Studio IP Streaming Setup for Tieline Audio Codecs

The following instructions are intended to help you configure your internet connection and Tieline codecs at the studio to enable incoming calls over the internet from a remote Tieline codec. It is assumed that you have a basic understanding of your IP network and how to configure IP devices. If you have limited IT network knowledge, we recommend you engage the services of an IT professional to install the public IP address and perform the Network Address Translation (NAT) and port forwarding between the public internet and your private Local Area Network (LAN) at the studio.

 

Prerequisites

The following procedures are valid for:

 

•All firmware versions in the Genie and Merlin codec families.

•All Bridge-IT Basic and Pro and Bridge-IT XTRA codecs with firmware release v.2.x or higher.

•All Commander G3 and i-Mix G3 codecs.

 

Getting Started at the Studio

To perform a typical codec installation at the studio you will need to:

 

1.Contact your Internet Service Provider and organize a dedicated high speed broadband connection at the studio for your codec with a public static IP address. Do not share this connection with other devices.

2.Install your codec at the studio and attach an active RJ-45 LAN cable to the “LAN” or “Ethernet” port on the rear of the codec. Please note:

•The green LED underneath the “LAN” or "Ethernet" port will illuminate and the orange LED will flash steadily if you are connected to an active LAN connection.

•The Genie and Merlin families of IP codecs support two simultaneous Ethernet connections.

3.If you are connecting a single codec to a router without a firewall you can enter the public IP address, Subnet Mask and Gateway directly into the codec and your work is done. Note: your Telco should be able to provide this information.

4.Alternatively, if you are connected to a router with a firewall, configure Network Address Translation (NAT) in your router. NAT is performed between the public internet and your private Local Area Network (LAN) by your router. Your remote codec sends IP data packets to the studio router's public static IP address and the router performs NAT, which forwards these data packets to the private IP address allocated by the router to your codec. As part of this process we recommended you:

•Connect to your router using a web-browser.

•Configure it to allocate a static private IP address for each codec.

 

 

5.Ensure your router's firewall is configured with the relevant TCP and UDP IP ports open to allow data traffic between your codec and the remote codec. The process is fairly simple if you use the following procedure:

 

a.Connect to your router using a web-browser.

b.Navigate to http://portforward.com/english/applications/port_forwarding/Tieline-G5/default.htm (Note: when configuring a Commander or i-Mix G3 codec at the studio use http://portforward.com/english/applications/port_forwarding/Tieline-G3/default.htm )

c.Click to select your router manufacturer from the list.

d.Next, click to select your router model from the list.

e.Follow the instructions to complete port forwarding

 

6.Visit www.portforward.com and download the port checking application to verify your router's ports are open.

7.Configure the static IP address in your codec using the instructions in the next section. To allow multiple codecs to share a single public static IP address behind a firewall and route the calls correctly, your codecs and the firewall need to be configured similarly to the example diagram which follows. Ensure the port, IP address, Subnet Mask and Gateway settings in your codecs match those configured in your router.

 

 

 

 

Configuring a Static Public or Private IP Address in Genie, Merlin and Bridge-IT (v.2.x firmware) Codecs

To enter a static IP Address into the codec for NAT:

 

1.Press the HOME button to return to the Home screen.

2.Use the navigation buttons to select Settings and press .

3.Use the down navigation button to select LAN and press .

4.Select Eth1 and navigate to IPv4 mode and press .

 

 

5.DHCP is enabled by default. Select Static and press .

 

 

6.The Static IP address menu is revealed after DHCP is disabled. Use the navigation buttons to select IPv4 Static IP and press .

 

 

7.Use the numeric KEYPAD to enter the IP address and press to store the setting. Note: use the * or #  buttons to enter the periods in the IP address and use the RETURN button to delete any numbers already entered.

 

 

8.Enter changes to the IPv4 Subnet (Subnet Mask) or IPv4 Gateway (Default Gateway) in the same way if they are required (check with your network administrator for these settings).

9.After all changes have been made use the navigation buttons to scroll to the top of the menu and select Apply Setting, then press the OK button to save all changes.

10. From the Home screen select Settings > Unit > Eth in the codec menus to ensure the new static IP address has been entered correctly.

 

Configuring a Static IP Address in Commander G3 and i-Mix G3 Codecs

To set up a static IP address in Commander G3 and i-Mix G3 codecs select Menu > Configuration > Advanced > LAN settings > IP Setup > Setup > Static > IP Address > [enter IP address] > press OK > Subnet Mask [enter Subnet Mask] > press OK > Gateway [enter Gateway] > press OK > reboot the codec.

