[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by V5V

Given that, is there any chance of you being able to successfully explain to me how these interoperability issues manifest, and what kind of configuration might be required to make a system work? I assume AoIP is not a plug-n-play proposition?

I don't really have any experience with Ravenna/AES67 (except for briefly trying to make it interoperate with Dante), so I'll have to confine my comments to AVB and Dante.

Dante is pretty much plug-and-play, something which falls out from the software and hardware being supplied by a single vendor (Audinate make chips/boards which third-parties can integrate). So that is a massive win as far as the end-user is concerned. The disadvantage is that it is a proprietary solution.

AVB and AES67 are open standards, anyone with the necessary knowledge can implement them royalty-free (patents notwithstanding). Apart from the fact that fewer devices support AVB, once you get beyond a point-to-point configuration with macOS, it does become more fiddly to configure. (If you are curious about the details, see my previous posts on this forum.) It also requires support in your Ethernet switch/hub which is not yet widespread; Dante and AES67 will work with pretty much any modern switch.

For example, to bring this discussion back to something vaguely resembling the original topic, if I connect an audio interface to my switch, can I assume that Pro Tools will immediately recognize the existence of those inputs and outputs? If not, how would I "tell" Pro Tools they're
there?

Taking Dante as an example, you have a few options for getting Pro Tools to talk to it: the cheapest is to use Dante Virtual Soundcard (DVS), which makes the Dante network appear as a CoreAudio device. The disadvantage is that it has high (several milliseconds) latency. For lower latencies, there is a Dante PCIe card, or there are Dante to Pro Tools HD bridges (from Avid, DAD and Focusrite). For DVS and the Dante PCIe cards, the Dante network appears as a CoreAudio device; with a Pro Tools HD bridge, it appears as a HD interface.

You then use a separate application (Dante Controller) to patch the I/O between your local Dante interface and other Dante devices on the network.

In the case of the Red 4Pre, well, first you figure out how you wish to connect your computer to it (Thunderbolt, DigiLink, or Dante). Then I imagine Focusrite has its own application for patching inputs and outputs; and then, you can patch its Dante I/O to other devices on the network. This double level of indirection/patching can require a clear head!

Configuring AVB in a multipoint network is similar in theory but more complicated in practice.

In the case of things like the 1ms latency hard deck, would I be made aware of that via some sort of visible interface (like a pull-down menu that only goes down to 1ms), or would I find out by selecting something beyond the capability of the system and it failing to work? Or is it not a user-adjustable parameter?

The former.