The Audio Engineering Society Standards Committee (AESSC) has officially standardised the Open Control Architecture (OCA) control and monitoring standard for professional audio and A/V media network devices. With the ratification of OCA as AES70 (in the newly published AES70-2015), it is now an official public open standard.
Originally proposed as a field-tested specification by the OCA Alliance – a not-for-profit association, of leading professional audio and A/V industry manufacturers invested in audio networking, formed to secure the standardization of the OCA as a media networking system control standard for professional applications – the standard has already seen successful implementation in the field on commercially available products from alliance member companies.
Combining AES70 system control with standard media transport will bring a complete media network solution to market, allowing devices from different manufacturers to interoperate. In particular, AES70 includes a Discovery Specification, which will complement media transport standards and solutions such as AES67. However, AES70 may be implemented with any media transport mechanism, including AVB/TSN and analogue cable.
Speaking for the OCA Alliance, Jeff Berryman, Chair of the OCA Technical Workgroup and the AES writing group for AES70 says: ‘The availability of an interoperable control, configuration, monitoring, and diagnostic architecture for media networks will provide new opportunities for highly integrated systems. Such systems will be able to exchange control data and information in ways previously not possible.’
‘This is another major step towards making the OCA/AES70 vision a reality,’ says OCA Marketing workgroup Chair, Marc Weber. ‘One where all network devices are talking the same remote control language, AES70. In this emerging world, media system integrators and users will be free to choose the best products for their own purposes, with few compatibility concerns. Systems will have long service lifetimes with rich on-going upgradeability. The OCA Alliance and the AES are looking forward to the growth of a media network ecosystem that will offer standardised system control capabilities for professional audio and A/V products and systems.’
The AESSC is the organisation responsible for the standards program of the Audio Engineering Society, publishing technical standards, informational documents and technical reports. Under the AES Standards Committee, working groups and task groups of fully international membership author standards of specific relevance to pro audio.
Technically, AES70 is essentially the same as OCA 1.3, the specifications for which have been available on the OCA Alliance website since October, 2014 and which has been used in shipping products that have implemented OCA. However, a few changes have been made. Interested parties are directed o the official standards documents.
