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Support › Knowledge base › AV Over IP

Getting Started: Network Setup for AV over IP

5 min read·AV Over IP

Overview

AV over IP relies on a properly configured managed network switch to function correctly. This article covers the essential switch settings required for stable, high-quality IP video distribution across all KanexPro AV over IP codec families (JPEG2000, H.265, SDVoE).

Important: Unmanaged switches are not supported. All encoders and decoders must connect to a managed switch with the settings below applied.

Required Switch Settings

1. IGMP Snooping

IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) snooping must be enabled on the switch. AV over IP uses multicast for one-to-many distribution — without IGMP snooping, multicast traffic floods every port on the switch, saturating bandwidth and causing dropped frames or no signal.

  • Enable IGMP Snooping globally on the switch
  • Enable IGMP Snooping on the VLAN used for AV traffic
  • Enable IGMP Querier on the AV VLAN (required if no dedicated multicast router is present)
  • For the 1080p H.265 and SDVoE endpoints, also enable multicast and filtering of unregistered multicast traffic

Recommended switches: Cisco SG350/SG550 series, Netgear M4250, Cisco Catalyst 9000 series.

2. Jumbo Frames (MTU 9000)

JPEG2000 and SDVoE streams use large packet sizes. Enable jumbo frames (9000-byte MTU) on all switch ports connected to encoders and decoders. Failure to enable jumbo frames may result in degraded video quality or intermittent signal loss.

  • Set MTU to 9000 bytes on all AV ports
  • Applies to JPEG2000 and SDVoE deployments
  • H.265: jumbo frames are recommended for AVO-IP265-4K video wall and multiview deployments. The 1080p H.265 encoders and decoders do not require jumbo frames; they need a managed Gigabit switch with IGMP snooping, multicast and filtering of unregistered multicast traffic enabled.

3. Flow Control

Disable flow control (IEEE 802.3x) on all switch ports connected to AV over IP devices. Flow control can cause buffering and latency spikes in real-time video streams.

4. Port Speed

  • JPEG2000 and AVO-IP265-4K: 1Gbps port speed required on all encoder and decoder ports
  • 1080p H.265 encoders and decoders: 100M/1G ports; connect them to a managed Gigabit switch
  • SDVoE: 10Gbps port speed required on all encoder and decoder ports
  • Set ports to auto-negotiate or force to the required speed

Isolating AV traffic on a dedicated VLAN prevents interference from corporate data traffic and simplifies network management.

  1. Create a dedicated VLAN for AV traffic (e.g., VLAN 100)
  2. Assign all encoder and decoder switch ports as untagged members of the AV VLAN
  3. Enable IGMP snooping and IGMP querier on the AV VLAN
  4. Connect the IP controller's VIDEO LAN port to the AV VLAN with the encoders and decoders; its CONTROL LAN port connects to the IT network or control PC

IP Addressing

Encoders and decoders must be on the same IP subnet as each other and as the IP controller's VIDEO LAN port. KanexPro controllers have a second port, CONTROL LAN, for the IT network or control PC. On the H.265 and SDVoE controllers, the VIDEO LAN subnet must differ from the CONTROL LAN subnet when Static mode is used.

  • Addressing mode: In Auto mode the controller assigns addresses to its VIDEO LAN port and to every encoder and decoder. The AVO-IPCTL-JP2K, AVO-IPCTL-265HD and AVO-IPCTL-SDV also offer DHCP and Static modes; the AVO-IPCTL-265 offers Auto and Static.
  • Static addressing: Set the VIDEO LAN IP, subnet mask, gateway and endpoint IP range on the controller, for example when the AV network must fit an existing static IP scheme.
  • Default device IPs: These differ by model. The 1080p H.265 encoders ship at 169.254.100.254 and decoders at 169.254.100.253. The AVO-IPJP2K and AVO-IPJP2KD default to Auto IP (IP3) and assign themselves a 169.254.x.x address, which on the AVO-IPJP2KD can change after a power cycle; set Static (IP1) or DHCP (IP2) where a control system reaches them by IP address without a controller. AVO-IP265-4K and the AVO-IPJP2KS come up on a 169.254.x.x address when no DHCP server is present. Read the current address from the front panel (AVO-IP265-4K: short press POWER; AVO-IPJP2K and AVO-IPJP2KD: hold the UP button for 5 seconds); the slim AVO-IPJP2KS has no display and is found with a Bonjour/mDNS discovery tool.

Bandwidth Planning

CodecResolutionBandwidth per StreamNetwork Required
JPEG20004K601G per stream1G (1 stream per port)
H.2654K60Set by the encoder's bitrate type and image quality settings1G (multiple streams per port possible)
H.265HD 1080p608 Mbps main + 1 Mbps sub stream (defaults, configurable)1G
SDVoE4K60Uncompressed; 10G link per endpoint10G (dedicated port per stream)

For JPEG2000 systems, use a non-blocking switch with sufficient backplane capacity for all simultaneous streams. A 24-port 1G switch for 12 encoders and 12 decoders should be non-blocking.

Multicast vs. Unicast

JPEG2000: the AVO-IPJP2K and AVO-IPJP2KD ship in unicast (CA1), which sends one stream to one display. Set multicast when several displays show the same source: CA2 on the front-panel configuration page (the unit reboots), the casting mode on the AVO-IPJP2KD web GUI's Network page, or Transmission Mode on the AVO-IPCTL-JP2K Device page. Keep KVM roaming pairs in unicast, because multicast mode does not support KVM.

1080p H.265: the AVO-IP265HD-DEC defaults to UDP multicast; UDP unicast can be selected as the Transmission Protocol on the decoder's Video Configuration page.

SDVoE: point-to-point links work without a controller; matrix switching, video wall and multiview require the AVO-IPCTL-SDV. In either case, enable IGMP snooping, multicast and filtering of unregistered multicast traffic on the 10G switch.

KanexPro AV over IP Products

JPEG2000

H.265

SDVoE

  • AVO-IPSDV-4K — 4K60 SDVoE Encoder/Decoder — Zero Latency

Controllers

  • Getting Started with AV over IP
  • JPEG2000 Product Guide
  • H.265 Product Guide
  • SDVoE Product Guide
  • Troubleshooting: No Signal Between Encoder and Decoder

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