Ather Core

The audio engine that powers reliable, low-latency networked audio for broadcast, live production, corporate AV, and anywhere sample-accurate timing matters.

Bring studio-grade routing, professional clocking, and flexible control together in one deployable platform-on site, in the cloud adjacent to your network, or packaged for OEM integration.

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Details

Network audio & timing

  • AES67 audio-over-IP for interoperability with today's IP audio ecosystems
  • IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol for locked, predictable playback across devices
  • Multicast and unicast streaming with jitter buffering tuned for real-world networks
  • Fine-grained packet timing-from sub-millisecond to standard intervals-so you can match latency to your switch fabric and workload

Intermesh

  • Cluster-style operation using a consensus algorithm so configuration and control stay coherent without relying on one fragile "brain" node
  • No single point of failure: the mesh continues to make progress when individual nodes or links misbehave, within the limits of your deployment design
  • Scales out by adding nodes; capacity grows without forcing a wholesale redesign of your audio architecture
  • Audio routing inside the Intermesh is automatic-operators define intent; the system figures out how traffic should flow across the cluster
  • Well suited to WAN-based workflows: link venues, control rooms, and remote talent across regions while keeping a unified routing and comms model

Sound & codecs

  • High-resolution linear PCM plus efficient codecs including Opus when bandwidth is a concern
  • Telephony-friendly options where you need to bridge traditional voice infrastructure
  • Sample-rate conversion and format alignment so mixed sources work in one session

Hardware & platforms

  • Native audio I/O on Windows, Linux, and macOS using each platform's professional audio paths
  • Runs as a service or application-suitable for dedicated appliances, workstations, and containers
  • Docker images available so you can run Ather Core under Kubernetes and other orchestrators-pairing containerized instances with platform features like self-healing restarts, rolling upgrades, and load-balanced ingress for control and API traffic
  • Optional discovery helpers so devices and streams are easier to find on busy networks

Control & integration

  • An open programmatic interface built on gRPC and Protocol Buffers-the same contract-first model used across the industry, with strongly typed messages instead of ad-hoc JSON
  • Use standard off-the-shelf tooling: generated clients in Python, Go, C#, and other languages; quick experiments from the shell with grpcurl; bash or PowerShell one-liners; or anything else that speaks gRPC
  • Build your own workflows and automation-from small Python utilities to fleet-wide orchestration-without waiting on a proprietary SDK or reverse-engineered REST
  • Streaming RPCs where it matters: live configuration changes, heartbeats, and other long-lived feeds for monitoring and integration
  • Built-in web experience for configuration and status-no requirement to live on the command line

Browser Panel, WebRTC & SIP

  • Built-in Browser Panel: a browser-based operator surface served from the engine-talk, listen, and interact with party lines and routes without installing a native client
  • WebRTC support for real-time audio between browsers and the engine, including negotiated media paths suited to production comms
  • SIP integration for bridging conventional VoIP and telephony systems into the same routing fabric as your IP audio

Workflows

  • Party-line and group communication patterns for production intercom-style workflows
  • Hardware-style control panels with clear talk, listen, and activation behavior
  • Routing and forwarding that keeps audio aligned to your facility clock
  • Program and test sources-including file playback and precision tone generation

Automation

  • Define rules that watch the live system-routing changes, streams going up or down, panel keys, party-line membership, audio level above or below a threshold, SIP call state, and recording start/stop
  • When conditions match, run actions: call external systems over HTTP, place or hang up SIP calls, start or stop file playback and recording, drive panel keys, join or leave party lines, or start and stop tones-with optional delays, cooldowns, priorities, and "run once" behavior
  • Add, update, remove, enable, or disable rules without rebuilding the engine; trigger a rule manually when you need to override or rehearse
  • Subscribe to a live stream of automation events for monitoring, logging, and integration with your ops toolchain

Transports & connectivity

  • UDP for low-overhead, low-latency streams on well-behaved networks
  • TCP when you need connection-oriented delivery semantics across less predictable paths
  • TLS and DTLS for encrypted audio and control where policy or public segments require it
  • TURN relay for traversing NATs and restrictive firewalls-critical for remote contributors and cross-site WAN links
  • Commercial licensing so capacity and features align with how you sell and support your solution

Product description

A professional audio runtime

Ather Core is designed for teams who cannot afford "almost in sync." It connects microphones, lines, and network streams into one coherent system: audio moves with a shared sense of time, routing stays understandable under stress, and operators get tools that match how broadcast and live events actually run. Whether you are outfitting a new facility, extending an existing IP audio plant, or embedding audio intelligence in your own product, Ather Core is meant to sit at the center and stay out of the way.

