The Cliff's Notes on OCA.

OCAYou know what AES67 is, and AVB. As transport standards, they give us a way to easily move a signal from point A to point B in the studio.

But what can we do with that signal once it gets there?

That’s what we hope to accomplish as part of the AESX210 task force and with OCA in particular, which is essentially a library of objects or specific control functions like gain control, muting, EQ, filtering, machine starts/stops, and so forth that can be used to manage virtually anything in the network, from anywhere if required. The purpose of OCA is so that manufacturers of products can deliver and accept those very basic functions.

OCA, or Open Control Architecture, gives us the control piece of interoperability that is lacking in AES67, and AVB for that matter.

Not only does OCA provide these common functions that all systems share, it also has provisions for manufacturer specified controls that extend beyond the generic. This means that as systems like WheatNet-IP add new functions, they’re not hindered by the standard.

OCA doesn’t constrain us from innovating and implementing additional functions into our systems, yet gives us all a common base to accept and deliver all the common functions that you’d find in nearly any audio environment.

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