VLAN Switching

In a VLAN Switching system, the A/V signal is switchport-based. This means that all Receivers connected to the same switch port will always show the same Transmitter. It also means that a port only has the bandwidth of a single A/V signal so the full 1Gbps of the network wire is available to it. No bandwidth management is needed.

Example: 4 Receivers - 3x 509POE and 1x 508POE - are connected to the same network port. Since they all watch the same video signal, they can be setup to show a 2x2 video wall. Only a single port needs to be switched for the entire wall to show a different source.

Multicast Switching

The peak bandwidth of a Transmitter is 850 Mbps, so only one signal will fit on a CatX network cable at the same time. Even though Receivers could watch different sources in a Multicast Switching system, they will not show smooth video when watching more than one source because of bandwidth limitations. Throttling a Transmitter so it outputs lower bandwidth does not affect peak bandwidth.

In essence, a Multicast switching system has the same rules as a VLAN switching system, in that all daisy-chain Receivers must watch the same source.