Clarity in the signal path

Standards-based streaming and precision timing are not checkboxes-they are how you avoid mysterious glitches when the show is live. Ather Core combines AES67-style networking with IEEE 1588 clock discipline so levels, routes, and endpoints stay aligned. Adjustable timing granularity lets conservative installations stay stable while aggressive low-latency profiles are available when your network can support them. When the world outside your LAN must participate, flexible codecs and bridging options help you reach phones, browsers, and partner systems without abandoning your core quality bar.

Intermesh: resilient by design

Large installs cannot hinge on one box that never reboots. Intermesh brings a consensus-based control plane to the cluster: the fleet agrees on configuration and state, so a single failed node does not silently become the linchpin of your entire production. That same model keeps things easy to operate-routing inside the mesh is automatic, so you spend less time hand-drawing cross-connects and more time on show logic. As you grow, you add nodes instead of re-architecting from scratch.

WAN, cross-country & distributed productions

Today's productions are rarely one building. Ather Core is built for WAN-style workflows: contributors and control in different cities, backup sites across regions, and hybrid on-prem plus cloud-adjacent footprints. By combining Intermesh with transport choices that match each hop-UDP where the path is clean, TCP or TLS where it is not, TURN when NATs and firewalls get in the way-you can stitch together cross-country streaming and comms without giving up a single logical view of the system.

Browser Panel & modern clients

Not every operator wants a rackmount panel. The built-in Browser Panel puts a full-featured, browser-based user station in front of your team-ideal for quick deployment, BYOD scenarios, and remote galleries. Under the hood, WebRTC carries real-time audio with negotiation suited to live workflows, while SIP opens the door to bridges, trunking, and the telephony world your facility already runs. Together, they mean Ather Core can meet people where they are: in the booth, at home, or on a phone system you already trust.

gRPC, protobuf & your toolchain

Integration is not a side project-it is the product. Ather Core exposes its control surface as gRPC services with protobuf messages, so integrators work with a stable, versionable contract and the same libraries the rest of the cloud-native world relies on. A contractor can ship a Python script in an afternoon; an engineer can drive calls from bash with grpcurl during bring-up; a product team can embed generated stubs in Go, C#, or any language with a gRPC stack. That means you own the workflow: CI jobs, custom panels, facility logic, and one-off show-day fixes-all against one open interface instead of a single-vendor control application.

Operation that fits your team

Technical staff can drive the engine through that same programmatic interface-ideal for custom control surfaces, scripted deployments, and companion products such as centralized management. Day-to-day users benefit from a browser-based configuration experience so routine changes do not require a developer. Party-line and panel-oriented workflows mirror how directors, stage managers, and comms operators already think: who is talking, who is listening, and which groups matter in this moment.

Where customers use it

Customers deploy Ather Core in mobile broadcast, fixed install AV, houses of worship, corporate campuses, theatres, and anywhere networked audio must behave like hardware-even when it is running on commodity servers or embedded platforms. Recording, confidence monitoring, IFB-style feeds, and structured comms all map naturally onto the same engine because routing, timing, and control were designed as one story from the start.

Licensing & support

Ather Core is offered under commercial terms so feature sets and capacity can match your deployment model. Ather Audio can help with evaluation, integration, and ongoing support-reach out through the contact form when you are ready to scope a project or request packaged builds for your preferred platform.

Automation

Shows do not wait for someone to notice a feed dropped or a key was pressed. Ather Core's automation layer turns live audio and control events into programmable behavior: you describe what to watch for, and what should happen next-so tally-driven workflows, failover cues, and facility integrations can run without a custom daemon for every show.

Conditions span the parts of the system operators care about-who is routed where, whether a stream is alive, panel and party-line activity, level thresholds, SIP calls, and recording state. Actions reach outward and inward at once: fire webhooks and REST calls to your building systems or cloud services, steer SIP calls, roll stingers and tones, snapshot recordings, and nudge panels and party lines when the script says so. Rules carry guardrails-delays, cooldowns, priority, and optional single-shot execution-so automations stay predictable under noisy real-world conditions.

Because execution can be streamed as events, your NOC or integration tier gets the same visibility as the console: what fired, whether actions succeeded, and enough context to trace a problem. That closes the loop between "the engine heard something" and "the rest of the plant responded."

Download Ather Core

Installers and packages for common platforms.

Official container images pair naturally with Kubernetes and similar orchestrators: use readiness and liveness probes, horizontal scaling where your topology allows, and load-balanced entry points for management and APIs-alongside commercial licensing and site-specific networking guidance from your support contact.

Commercial use requires a valid license. Your integration guide or support contact will confirm network ports and hosting options for your environment.

Contact for licensing & support