Pathway Connectivity's VIA Ethernet Switch Debuts at Stratford Fest

When the remount of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, at the Canon Theatre in Toronto, ran into lighting network problems, Ben Kantorovich, of Christie Lites, called on Pathway Connectivity. His question for company president Dave Higgins: Could the newly-introduced Pathport VIA 10 port + 1 gigabit switch be shipped overnight?

"As a manufacturer, we often don't know where our equipment gets used. So it's a real pleasure to know the very first show to install a VIA is a Mirvish/Stratford Festival co-production," says Higgins. "What's not a surprise is that they turned to us for help." Mirvish is the commercial production company behind the Toronto transfer.

Greg Bride, the show's programmer and master electrician at Stratford's Avon Theatre explains: "We were having an intermittent communication problem with an unmanaged switch, where the console and the server couldn't find each other. I knew it was a setting that couldn't be disabled, and I was dreading having to configure a full-blown managed switch. The Pathport VIA was the perfect fit."

The VIA is a layer 2/3, managed gigabit switch with a host of industry-specific features, including power-over-Ethernet and a base configuration optimized for lighting networks. The front panel LCD and encoder knob provide easy configuration and status review, without need of a computer link or a web browser. Easily upgraded, and with planned support for E1.17 ACN and the new AVB (Audio-Visual Bridge) standard, the VIA fills a long-standing need in the industry, the company says.

Bride was delighted and grateful when the VIA arrived the next day. "This is how a piece of kit is supposed to work. You plug it in, dial the one-knob-controls-everything, put it in the rig, and all the network problems are over. I didn't even have to dig out my laptop. After an 80-hour work week, this is the kind of solution I like having in my hands."