Update Instructions: Axia xnode, xselector, xswitch With Release Notes and New Feature Instructions v1.6.4e 15 January 2015, Cleveland Ohio, USA v1.6.4e represents a significant upgrade for the Axia xnode product line. It includes many AES67 compatibility features. Instructions on enabling and using these features are documented in Section 2 of this document please take time to familiarize yourself with their operation. Axia xnode, xselector and xswitch products have two internal memory banks. Each bank contains room for a complete version of operating software. This approach allows a software update download to be completed and checked without danger of making the unit inoperable if the download were to be incomplete or corrupted. It also provides and easy way to try a new software version and still return to the old version. The software version in each bank is displayed from the System web page. The lower half of this screen, shown below, shows the firmware versions present and allows you to select what bank will be used at startup. To change banks simply click in the radio button for the desired bank and then click on Apply. IMPORTANT! The device will reboot after you click Apply if you change the software version. This will result in loss of audio locally, and at any unit using the local sources.
A new software version can be uploaded into Bank 1 as follows: 1. Visit http://www.telosalliance.com/axia/xnodes and click the Software link to download the update, 1601-00506-014_xnodes_1_6_4e.pkg, to your computer (this should be the computer that you will use to access the xnode s web page). Your computer s operating system will permit you to choose where you wish to save the downloaded file. Choose any convenient location; just be sure to note the drive and location where the file is to be saved. 2. Open a web browser and connect to the xnode to be updated. Select the System link. From the System page, select the Browse button to locate the file. Once the proper file is selected, the path and filename will be displayed in the text field associated with Bank 1. Click on Apply to upload the file. 3. A successful upload will be indicated by the new version being displayed in the Bank 1 field. 4. Click the radio button for Bank 1 and click Apply to reboot and make Bank 1 active. If Bank 1 already has software present and xnode is currently running from Bank 1: In some cases the device may already have software in Bank 0 and Bank 1, as seen in image below. If the xnode has Bank 1 currently selected, there will not be a Browse button allowing you to select a file for upload. In such cases, you will need to select the check box commit this version to Bank 0 and press the Apply button. Doing so will move the software to Bank 0 and clear Bank 1 so that a new version can be uploaded. Committing from Bank 1 to Bank 0 does not require a reboot.
New Feature Operational Instructions xnode, xselector, xswitch v1.6.4e Software This section gives instructions on how to use the new features included in v1.6.4e software. xnode Unicast Link Unicast Link allows using xnodes to create a multichannel audio link between locations connected with an Ethernet network without support for IP multicasting. In particular it can be used as a studio transmitter link. Unicast Link can be quickly established using a dedicated WEB page of an xnode. This page shows current configuration. The page functions as a configuration wizard and applying the settings makes changes in audio routing setup and other options presented on the Sources, Destinations and QoS pages. Unicast Link is by default bidirectional. The connection protocol supporting Unicast Link is Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), which is a TCP/IP protocol. Audio is sent using unicast UDP/IP protocol. Basic Setup The most basic setup involves setting one xnode as Passive. This is also the default configuration of an xnode if user never configures Livewire Sources. On a brand new node, the only required step is setting IP address using the IP Setup screen on the front panel. If the xnode is connected to a network with firewall, in order to allow Unicast Link connections, TCP and UDP ports listed on the WEB page need to be configured. The following ports are used: Port Description TCP/554 RFC 2326 Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) UDP/7000 Livewire synchronization protocol UDP/16384 Audio RTP stream to destination #1 UDP/16386 Audio RTP stream to destination #2 UDP/16388 Audio RTP stream to destination #3 UDP/16390 Audio RTP stream to destination #4
In order to connect, enter IP address of the remote Passive node in the Connect to field as shown below. Connection Status area provides diagnostic information of the established link. When the connection is successful, the icons turn green and Stream active / RTSP OK status is displayed. The interface allows user to save 6 presets which can be different remote nodes. Selecting a preset is a fast way of changing the link destination.
Custom Setup In order to limit number of channels, set Stream Mode to Disabled on the Sources page: After doing this configuration on both link partners, the result is a 2 channel bidirectional link which status is indicated as shown below: 2 x stereo link: Passive link partner
2 x stereo link: Active link partner The bandwidth and latency of the link can be customized using Stream Mode setting in the Sources WEB page. By default Standard Stream audio format is used as it is the most bandwidth efficient option. With Unicast Link configuration, the synchronization mode is to STL Livewire Slave which allows for a higher packet forwarding jitter. This setting can be changed on the QoS WEB page. Unicast Status on xnode Front Panel In Unicast mode, the front panel presents the link status information as little triangles below the meters. If no triangle is shown, the Source and Destination port is not configured for Unicast. If the triangle is blinking, the port is configured for Unicast, but there is no active connection. When a solid triangle displayed, there is a Unicast Link established to that port.
