- mLAN
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mLAN, short for Music Local Area Network, is a protocol for synchronized transmission and management of multi-channel digital audio, video, control signals and multi-port MIDI over a network. It exploits several features of the IEEE 1394 standard, also known as FireWire, upon which it is based, to afford isochronous transfer and intelligent connection management. Interconnects are made with standard IEEE 1394 cables. With the proper software, a digital audio workstation may interact with mLAN-compliant hardware via any OHCI-compliant FireWire port.
The protocol was originally developed by Yamaha Corporation, and publicly introduced in January 2000.[1] It is now available under a royalty-free license to anyone interested in utilizing the technology. As of 2005, over 100 manufacturers are part of the mLAN Alliance.[2]
The transport layers of mLAN have been standardized as IEC 61883.[3]
Contents
Versions
Version 1 operates on the S200 type connection, Version 2 on the S400 type. The latter version supports synchronized streaming of digital audio at up to 24 bit word length and 192 kHz sample rate, MIDI and wordclock at a bitrate up to 400 Megabits per second.
Supporting products
- Yamaha Motif, Yamaha Motif ES, Yamaha S90 ES, Yamaha Motif XS
Other important mLAN devices include Yamaha 01X digital mixing hub and Yamaha i88x audio/MIDI interface.
Caveats and Product End
mLAN, being a Firewire bus protocol of its own, consumed an entire Firewire bus' bandwidth, making the mixing of mLAN and non-mLAN devices on the same Firewire bus impossible. For example, it was not possible to use hard drives, optical drives or other sound devices on the same Firewire bus when mLAN Manager software was running. It effectively took over the bus with a proprietary management system that was incompatible with standard Firewire bus devices.
As of early 2008, mLAN appeared to have reached the end of its product life. The third party developers previously mentioned have since discontinued or retracted their mLAN supporting products from the market as has Yamaha itself. Yamaha has had no indication of new releases of mLAN hardware or updates to the software in several years and mention of mLAN is notably absent from new product announcements and driver updates over the last few years.
See also
- Audio over Ethernet
- ADAT
- ZIPI
- MIDI
- MADI
References
External links
- mLAN Central
- 01xray
- Save Mlan on the Mac hosted by Chrismcc
Categories:- Network protocols
- Digital audio
- Audio network protocols
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