Network requirements for Axis network audio

This white paper helps you specify what you need from your network to be able to connect an Axis audio system. We list the network requirements depending on which audio management service you choose. The paper also includes a glossary and lists of network ports to use.

The choice of audio management service (AXIS Audio Manager Edge or AXIS Audio Manager Pro) affects how you need to set up your local network and which communication ports you should use.

If you also connect your AXIS Audio Manager Edge sites to the AXIS Audio Manager Center service, you additionally need to verify your firewall settings for internet access by the system.

IP address assignment. Axis audio systems support both static and DHCP-assigned IP addresses of the devices. If you use DHCP, we recommend that you always assign the same IP address, which you configure in your DHCP server.

Network switches. Axis devices use Power over Ethernet (PoE) to receive power. PoE can be supplied either by network switches or by midspans. If you use network switches, you might have to enable PoE on the switch ports where the Axis devices are installed. We recommend managed network switches for larger installations.

AXIS Audio Manager Edge is a serverless solution that you use to configure Axis audio devices into a system and set up sources and zones for music, paging, and other audio. You can also configure schedules and prioritize between sources. You select one device to be the configuration leader. From that device’s web interface you launch AXIS Audio Manager Edge, with which you configure and control the system.

Protocols or services.

• The devices use Bonjour discovery (mDNS) to locate other devices on the network. You can also add devices manually.

• MQTT is used to exchange information between the devices. MQTT does not require any extra broker, but the traffic must be allowed on the network.

• For each source (paging source, music streaming source, content type) configured in the system, two network ports are used for audio streaming and control (RTP and RTCP).

• A common clock, on network port 5015, is used to make sure that audio is played synchronized between the devices.

• SIP (VoIP) can be used for paging and interfacing with other systems. If you use SIP, you must allow associated ports and traffic on the network.

Unicast/multicast.

• Axis audio systems use multicast, meaning that an audio stream can be sent from one source to many devices while keeping network traffic down. The network switch uses IGMP snooping to determine which devices should receive the stream. To use multicast, you must enable multicast and IGMP snooping in the network switches.

• AXIS Audio Manager Edge uses a single multicast address and different network ports on that address to differentiate between the streams.

• You can configure the system to use unicast instead, but this limits the system size to maximum 20 devices.

AXIS Audio Manager Pro is intended for larger systems than AXIS Audio Manager Edge, or for more complex use cases. AXIS Audio Manager Pro is a software running on a Windows server or virtual machine.

Protocols or services.

• SIP (VoIP) can be used for paging and interfacing with other systems. If you use SIP, you must allow associated ports and traffic on the network.

Unicast/multicast.

• Axis audio systems use multicast, meaning that an audio stream can be sent from one source to many devices while keeping network traffic down. The network switch uses IGMP snooping to determine which devices should receive the stream. To use multicast, you must enable multicast and IGMP snooping in the network switches.

• All devices must be connected to the same multicast domain as the server that AXIS Audio Manager Pro is installed on. Audio streaming between the server and all the devices uses multicast. AXIS Audio Manager Pro uses one multicast address per stream. The default address range is 239.0.0.0 - 239.0.0.254.

AXIS Audio Manager Center is a subscription-based service for remote management and monitoring of multisite systems using AXIS Audio Manager Edge locally. The hybrid cloud solution uses both cloud-based and on-premises components for a convenient and stable solution. It significantly reduces user workloads, with a single sign-on to schedule announcements, background music, ads, and more for selected audio sites or zones.

In addition to the network requirements for each local audio site (see AXIS Audio Manager Edge), there is a network connection to the cloud service. The communication is initiated by each local audio site and normally this does not require any addition of firewall rules in the network. The communication uses encryption for security and privacy.