transport techniques. While RAVENNA is designed for synchronized, uncompressed and thus fully bit-transparent signal transport with emphasis on lowest latencies in demanding applications environments, ACIP devices can cover the domain of content transport under unreliable network conditions like the Internet. Thus, RAVENNA and ACIP devices complement each other by expanding the reach of IP-based media transport from in-house to any destination in the world, and WorldCast Systems devices will provide perfect bridging between both domains.”

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About Archwave
Founded in 2009 as a spin-off from former BridgeCo Inc. (now SMSC), Archwave has become known as a trusted supplier of ASIC and software solutions for audio, connectivity and streaming applications.
Archwave offers a complete line of USB solutions that connect professional audio platforms to computers, even in mission critical applications in broadcasting and theater environments.
The solutions offered by Archwave integrate silicon, software and PC drivers to enable fast time-to-market product development. Easy customization of Bebob software and built-in flexibility ensure high portability across various target applications.
Archwave AG is privately owned and serves its customers worldwide from its headquarters in Schwerzenbach, Switzerland.

About WorldCast Systems:
WorldCast Systems is a world-class provider of innovative solutions to the international broadcast market. Encompassing the industry-leading brands of APT, Ecreso & Audemat, WorldCast Systems offers a wide range of reliable, innovative and high performing products for the studio site, transmitter site and the coverage area.
Product lines include:  highly reliable and efficient FM Transmitters, audio codecs for IP, E1/T1, ISDN and leased line, world-class RDS encoders, digital audio processors, high precision test equipment for FM, GPS field strength meters for HD, FM, and DVB with built-in modulation monitors; RF monitoring equipment; and extensive remote facility management for broadcast.
WorldCast Systems’ focus on innovation has ensured that group products have been selected for over 17 prestigious awards at the NAB Show.

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About RAVENNA:
RAVENNA is a technology for real-time distribution of audio and other media content in IP-based network environments. Utilizing standardized network protocols and technologies, RAVENNA can operate on existing network infrastructures. RAVENNA is designed to meet the strict requirements of the pro audio market featuring low latency, full signal transparency and high reliability.
While primarily targeting the professional broadcast market, RAVENNA is also suitable for deployment in other pro audio market segments like live sound, install market and recording. Possible fields of application include (but are not limited to) in-house signal distribution in broadcasting houses, theaters, concert halls and other fixed installations, flexible setups at venues and live events, OB van support, inter-facility links across WAN connections and in production & recording applications.
Unlike most other existing networking solutions, RAVENNA is an open technology standard without a proprietary licensing policy. RAVENNA is fully compatible with the upcoming AES67 standard on High-performance Streaming Audio-over-IP Interoperability.