Dante

Live shows used to need fat multicore snakes with one conductor per channel from stage to mixing desk. Dante replaces them with a network cable: PCM audio is packed into IP and sent through off-the-shelf switches, via unicast or multicast. Every device syncs its clock using PTP, IEEE 1588, so the word clock cables can retire too. Routing happens in the Dante Controller software, a patchbay where no cable ever has to move.

Audinate was spun out of the Australian research institute NICTA and licenses the technology to manufacturers, and within a decade Dante became the de facto standard in conference venues and on tour. The open AES67 standard is available as a compatibility mode, but buying a Dante box in practice means buying into an ecosystem.