xselector New Features xselector node now has a dedicated Unicast Link front panel screen. It has a Partner IP Address input field for entering the address of a node to connect to. To enter that address, press and hold the right knob for 10 seconds. When the cursor is on the first digit position, you can rotate the knob to choose a passive mode as well. At the bottom of the screen, the send and receive connection status is presented with little triangles labeled as Snd and Rcv. If no triangle is shown, the Source and Destination port is not configured for Unicast. If the triangle is blinking, the port is configured for Unicast, but there is no active connection. When a solid triangle displayed, there is a Unicast Link established to that port. xselector: Unicast Link Passive partner xselector: Unicast Link Active partner xselector s preset keys correspond to the five Unicast Link Partner addresses that can be entered on the Unicast Link WEB page. The assignment can also be performed by dialing the partner s IP address on the front panel, then pressing and holding the filmlegendable key. Unicast connection can then be established by pressing one of the programmed preset buttons. In a more advanced configuration, some buttons may be assigned to Unicast Link, while others are assigned to regular Livewire/AES67 audio channels.
AES67 Features in v1.6.4e The AES67 standard defines an interoperability mode for transport of high performance audio over networks based on the Internet Protocol. For the purposes of the standard, high performance audio refers to audio with full bandwidth and low noise. These requirements imply linear PCM coding with a sampling frequency of 44,1 khz and higher, and resolution of 16 bits and higher. High performance also implies a lowlatency capability compatible with live sound applications. The standard considers latency performance of 10 milliseconds or less. Axia xnode implementation of AES67 is compliant with the standard, supporting interoperability with third party devices. In particular, the following features are implemented: Multicast and Unicast Real Time Protocol (RTP) audio streaming Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based connection management for Unicast streams Transmission of 1ms. audio frames in linear PCM 24 bit format Ability to receive audio streams containing 1 through 8 channels Ability to receive 16 bit as well as 24 bit format Support of IEEE1588 2001 Precision Time Protocol standard Time stamping of outgoing streams with IEEE1588 derived RTP timestamps Network synchronization setup The AES67 standard requires devices to use the IEEE1588 network time protocol standard. Synchronization related options are available on the QoS WEB page. AES67 synchronization configuration PTP/IEEE clock mode selects the protocol required by standard. xnodes offer a few options depending on other system requirements:
PTP/IEEE 1588 ARB clock class 248 mode allows the node to be a master when no better clock is available on the network. Since xnodes are not locked to GPS or any other high precision source, only Arbitrary (ARB) Clock class is provided. PTP/IEEE 1588 slave only is recommended for networks with high precision grand masters present. PTP Domain 0 should be selected unless there is a need for multiple clock domains on a network segment. Choosing a different domain a useful option for doing test without affecting other components present on the network. PTP delay mechanism specifies how the node determines network round trip latency. This setting MUST match the master clock setting. In practice, End to End (E2E) is always used by ordinary clocks and boundary clocks. Peer to Peer (P2P) mechanism was defined to limit amount of traffic reaching the master clock, but is rarely used. PTP clock priority1 and priority2 numbers provide a control over master clock selection. Lower priority number makes the clock a preferred choice over devices with a higher number. The range is 0 255, and 128 is the default and middle value. PTP clock sync interval determines how ofter clock packets are sent. The faster those packets are sent, the faster and more accurate synchronization can be achieved. Some IEEE1588 devices do not support lower clock sync interval than 0.5s, so this setting may need to be adjusted depending on what other networking equipment is used. AES67 recommends an interval of ⅛ (8 packets per second). This setting affects behavior of the master clock and does nothing when the node is a slave. AES67 Multicast connection setup xnodes transmit a multicast stream as soon as Source is configured with a Livewire channel number or multicast IP address, and Stream Mode is set to a value other than disabled. AES67 requires devices to support reception of at least 1ms frames this corresponds to Low Latency Stream Mode setting. Other settings will work if the receiver supports different frame sizes in addition to required 1ms. Transmiting a 1ms. AES67 stream to multicast group 239.194.0.1
Session Description (SDP) can be downloaded from an xnode by clicking on the AES67: Download stream description (SDP) link shown above. AES67 multicast stream reception is set up by entering the multicast address of the stream into the Channel/Address field of a Destination. AES67 receive destination setup AES67 multicast reception requires the source to transmit in PCM 24 bit stereo or 8 channel format. Surround 8 channel reception is set up by selecting Destination Type: Surround. The Channel/Address field accepts an optional UDP port number which is entered following the IP address, separated with a :. This is a useful option when the port number is different than RTP default 5004. AES67 Unicast Setup Each Source of an xnode can be configured as a multicast sender, or Unicast port supporting a single listener/receiver. Unicast configuration is achieved by clearing the Channel/Address field in a Source setup. AES67 Unicast Source The media stream is accessed using a SIP URI (Session Announcement Protocol Uniform Resource Identifier). It contains sip: prefix, followed by Source/Destination port number, @ sign and IP address of the node. xnodes provide the stream addresses on the Sources WEB page, so that you can conveniently copy them.
