The $8B+ professional audio equipment market is undergoing an analog-to-IP migration as profound as broadcast's SDI-to-IP shift. Companies building intercom systems, broadcast audio infrastructure, and live sound equipment need AES67 protocol stacks, FPGA DSP, and low-latency networking — expertise that most mid-size audio manufacturers lack internally.
The global professional audio equipment market exceeded $8 billion in 2024, with the IP-based audio segment growing at 12%+ annually. The migration from analog and proprietary digital formats (MADI, CobraNet) to audio-over-IP standards — AES67, AES70 (OCA), and Dante — is accelerating. Broadcast facilities, live venues, corporate campuses, and houses of worship are all specifying IP-native audio infrastructure in new installations.
For mid-size professional audio manufacturers — companies building intercom systems, audio matrices, DSP processors, stage boxes, and broadcast audio infrastructure — this migration creates an existential engineering challenge. Shipping an AES67-compliant product requires FPGA-based sample-accurate clock recovery (PTP IEEE 1588), real-time audio stream management, network discovery protocols, and integration with Dante ecosystems that dominate the installed base. This is not a firmware update — it is a platform-level redesign.
The competitive pressure is acute. Major audio companies have already shipped Dante-native product lines. Companies that continue to offer only MADI or analog outputs are being excluded from specification lists by systems integrators and consultants. The window to establish an IP-native product portfolio is narrowing, and the engineering talent to build AES67/Dante products is scarce and expensive.
Model T monitors the professional audio landscape for companies whose product lines reveal IP migration gaps. We analyze product portfolios for missing AES67/Dante capability, track competitor launches that expose feature parity gaps, monitor AES and InfoComm trade show announcements, and identify companies with FPGA or DSP engineer job postings that indicate internal capability building — often a signal that external support would accelerate the timeline.
Each prospect is mapped against Promwad's audio engineering competencies: FPGA-based real-time audio processing on Lattice and AMD (Xilinx) platforms, AES67 protocol stack implementation with PTP synchronization, Dante integration via Audinate Brooklyn modules, low-latency networking for live performance environments, and embedded Linux audio with ALSA/PipeWire architectures.
A German manufacturer of broadcast intercom and talkback systems had built its product line on proprietary digital audio transport. Competitors were shipping Dante-native intercom panels and AES67 trunk interfaces, and the company was being excluded from new broadcast facility specifications that mandated IP audio infrastructure. Model T identified this gap through analysis of their product portfolio (no AES67/Dante products despite 15+ years in broadcast audio), their competitors' recent Dante-native launches, and job postings for FPGA and network audio engineers that had been open for 8+ months. Promwad proposed an AoIP gateway concept — a rack-mount unit bridging their existing proprietary protocol to AES67 and Dante — with FPGA-based sample-rate conversion, PTP clock recovery, and 64-channel bidirectional audio transport. The concept sprint delivered a complete architecture, BOM estimate, and development roadmap in under three weeks.
Client identity changed. Methodology and outcomes are real.
Many pro audio companies use Dante via off-the-shelf Audinate modules, which handles basic connectivity. But building AES67-native products, scaling channel counts beyond module limits, integrating custom FPGA DSP with network audio, or developing AES70 device control requires deeper protocol stack and FPGA engineering than most audio companies maintain in-house. Model T identifies companies where this deeper capability gap exists.
Model T is not a consulting service. It is a proactive sales pipeline that identifies professional audio companies needing embedded hardware and FPGA engineering. Promwad then delivers the actual hardware design, FPGA firmware, and protocol stack implementation — not recommendations. The team includes silicon partners across Lattice, AMD/Xilinx, Intel/Altera, NXP, Microchip, Renesas, Qualcomm, and Ambarella.
The Model T concept sprint starts from €15,000 per client. Delivered in 2-3 weeks across approximately 50 hours and 18 steps spanning 6 stages, the output includes a technical architecture, preliminary BOM, development timeline, and risk assessment. The 75% positive response rate from our roadshow validation (7 meetings, 0 negative reactions) confirms that the depth of preparation resonates with engineering decision-makers.