Open Control Architecture (OCA) defines a flexible and robust system control and monitoring standard that covers the entire range of professional media networking applications, from the smallest to the largest.

The OCA 1.0 specification has now been released to OCA Alliance Observer Members for comment, and will be presented to a public standards development organisation for rendering into an open public standard.

OCA is not a media transport technology, and does not replace evolving media transport standards such as IEEE AVB. Instead, it is intended to complement such standards by providing a reliable and rich system control environment. Together, media transport and system control standards will enable complete multivendor media network solutions in the future.

The OCA 1.0 specification is a draft standard for the remote control of equipment used in professional media networks. The specification includes the definition for the overall architecture of OCA, a detailed list of possible control and monitoring actions and functions, and a definition of the communication protocols that will be used by OCA compliant devices. OCA 1.0 is the result of intensive technical collaboration among the nine founding OCA members.

‘At d&b audiotechnik, we are very pleased with how the definition of the protocol progressed, as it proved to be an open and very efficient communication from all sides,’ says Martin Renz, Software Development Team leader from OCA Alliance Founding Member Company d&b audiotechnik. ‘It was really a team effort. The improvements to the protocol with the best points on the table won, irrespective if changes had to be made to the existing code implementation. The requests of the various market segments represented by the Observers and manufacturers of the OCA alliance were integrated into the protocol very quickly.’

‘Yamaha believes that the founding members of the OCA Alliance have collaborated very efficiently and cooperatively to complete the v1.0 specification on schedule. We look forward to OCA becoming a very useful tool for the industry in the near future,’ adds Kaz Kobayashi, General Manager of Yamaha’s Pro Audio Division.

Release of OCA 1.0 marks the conclusion of Phase One of the OCA Alliance's evolution. Further announcements regarding Phase Two of the OCA Alliance will be released within the next 60 days.

OCA Alliance is a non-profit corporation formed to secure the standardisation of the Open Control Architecture (OCA) as a media networking system control standard for professional applications. The OCA Alliance’s purpose is to actively promote the adoption and standardisation of Open Control Architecture (OCA) as a media networking system control standard through marketing, education and training and to develop future standards and other documents that augment, enhance or extend the primary OCA standard for the purposes of enabling and promoting increased interoperability and reliability for a variety of transport standards.

The founding members of the Alliance include Bosch Communications Systems, d&b audiotechnik, Duran Audio, Loud Technologies, Media Technology Systems, PreSonus, Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup, TC Group and Yamaha Commercial Audio.

More: www.oca-alliance.com