Sonifex AVN-GMCS units were supplied by Synthax Audio to Timeline TV to resolve clocking issues in a system of audio converters spread out over multiple venues, for two high-profile televised sporting events.
The GPS locked Sonifex AVN-GMCS generated a local PTP clock signal in each venue, with each venue having its own LAN, interconnected via a WAN, which was managed by a third-party company. The AVN-GMCS aided the synchronisation of the transport encapsulated RAVENNA audio streams across the WAN to each audio converter, which then broke out the audio to analogue or MADI at each venue.
With the first event being such a success, this setup was further repurposed for a comms system at a second sporting event in Qatar, using AES67 over a network link.
“One of the main objectives was to build a system that could be moved between events in a relatively straight-forward manner,” said Chris Goddard, a freelance Systems Engineer contracting for Timeline.
The AVN-GMCS is an IEEE1588-2008 PTPv2 grandmaster clock for use with AoIP applications, especially where AES67 compatibility is required. The AVN-GMCS is used to synchronise all the nodes within a network, but is especially useful to synchronise audio over a WAN, by using GPS to accurately synchronise the time on the separate networks. It’s been used in a number of high profile WAN based audio synchronisation events.