We are pleased to be partnering with NETGEAR® to offer select models of their M4250 family of managed Gigabit Ethernet switches, preconfigured for OmniStream™ AV over IP systems.
As you may well know, NETGEAR has developed network switches specifically for pro AV integrators. The NETGEAR M4250 family is very popular for AV over IP systems that operate on Gigabit Ethernet.
Atlona is making four models of the M4250 series available to customers in the US and Canada. With these switches from Atlona all you’ll have to do, out of the box, is log into the web GUI for the switch, and then connect OmniStream encoders and decoders. There’s nothing you’ll need to configure for the switch because everything is already set up for you.
In addition, we are pleased to offer SFP+ modules for three of the four NETGEAR switch models, to expand networked AV system capacity, or extend network connections over very long distances (hundreds of meters).
If you already have a NETGEAR M4250 switch, or aren’t based in the US or Canada, we have a nearly identical solution for you! Just follow this guide to upload one of our OmniStream configuration files to your switch. After that, you’re ready to go, just as if you bought the switch directly from us.
Why are we offering network switches?
At Atlona, we constantly strive to address the challenges and pain points faced by our customers. For AV over IP systems, setting up a network switch can be daunting – possibly even the main stumbling block to a successful networked AV integration project.
The procedures to configure network switch operations such as IGMP for multicast streaming, VLANs, and DHCP assignments are typically complex, time-consuming, and not very intuitive to understand. In the end, everyone just wants the most efficient path to getting their AV systems up and running – though properly and reliably.
That’s why we’ve decided to offer the opportunity for customers to buy a network switch from us, already configured for OmniStream and fully tested and verified by our engineers. The benefit for our customers is that they won’t have to worry about the DHCP server, VLANs, IGMP settings, or PoE activation – these are all set up and ready to go.
An additional benefit of purchasing switches from us is that you can go to a single vendor for a complete AV over IP system.
Why did we go with NETGEAR?
We’ve chosen NETGEAR because of their tremendous popularity with AV integration customers, and because their M4250 enterprise-grade switches have many great features that appeal to the needs of the commercial AV industry. Some of the many notable features include flexible rack-mounting options and an AV integrator-friendly web GUI that’s far easier to work with than the typically complicated, IT-focused web GUIs of standard data network switches.
To learn more, please visit the Atlona and NETGEAR partnership page.
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About the Author
Perry Sun is a Product Marketing Manager for Atlona, focusing on AV over IP, wireless BYOD, and commercial HDBaseT products. In his free time, he enjoys blogging, creating videos for his YouTube channel, learning web development, cooking, and basically anything related to Japanese culture (especially food).