description: Incorporating AIXpressor and flexAIserver
Introducing flexAI
Introduction
Audio processing for broadcasting is in a near-constant state of evolution, and our industry finds itself in a time of "in-between" in many ways. One of the most obvious is the concurrent availability of proprietary hardware platforms with traditional I/O alongside software running on off-the-shelf servers using networked audio and a new tendency to shift functionality to cloud environments.
The products of the flexAI family cater for any of these applications with an underlying software platform ready to provide audio processing and encoding independent from the way of deployment:
AIXpressor is an integrated standalone hardware product that supports analog, AES3, and SDI I/O in addition to AoIP
flexAIserver is a hardware server running the same software but relying upon various Audio over IP (AoIP) protocols for its audio I/O
flexAIserver is available as a turn-key product or as a software package for installation on the customer’s own hardware
flexAIcloud is a virtual instance ready to run in local virtual computing environments or public cloud applications
This user manual is providing universal information for using the flexAI software functions and processing options independent from the platform running it. Additionally information on the two physical incarnations AIXpressor and flexAIserver is given in separate sections. Information on the virtual/cloud versions is not of the focus of this document although of course many aspects like user interface and user experience are the same.
Thank you for using Jünger Audio flexAI!
User Interface
flexAI provides a browser-based TCP/IP web interface as its main user interface. Additionally for basic setup and operation the AIXpressor is equipped with a touch-enabled front panel display.
The web interfaces can be accessed from many standard web browsers entering the device’s IP address
For 3rd party remote control, Junger highly recommends using the LAWO Ember+ protocol, which is widely distributed in the broadcast industry and which enjoys a robust and popular user community worldwide. More information about Ember+ is available at https://github.com/Lawo/ember-plus.
Connecting to an IP Network
There are also some differences in network setup between AIXpressor and flexAIserver.
AIXpressor has four integrated 1GB network ports. flexAIserver, on the other hand, may be configured with discrete NICs and will have a very different configuration when used on a VM.
It either case, however, DHCP is enabled by default on the port recommended for use as a control port to connect via a web browser, allowing more advanced network configuration to be done remotely.
On the AoIP side, users may choose between SMPTE ST 2110 (including support for AMWA IS-04 and IS-05), Livewire, AES67, and Ravenna.