Rane IEEE 802.11a User manual

Wireless Control-1
Introduction
Convenient wireless control is pervasive in today’s
world and showing up more frequently in the world
of pro audio. e application and benefits of wireless
control of sound systems are many.
Obvious choices are the ability to tweak a sound sys-
tem while sitting in the middle of, or wandering about
a church, theater, or auditorium without wire tethers.
Another is the value and convenience of setting
the loudness and EQ while standing in each zone of a
multi-zone system.
Or for live sound applications being able to setup
stage monitors while standing next to the musician.
Since Rane’s RPM series of programmable proces-
sors use Ethernet to communicate with laptops and
tablet PCs, all it takes to cut the cables is low-cost, off
the shelf wireless adaptors and Access Points.
If you already have a laptop or tablet PC it’s a small
step to go wireless. Simply pop a wireless adaptor in
your laptop (if it doesn’t have one built-in) and toss
a wireless Access Point into your tool box and you’re
ready to go. It’s just that easy.
Wireless Control of
RPM Series Drag Net™
Multiprocessors
• Wi-Fi Control
• IEEE 802.11a
• IEEE 802.11b
• IEEE 802.11g
• WLANs
• PC Laptop Setup
Dean Standing
Greg Duckett
Dennis Bohn
Rane Corporation
RaneNote 156
© 2005 Rane Corporation
RaneNote
WIRELESS CONTROL
Drag Net is a trademark of Rane Corporation

Wireless Control-2
All Wi-Fi certified equipment that complies with the
same standard is supposed to work together no matter
who made it, but the best bet is to choose all equip-
ment from one manufacturer. You’re less likely to run
into trouble.
WLANs
A WLAN consists of two equipment types: Access
Points and Clients:
Clients are attached to a single computer or other
equipment and provide a wireless connection to that
equipment only. is is the Wi-Fi card you purchase
and install (or it is already built into your laptop). For
example, a popular choice is the Linksys WPC54GS
(www.linksys.com).
Access Points (APs) are the base stations of the
system; they are the wireless equivalent of the Ethernet
hub or switch. An Access Point interconnects a wire-
less network to a wired LAN. Wireless devices do not
communicate directly with each other in a managed
wireless network. ey communicate via the Access
Point. (See Figure 3.)
61
INPUT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
OUTPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
PRESET
RPM 88
A B
A B
PeakdBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW485 ETHERNET STATUS POWER
Figure 1. Simple wired LAN with one computer and one RPM 88. Figure 2. Wired LAN with one computer, an Ethernet switch and
several RPMs.
61
INPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
OUTPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
PRESET
RPM 88
A B
A B
PeakdBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW 485 ETHERNET STATUS POWER
INPUT AES3 OUTPUT
1 2 A B 1 432 65
LOCK
VIP POWER ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 26z
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
PRESET
21
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
INPUT OUTPUT
1 2 1 2
AES3
A B
VIP POWER ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 2m
PRESET
11
Wireless Ethernet = Wireless Drag Net
Wireless Ethernet is a huge subject with many branch-
es involving different technologies. But for a simple
case of a single computer connecting to a simple Local
Area Network (LAN), it is quite easy. A LAN is formed
anytime a computer and one or more RPMs are con-
nected together (see Figures 1 & 2). You can create a
simple Wireless LAN (WLAN) and control RPMs from
anywhere in a room, whether there is one RPM in the
system or a hundred.
Wi-Fi
e easiest to use and most prevalent wireless Ethernet
equipment is based on a standard called IEEE 802.11.
at isn’t very easy to say let alone remember, so sen-
sible marketing folks stepped in and dubbed it Wi-Fi
(wireless-fidelity) (www.wi-fi.org).
ere are now three versions of Wi-Fi equipment:
802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. For a single computer
connecting to a simple LAN, the differences between
the three standards are not important. However some
compatibility issues exist so the smartest method is to
buy equipment with the same suffix.
61
INPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
OUTPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
PRESET
RPM 88
A B
A B
PeakdBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW485 ETHERNET STATUS POWER
Figure 3. Laptop with Wi-Fi card (Client), WLAN with Access
Point, and one RPM.
61
INPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
OUTPUT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
PRESET
RPM 88
A B
A B
PeakdBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW 485 ETHERNET STATUS POWER
INPUT AES3 OUTPUT
1 2 A B 1 432 65
LOCK
VIP POWER ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 26z
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
PRESET
21
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
INPUT OUTPUT
1 2 1 2
AES3
A B
VIP POWER ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 2m
PRESET
11
Figure 4. Laptop with Wi-Fi card (Client), WLAN with wireless
switch Access Point, and several RPMs.

