Unique solution enables customers to bypass ISP policies and preserve network bandwidth for non-critical communications

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, June 10, 2013 — IP audio and control specialist Barix introduces a unique solution helping media companies, businesses and other multi-site network users to route multicast traffic over remote network links, enabling bandwidth-efficient, multicast delivery over the public internet.

Multicast uses special destination addresses to target groups of subscribed devices, and deliver data and streams such as voice (general paging) and audio (background music). In contrast to standard connections where each device needs its own stream, multicast data distribution requires only a single stream to send the same content to any number of receivers on the same network segment, minimizing bandwidth and network usage. Multicast delivery is traditionally limited to private, in-house networks as Internet Service Providers block multicast traffic on normal Internet connections.

Barix has developed a unique multicast routing and tunneling firmware that turns its Barionet IP control devices into flexible, multisite multicast routers — effectively enabling delivery of multicast traffic over the public internet to remote locations. The solution forwards multicast IP blocks to remote receiving devices, re-packed as unicast streams. The receiving devices then re-issue the packets as multicast on the destination network.

“This solution addresses challenging situations for systems integrators and network operators that want to use multicast transport between subnets but have previously been blocked from doing so,” said Johannes G. Rietschel, CEO and Founder of Barix AG. “We are effectively bridging multiple multicast groups between multiple sites for general data and our specialty, Audio over IP, preserving network bandwidth and increasing the efficiency of remote communication.”

Using Multicast, system integrators can configure Barix IP Audio systems with more flexibility and less labor as streams are concurrently distributed to many nodes using IP multicast delivery. This minimizes streaming bandwidth requirements and simplifies configuration; it is not necessary to know the IP address of each individual receiver on the network. Instead, subscription protocols are employed so that relevant receivers – such as a Barix Exstreamer IP audio decoder – receive relevant streams, even if they use dynamic, unknown IP addresses.

The Barix multicast routing and tunneling solution can be deployed across a large number of scenarios as functionality is independent of actual protocols. This enables the firmware to be used alongside automation, IP audio, video, VoIP, SIP or RTP streams, for example. Furthermore, the entire operation can be monitored over SNMP to enable a complete bird’s eye view of system efficiency.

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, June 5, 2013 — Leading corporate music provider DMD2 of Switzerland is bringing fresh energy to newly remodeled Victorinox retail stores on two continents using IP-based in-store media solutions from Barix. The Barix devices reliably play out a unique and exciting DMD2-programmed music mix that meets the retail giant’s new branding requirements.

DMD2, which also handles Barix device configuration, service monitoring and music licensing, chose Barix Exstreamer IP audio decoders for playout due to their high audio quality and reliability. DMD2 delivers the program as a single stream across seven stores in Europe and five in Hong Kong.

Habegger AG, a Swiss event and corporate architecture supplier, engaged with DMD2 to develop an in-store music concept that matched the new Victorinox store designs. The channel development phase gave birth to the “Victorinox music mix,” constantly updated with new releases as part of an eclectic music mix from the 70s to the early 2000s.

This was a new concept to the Victorinox stores as many used CD players, FM tuners or iPods to play music. DMD2 considered Barix an ideal partner to transition the stores to IP audio delivery, as many of the tools to support the new stream were well suited for Barix hardware. The music originates from datacenters in Bern, Switzerland and is delivered to Barix Exstreamer devices in each store as 64kb/s mp3 streams, with expectations to add AAC+ streams moving forward.

“We’ll eventually switch to AAC+ 48kbps encoding to increase stream stability for retail stores in the more remote areas,” said Alexander dal Farra, owner and president of DMD2. “The flexibility of Barix devices is a big benefit in this regard, as the Exstreamer offers both MP3 and AAC+ decoding functionality. This makes migration to AAC+ an easy task.”

With stores in such cities as Zurich, Dusseldorf, Hong Kong and Geneva, Victorinox now has a corporate audio solution that gives exceptional control to the brand management department.

“It’s no longer an ‘everybody is a DJ’ approach within the different store locations,” said dal Farra. “This streamlined process has also brought a fair amount of convenience to the store staff as there is no more music editorial work, licensing or normalizing of tracks.”

Dal Farra added that the new solution also provides Victorinox headquarters with the option to introduce real-time advertisements using ad injection software — a potential revenue generator that would quickly monetize the new in-store audio network.