Re: [LAD] AoIP question

On Sat, 11 Oct 2014, Philipp Überbacher wrote:

> I see my fair share of laptops and ethernet is somewhat declining.
> There are only few laptops without an interface, macbook air and some
> versions of macbook pro come to mind. I guess apple has two reasons for
> that: 1) increased use of wifi over ethernet 2) selling overpriced
> adapters to people who want to use ethernet. What I see increasingly

:) Apple likes to sell overpriced *.

> more often are 'flat' ethernet ports. With those things you can't just
> plug the cable in, you have to expand it first. This allows
> manufacturers to build slightly slimmer laptops but I think those ports
> will likely break much sooner than conventional ports. I guess this is
> a tradeoff manufacturers are willing to make since wifi is so prevalent

Purposely making it worthwhile to replace the whole unit more often so
they can make more profits.

> nowadays. It is also an indication that ethernet is less important
> nowadays and may vanish from laptops in the next couple of years.

I do not think it will quite vanish. However, the reality has been for a
while that for audio use, an apropriate machine should be chosen in the
first place. Audio can be made to work on just about anything out there,
but can work much better if the right choice is made. Apple makes AV
machines that are supposed to be designed to handle this stuff well, but
the user pays for it. The computer is more, the SW is more, the external
boxes are more... everything is meant to be closed. To get open stuff, the
PC is used, but the PC is not based on AV designs and so the user has to
know what to look for to get a good computer for audio use. I bought a new
computer MB a few months ago for my studio. I purposely chose a MB with
PCI slots so I could use a known good AI, I purposely chose an i5 rather
than i7 for no hyperthreading, etc. In the same way, a user with an
ethernet based AI had better choose a computer (desktop/laptop/notepad)
with a built in ethernet port and may wish to be picky about what chipset
the ethernet port uses.

A working musician will not buy a toy midi keyboard for the stage, or use
the amp from a home stereo for an amp (at least not very long). In the
same way, someone doing audio work with their computer, no matter what OS
they use, needs to be willing to spend some time and money making sure
they have an appropriate computer. I am "cheap" as they come, but getting
the job done means buying the right stuff to begin with. There is a sense
that with Linux a person can do pro audio work on any computer...
basically free. I don't think that is true, I do think it can be less
expensive, but time input to learning must be higher to compensate. I also
think there are things that can be done with Linux that are just not
available anywhere else.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net

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Received on Sun Oct 12 00:15:02 2014