 

Record IP Address Details

 

Getting Connected

Once the studio codec is configured you are now ready to receive an incoming call from the remote codec over the internet. Always dial from the field codec to the studio codec over the internet unless the remote codec is assigned a public static IP address and you know this address.

 

If you dial the studio using a cell-phone data network at the remote site you will not normally experience any firewall or port blocking issues at the remote end of the link using default Tieline ports.

 

Troubleshooting: How to Determine Where Firewall Port Blocking is Occurring

If you find you are unable to either send or receive audio between the studio and remote codecs you can use Tieline's Link Quality reading to diagnose where ports are being blocked. LQ can be displayed on the front LCD screen of Tieline's Bridge-IT, Merlin and Genie codecs by selecting Cxns, then select the connection you want to view and press the OK button. LQ readings are also displayed on the home screen of all Commander and i-Mix G3 codecs.

 

Link Quality (LQ) Readings

Send and Return LQ numbers help you to determine if a problem is occurring at either end of a connection. For example, on an IP connection the Return LQ reading represents the audio being downloaded from the network locally (i.e. audio data is being sent by the remote codec). Conversely, the Send LQ reading represents the audio data being sent by the local codec (i.e. being downloaded by the remote codec). To ensure a stable connection, try to maintain a reliable reading of 80 or higher for both the Send and Return LQ reading.

 

 

Diagnosing Port Blocking via the Studio Codec LQ

If the studio codec Return LQ reading is 01 then incoming audio from the remote codec is being blocked by a firewall at either point A or B in the following diagram. If the studio codec Send LQ reading is 01 then outgoing audio from the studio is being blocked by a firewall at either point C or D in the following diagram.

 

 

 

Diagnosing Port Blocking via the Remote Codec LQ

If you attach your Tieline codec at the remote site to a LAN with access to the internet you can often dial and connect to the studio without any problem. It is less likely that a firewall will block outgoing TCP and UDP ports. However, if there is a firewall at the remote site it may block incoming data packets from the studio.

 

The principle is the same at the remote codec for diagnosing blocked ports. If the remote codec Return LQ reading is 01 then incoming audio from the studio codec is being blocked by a firewall at either point C or D in the preceding diagram. If the remote codec Send LQ reading is 01 then the outgoing audio from the remote codec is being blocked by a firewall at either point A or B in the preceding diagram.

 

Troubleshooting TCP Port Blocking

Error messages on the codec screen can help to diagnose TCP port blocking.

 

1."Connection Refused" usually means that the firewall is configured correctly but the codec is not using the expected port.  For example, the firewall is set up to forward via port 9002 but codec is 'listening' to port 10,000.  “Connection Refused” is not normally shown if the firewall is not configured correctly because a firewall will by design silently drop any forwarding requests to ports that it doesn’t have open (see next point). Note: "Connection Refused" will also be displayed if the Commander G3 or i-Mix G3 codec you are calling is already connected.

2.“Connection Timeout” can mean one of two things:

•The firewall is not configured correctly and the attempted codec connection is being silently dropped, e.g. a remote codec is dialing to port 9002 but the studio firewall port forwarding is not configured.

•The UDP port is not port forwarded correctly. Tieline codecs send test data during connection establishment to make sure that the audio path is configured correctly; if this process fails then it will also result in a “Connection Timeout”.

 

How do I determine which end is blocking data flow?

Tieline test codec firewalls have the default Tieline TCP and UDP ports open. You can dial into these test codecs (or other codecs you know are configured correctly) from your recently configured studio and remote codecs and use the LQ readings to diagnose whether your studio or remote codec firewall is blocking your data packets. If one codec connects ok and the other one doesn't, then you will know which end is likely to be causing the problem. As an example:

 

1.Dial from site 1 to a Tieline test codec.

2.Dial from site 2 to Tieline test codec.

 

If both of these connect successfully then the “outbound” TCP path for session data is OK, and the inbound UDP audio path is OK.

 

3.Dial to site 1 from a codec you know is configured correctly.

4.Dial to site 2 from a codec you know is configured correctly.

 

If either of these calls fail then TCP and/or UDP inbound data is being blocked on the failed connection (see "Troubleshooting TCP Port Blocking" above).
 

Testing your Codec

•Visit http://www.tieline.com/Support/Test-lines for a list of test IP codec addresses you can use to verify your codec is configured correctly.

•See Testing IP Network Connections for more IP test information.

 

Learning More About IP Networks

For more IP network information please see the section titled Understanding IP Networks which discusses:

 

•Private versus public IP addresses.

•Static versus DHCP assigned IP addresses.

•Network Address Translation (NAT), port forwarding and firewalls.