[BC] Axia stuff

[Kirk Harnack]

JYRussell at academicplanet.com wrote:
> For "The Axia Guy"... I'm guessing there's some big horsepower in the 
> middle of all the cool toys.

Jason,

That might seem to be the case, but it actually isn't.  Axia - like 
Ethernet - is very decentralized.  HP or Cisco Ethernet switches are, 
indeed, doing much of the "work", but they're designed to do exactly that.

Think of a "star" topology (studios to a central core) that is backed up 
by a "daisy chain" or "mesh" topology (studio to studio).

Usually with Axia, each studio, or a pair of studios, use an Ethernet 
switch to route and distribute audio streams.  A central, "core" switch 
connects different studios to each other.  That core switch can have a 
redundant backup operating in parallel, or that core switch can die and 
studios can still interconnect using switch-to-switch connections 
(Spanning Tree Protocol).

I guess you might consider modern Ethernet switches as having a lot of 
horsepower, but it's getting pretty inexpensive.

Best,

Kirk Harnack
Telos/Omnia/Axia