Wireless Control-3
Access Points manage connections to several Clients
at a time (for example, multiple laptop users controlling
or monitoring the same network), giving the Clients
access to each other and to the wired LAN.
In simplest form an Access Point has a Wi-Fi ra-
dio and one Ethernet port; however, many products
combine other functions with an Access Point. Wire-
less switches (an Access Point and Ethernet switch in
the same box), and wireless routers (an Access Point
and Ethernet router in the same box) are examples.
(See Figure 4.) Be careful with terminology though; a
“router” is not an Access Point unless it is wireless.
For reference, a leading Access Point product is the
Linksys WAP54G; a leading wireless router is the Link-
sys WRT54GS (note that these are “g” devices match-
ing the earlier “g” card). In addition to providing the
hub for the wireless devices, these convert wireless to
wire to connect to RPMs.
Ad Hoc (Peer-to-Peer) vs. Infrastructure
Networks
References to ad hoc or peer-to-peer (unmanaged)
mode versus infrastructure (managed or hosted) mode
appear in documentation for Clients and Access Points.
A wireless ad hoc mode network is a network with
no Access Point (i.e., no infrastructure). e ad hoc
advantage is that the wireless devices can talk directly
to each other.
RPM units do not support ad hoc networks.
is means that you cannot control RPMs directly
from a Wi-Fi laptop without adding an Access Point.
erefore after installing your Wi-Fi card configure
it for an infrastructure network. (Gateway is an inter-
changeable term.)
SSID
e service set identifier (SSID) is similar to a user
name without a password. It is the name of the WLAN.
is user name or SSID is transmitted by the Access
Point for anyone to receive and connect to the network.
In search mode, a PC listens for all the SSIDs in the
immediate area, and lets you pick the one you want.
Connecting to any wireless network requires the SSID
so you must assign one to your WLAN.
Building a Simple WLAN for Drag Net
To setup a simple WLAN you need a computer with a
Wi-Fi card (Client), and an Access Point that connects
to the RPMs with CAT 5 cable.
Begin by configuring the Access Point while the
computer is connected to it with a cable. is is done
using the configuration program provided by the
manufacturer. Most equipment allows you to also
change settings through a Web interface. Using an
Internet browser of your choice (e.g., Internet Explorer,
Netscape, etc.) you type in the IP address of the Access
Point and up pops a web page that lets you set the Ac-
cess Point’s parameters.
Recommended is to setup your small LAN with
static IP addresses so you can locate the Access Point
by its IP address. RPMs only support static addresses so
they are ready to go.
e Access Point may allow you to use DHCP (i.e.,
automatic IP address assignment), but if you do that,
you will have trouble locating the Access Point by IP
address and it will be difficult to use the Web pages to
set and adjust it, so we advise against it.
You should set the SSID to something that makes
sense to you. is will let you properly locate and
connect to this Access Point when other WLANs are
within range of your Client card.
You will have a choice to set passwords and security
settings for your Access Point (and later on, your Client
card). We recommend that you set the password (and
write it down where you can find it a year from now).
Initially leave the security turned off -- but only
while you are setting up the system. After it’s working,
always set the security to exclude other Clients from
the network. It is easy to do and will stop strangers
from messing with or inadvertently damaging/dis-
abling your WLAN.
Once your Access Point is configured, disconnect
your computer and attach the Access Point to the
RPMs to form a LAN. With a single RPM, this would
be a minimal LAN with a single cable connecting it to
the Access Point. With more than one RPM, you need
an Ethernet switch to connect them together as shown
in Figure 4.
After installing the Wi-Fi card, open up the adapter’s
control panel software and you should see the Access
Point in the available wireless networks list. Go ahead
and connect to it. is is usually a matter of double
clicking on its entry in the WLAN list.

Wireless Control-4 DOC 108864
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Make sure that the IP address for the Client card connection is in the same subnet as the RPM that you
want Drag Net to communicate with. e procedure for doing this is the same as for a wired connection.
You now can send Ethernet messages between your laptop and an RPM. Start up Drag Net and poll for
devices exactly as if you were connected with a wire. (If this fails see sidebar for “pinging.”)
You can now move around and adjust parameters from anywhere in the room.
Summary
1. Configure the Access Point from your computer using a wired connection.
2. Connect the Access Point and the RPMs together with cable to form a LAN.
3. Install your Wi-Fi card (Client) and configure it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
4. Open the Wi-Fi card’s control window. You should see the Access Point in the list of available WLANs.
5. Connect to the Access Point.
6. Open Drag Net and poll for devices.
You are now controlling the RPMs using wireless Ethernet.
How to “Ping” an Ethernet Device
Open a command Window (click on Start
Menu> Run, then type “cmd” [for Windows
XP, or “command” for Windows 98] and click
OK). When the command window is open,
type in “ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx <enter>”.
(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the RPM,
or other device, you’re checking). The ping
program will try to contact the device at that
IP address and send it a test message. Ping
will report back whether it got a response
and how long it took for the message to
get there and back. It will likely try this four
times. It is a quick way to nd out whether
your setup is working.
To be sure your networking service is operat-
ing on the Client, you can “ping yourself” us-
ing the command: “ping 127.0.0.1 <enter>”.
This IP address is known as the loopback
address.
If your wireless connection isn’t working,
consult the manual from the manufacturer of
your wireless equipment for troubleshooting
tips. To close the command window, type
“exit <enter>”.
More about IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g
ree 802.11 standards (suffixed “a,”
“b,” and “g”) are alternate answers
to the trade-off of cost vs. speed vs.
coverage. Standard “a” uses a different
part of the radio spectrum than “b” or
“g” and is more expensive. Standard
“b” provides up to 11 Mbps data rates,
while “a” and “g” increases this to 54
Mbps. Because “a” operates at a higher
radio frequency, it has a shorter range
and doesn’t penetrate walls or other
obstacles as well as “b” or “g.” Lots of
other subtleties exist in obtaining the
utmost performance in an installation
but these are the main considerations.
Remember to always match your Wi-
Fi card and Access Point standards.