In Unicast mode, Source accepts SIP connections. There are a few possible scenarios: Receive only connection (SIP Invitation with recvonly attribute specified in the SDP block). After answering, xnode will start sending a stream to the originator of the connection. Media format follows current Source configuration. Send only connection (SIP Invitation with sendonly attribute specified in the SDP block). After answering, xnode will start receiving the stream, which can be 16 bit or 24 bit with channel count from 1 to 8. This type of a connection requires the corresponding Destination Channel/Address field to remain empty. Bidirectional (default SIP invitation). xnode will receive and send. The media format must be 24 bit. This type of a connection requires the corresponding Destination Channel/Address field to remain empty. In order to setup AES67 Unicast stream receive, enter the SIP URI stream address in Channel/Address field of a destination. AES67 stream reception xnodes makes a SIP call to the specified source. The call is receive only (issued with recvonly SIP/SDP media attribute specified). xnodes provide status of the Unicast connection on the front panel. Small triangle icons below the meters show the current status: If no triangle is shown, the Source and Destination port is not configured for Unicast. If the triangle is blinking, the port is configured for Unicast, but there is no active connection. When a solid triangle displayed, there is a Unicast Link established to that port. The Channel/Address field accepts optional entry of a UDP port number in the URI, separated from the address with a :. This is a useful option when the port number used is different than SIP default 5060.
Software Release Notes Version 1.6.4e, 11/15/2014 Enhancements: Internal routing support, with stream disabled, is now available HTML Source select feature retains Type setting for mono sources. A channel switch delay of 30ms has been added to reduce audio gaps in destination routing. Additions: New Feature: Changes in network SYNC state are now logged. Fixes: xnode maintaining previous configuration audio stream subscription when not needed. Would occur if mono mode was enabled and later disabled. Crash when incorrect source configuration was present. Snake mode caused sync flash on slave node. Fixed Meters WEB page gain control glitches. Fixed RTSP, RAVENNA 8 channel mode. Fixed Simple Setup Set host name checkbox function. Meter page showed incorrect value of right channel when mono mode was enabled. IP address of sync source is now correctly identified. UI response to non standard multicast groups is now corrected. Fixed system application lockup on RTSP client disconnect. Enabled home page details on Master SYNC source. Fixed a bug which calsed Live Audio priority tagging to be stuck on. Fixed redundant Down port behaviors. Fixed Improper audio level response in mono mode which impacted Pathfinder silence detection routines. Fixed a bug wherein a change of SYNC Master source caused split second high level audio noise on output.
Version 1.2.1p, 8/26/2014 Enhancements: Supports 12 digit MAC addresses. Expands MAC address capability to support very large network architectures. Version 1.2.0m, 9/16/2013 Fixes: Fixed implementation of DDS control interface. The issue caused a clock master node frequency offset of more than 10ppm; as a result, other nodes were unable synchronize to it. Version 1.2.0L, 8/15/2013 Enhancements: Added Mono mode (L+R sum). Adds ability to create a mono signal from a stereo input via summing (in addition to L only and R only modes). Management port option. Normally,xNode s dual Ethernet ports function as primary and secondary redundant Livewire network ports. This feature allows reconfiguring the #2 Ethernet port as a management only (no audio) access point to allow remote xnode administration via connection to a non Livewire network. Receive Livewire streams with broken RTP timestamp. Allows xnode to use RTP audio streams with broken or missing RTP header information.
Version 1.1.x, 8/01/2012 Additions: Added low latency (1ms packet) stream type (Ravenna compatibility) Ravenna stream routing: Discovery, Service lookup and RTSP client Configurable streaming UDP port IPv6 enabled (add support for IPv6) IEEE 1588 synchronization support Sample synchronized playback Improved SYNC/MASTER indication on the front panel Enhancements: Meters Java applet replaced by JavaScript dynamic page Confusing Shareable option on Sources WEB page (replaced by dedicated window) (removed legacy Shareable option) Added node ID to meter page Front panel dimming Host name displayed on the front screen Fixes: Fixed: a bug where Meter showed left only, no right source, in Mono Mode. Fixed: Net mask on Front Panel did not follow web page system changes. Fixed: Network mask value setting control from web wasn't working Fixed: a bug that caused changes applied in Simple mode to change host name. Option added to allow not forcing this change. Fixed: RTSP VLC 2.0.1 compatibility problem resolved RTSP stream issue Fixed: MDNS SD not active on NET2 power up (MDNS wasn't working if network port 2 was the active port at boot). Version 1.0.7a, 6/29/2012 Fixes: Fixed: source allocation bug that prevented assigning more than one source from an xnode to a single console. Multiple source assignation now works normally.
Version 1.0.6a, 5/15/2012 Fixes: Fixed: condition that caused front panel to show IP address as 0.0.0.0 when Ethernet cable was unplugged. Changed: Default hostname used xnode prefix. This was changed to node for conformance. Fixed: condition that caused each xnode to become Master on boot. Fixed: Unneeded bootp calls. Fixed: xnode advertisement issue. Fixed: condition where the user assigned host name was not saved, and was reset at reboot. Fixed: GPIO network interface selection problem. Enhancements: Added: iprobe support.