HiQnet
| First published | 18 January 2005.[1] |
|---|---|
| Organization | Harman International |
| Domain | Control and configuration of audio equipment |
| Abbreviation | HiQnet |
| Website | audioarchitect |
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HiQnet is a protocol developed by Harman International for configuring and controlling professional audio equipment.[2] It is independent of the communication layer, and can run over TCP/IP, RS232, USB, and RS485. It has been implemented in many different types of devices, such as audio amplifiers, mixing consoles, and wireless microphone receivers.[3]
Unlike many competing protocols, it accommodates equipment that is moved from site to site by providing access to a set of device presets and venue presets. This allows previous configurations stored in the devices themselves to be quickly recalled as equipment is being set up in a venue that has been visited previously.
Architecture
The protocol is based around a set of attributes on each device that can be queried and updated.[4] An attribute might be "left-channel master volume" or "parametric EQ band 1 frequency". These attributes can be retrieved from devices and displayed in a four-level tree structure, although the attribute IDs are numeric and prior knowledge about each device is required in order to map these back to human-readable names. The Audio Architect software contains these mappings for all supported devices and can be freely downloaded from the Harman website.[5]
The TCP/IP transport has been assigned port 3804 by IANA.[4]
Comparison to alternatives
- BACnet addresses attributes in a similar way, but it also provides a means of retrieving available attributes, names, measurement units, and so on which HiQnet lacks. Both can run across a wide variety of different transports, such as TCP/IP and RS485 among others.
- Modbus requires the attributes (registers) to be known in advance, the same as HiQnet. HiQnet does return the data type when an attribute is read, but Modbus requires this to also be known in advance. HiQnet supports a string data type,[6] which is handled by workarounds in Modbus.
- SNMP has numbered attributes like HiQnet, but it allows a deeper tree structure rather than the four-level limit in HiQnet. SNMP also allows the available attributes to be enumerated, whereas HiQnet requires the attribute IDs to be known in advance. Neither protocol supplies information about what each attribute is for, with SNMP storing this information in a MIB file that the user must obtain through other means.
- Unlike most other alternatives which are aimed at permanently installed devices, HiQnet is designed to accommodate equipment that is moved from site to site by virtue of having presets stored on the devices themselves that can be stored and recalled,[6] without the need to store and transport settings on a computer or other storage device.
Documentation
While HiQnet was proprietary for the early years of its life,[7] partial documentation has since been released allowing anyone to communicate with devices and software applications using this protocol over TCP/IP and RS232.[6] Information about the USB and RS485 transports has not yet been made public.
See also
- HiQontrol - open source HiQnet TCP/IP client written in Python
- Wireshark dissector for HiQnet messages
References
- ↑ Harman Professional Group Introduces HiQnet Control and Communications Platform - prosound News
- ↑ What is HiQnet? - Harman International
- ↑ Harman HiQnet's Audio Architect - JPRO
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Quick start guide
- ↑ Audio Architect homepage
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Programmer's guide (covering TCP/IP and RS232, but not USB or RS485)
- ↑ HiQnet - Sound and Video Contractor
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