I just setup a system at a clients place where a NUC running ROCK is located in their main house, and streamer running RAAT is located 1000m away through dense forest to their fire side bar. The RAAT signal is being transmitted via powerful Ubiquiti Rocket AC lite units on each end:
And their big omni antennas:
On the server end I’m using an Edgerouter X SFP:
setup in router mode to connect the NUC to the rocket. The rocket is also powered by the PoE from the Edgerouter port. On the streamer end another Edgerouter X SFP is setup in switch mode and connected to my Superstream Streamer via the SFP fiber port. For wifi remote control I connect an Ubiquiti UniFi mesh unit to the PoE port on the streamer side Edgerouter:
The NUC is upsampling all audio to DSD 256, and absolutely no dropouts. Speed tests show an average of 80Mbps throughput between the units. I’m very impressed with the results.
This is 1 advantage RAAT has over Ravenna. Wireless capabilities. You can have 1 central server and several clients located in remote locations connected wirelessly. Next project I’m setting up a resort with RAAT endpoints in each cabin. 1 central server serving RAAT to each cabin. Each cabin will have a Rocket on the roof with omni antenna and connect to an F-POE to convert to fiber to feed the fiber input active speakers.
Depends on the application. The directional antennas must be on high towers and pointing at the receiver antennas. I’m getting 80Mbps going 1km through dense forest, and the omni antenna isn’t even on high towers on either end. And I can connect PTP endpoints 360 deg around the main server antenna.
That sounds good for an omni, but I don’t understand why a directional pointed in the right direction at the same location would not be even better…
I tried to do this stuff a decade ago in the middle of Brooklyn just 3 blocks apart, and it was horrible… but I guess the tech has gotten a lot better.
Well if we used tall towers and several directional antennas connected together in a 360 deg array, we could probably increase throughput. But the expense would go up
Massively and 80Mbps is already giving us far more throughput than we need.
To connect several endpoints 360deg around the sender antenna. Also those directional units are supposed to have an unobstructed view of each other. Not pass through dense forest.
I’m not sure. The directional units have a more focused dispersion pattern. The guys who make them say they need a clear line of sight. Where the omni’s are better at penetrating through things such as dense forest.
Perhaps that’s the issue. I just told the pros my application and they recommended the omni antennas. And no regrets as I’m able to connect as many endpoints as I want in a 360deg pattern around the sender up to 1km away, and still achieve 80Mbps throughput. More than enough to send my 22Mbps DSD256. And I didn’t need to buy any towers either. As I would need 50ft towers at least to be above the trees.
When you do not have direct line of sight the signal gets scattered, the receiver then has to deal with signals from multiple directions and they all arrive at slightly different times.