Audio Distribution in the Internet Era: A New Look at an Old Problem
Synopsis:
As the broadcast industry accelerates its shift toward IP-based delivery, many engineers find themselves making critical infrastructure decisions without a clear picture of how the internet actually works beneath the surface. This session bridges that gap. Designed for both the veteran RF engineer navigating an unfamiliar IP world and the younger broadcast engineer who uses IP daily but has never looked under the hood, this foundational session builds a practical mental model of how the internet can move audio from one point to another, and why it matters for the decisions you make every day. We will trace the journey of a packet from source to destination, explore how the internet has evolved since the early 1990s, and unpack concepts that directly impact broadcast workflows: Push vs. pull delivery, TCP vs. UDP tradeoffs, buffering and latency, and how modern streaming protocols are built on top of these foundations. The presentation will give the audience enough fluency to ask the right questions, evaluate vendor claims, and design systems that actually work at scale.
Adrian Berkovits has been building technology systems since his teenage years, when he began designing and assembling his own DJ audio and lighting rigs. That early fascination with how technology could be engineered grew into a career spanning more than 35 years. In the early 1990s, Adrian went on to start and operate a computer hardware and infrastructure design business before riding the dot-com wave and launching Ontario’s first commercial wireless Internet service provider in 1999. Those early ventures sharpened his instincts for designing resilient, scalable systems from the ground up and ultimately led to a career as a Senior Solutions Architect and Software Designer for some of Canada’s largest banks and insurance companies. That technical foundation eventually brought Adrian into broadcasting, where he co-founded, built and operated leanStream for 12 years before successfully exiting the business. Today, Adrian is applying three and a half decades of hands-on technology experience to modernizing the broadcast industry through Prism, a purpose-built Audio Delivery Network designed to replace legacy satellite distribution with resilient, intelligent, IP-native audio delivery. Prism is now being deployed by major radio networks around the world.
