Dante, AVB, and a Visit to the AVnu Testing Lab

I've long been a supporter of Audio Video Bridging (AVB)--an open standard way of sending time-synchronized audio and video information over an Ethernet network. AVB has been slowly working through the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards process for a long time--work on the standard began in 2005. I've been increasingly concerned that with an open standard vacuum, Audinate's proprietary Dante audio networking system will offer "good enough" functionality for most shows, thereby killing off any demand for AVB. Users drive the purchasing decisions in the live show market, and most don't know the technical differences between AVB and Dante, and don't need to. What they do know is that audio networking offers key benefits, like a dramatically reduced cable infrastructure, easy audio signal copying and routing, etc. So if their audio console of choice works fine with Dante, there's no reason for them to push for anything else. And no user demand means no investment by manufacturers.