StageConnect: Behringer protocol is open source
22 comments
·October 18, 2025geenat
Behringer has been fairly consumer friendly over the years, it's much appreciated- its something I consider when buying audio stuff.
NoiseBert69
Behringer evolved from a "cheap unusable shit" to very solid gear and a company that listens to their users.
If you want to enter the market you must beat their stuff price/quality wise. That's not easy in 2025.#
The entire audio/venue biz is heavily driven by mouth-to-mouth propaganda and personal recommendations. A friend of mine knows Uli Behringer personally - if one of his mixing console hangs itself during a concert you know who's getting a very angry call at 1:00 o'clock. If people stop losing trust in your stuff nobody will buy your stuff anymore.
bigyabai
They've got their fair share of missteps too. Love my Behringer Neutron though, never regretted buying it at-launch despite all it's quirks. The noise on the bucket bridge delay has gotten me called some pretty nasty names on forums over the years.
miduil
Nice to see that the parent Philippines holding company (Music Tribe) which went on a massive acquisition spree and bought a bunch of specialized audio companies still allows things to be free & open sourced.
(Though just read up that the CEO/Founder of Music Tribe is Uli Behringer)
NoiseBert69
Once your company is big enough you have a lot of potential open doors to optimize your company structure. Everyone does this.
lanthade
As someone who has been using behringer X/m32 products for nearly 2 decades now (hard to believe it's been that long!) and as someone who's done a lot of high and low end live audio work this is pretty cool. You don't often see mfgrs being so open about transport protocols or the specs are locked behind expensive paywalls and hardware to mess with them isn't remotely affordable.
I am curious how the pictured A2B board interfaces with the X/M32 board. If that's an AES50 implementation then maybe there's the possibility someone could roll up an AES50 router. That could be cool.
mystifyingpoi
Lack of open standards also had a very negative effect on prices. A&H stageboxes are super expensive compared to others, but if you run Allen console then there is no alternative. Other than Dante I guess, but that is also expensive.
derriz
Why would you choose XLR as a connector for an application like this? Why choose one of the most common connectors you’re likely to see in an environment where someone will be mixing audio for a completely incompatible application? Hope the devices can handle accidental 48V phantom power without damage.
The audio world has history here. A simple TSR audio jack can be used for either stereo or balanced audio, headphone or mic or (multiple) line levels, hi-Z instruments, two incompatible MIDI (digital) connectors, multiple incompatible foot controller connectors, etc.
NoiseBert69
XLR with Neutrik Plugs + high quality cables is crazy robust. You can tow a car with it and then use it to work a festival with Tier 1 bands afterwards without any problems.
Also differential signal nature by design. It's like CAN. That kills 99% of non-wanted signals.
LeoWattenberg
I've seen XLR used for DMX lighting. The advice for stage techs seems to be "don't do that". Same thing applies to this standard probably.
mystifyingpoi
It's the same thing as USB-C, actually. The connector looks the same, but the cable can vary a lot. At least audio cables are labelled.
mystifyingpoi
XLRs are everywhere and already installed. You could choose cat5 but it's not as common.
derriz
That’s my point - reusing an existing connector type for a new and completely incompatible role will not make life easier.
I joked to a friend once that it would be far better if we just used a single connector type for everything in audio and get rid of jacks, XLR, power connectors, MIDI, etc. They liked the idea - I deadpan suggested regular mains plugs and sockets would be good - cheap, ubiquitous and sturdy.
mystifyingpoi
That's fair point - I can imagine someone plugging a digital out into analog in, not expecting the hell that's about to break. Probably it sounds like digital noise, not sure about levels.
But the advantage of reusing cabling that already exists in 100% of the venues, stages and churches cannot be overstated. It is literally a drop-in upgrade, boom, now a single cable carries 32 channels instead of 1.
null
sans_souse
Behringer will always hold a special place in my heart.
atoav
Other digital Audio connection protocols: Toslink, AES50, AES67 (Ravenna), Dante, AVB, AES10 (MADI). Then for stage connection basically every mixer manufacture has their own protocol with Allen Heaths SLink, Soundcraft’s Ultranet/SI Link, Yamaha’s TWINLANe and YGDAI, Roland’s REAC, Avid’s AVB-based Stage 64, and DiGiCo’s Optocore/SD-Rack links...
Most of them use standard CAT cables for this since that is what has been made for the transmission of network data for reasonably long distances. You can replace the RJ-45 plugs with Ethercon connectors if you need it extra rugged and reliable.
Ravenna, AVB and MADI are already existing, open standards that do even more, but I guess they are too expensive because of the ultra low latency requirements and FPGAs involved.
The use of an specialized automotive audio bus IC is interesting and probably gets the cost down, but within a car cable lengths are rarely comparable to what would happen in a concert venue. According to Behringer there is a 15m max cable distance per spec. That is.. too low for practise. Maybe for a small rehearsal room or so, but if you go from a front of house mixer to the stage 15m is nothing, especially if you can't run it the direct way.
Nice of them opening it up still.
formerly_proven
Total cable length is 40m, 15m between nodes. Maybe in a non-car environment these can be stretched, because the needed noise margins are lower?
https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data...
charcircuit
Are there patents that need to be licensed to use this?
dist-epoch
Behringer is the Robin Hood of the audio industry - they steal ideas from the expensive companies and remake them cheaply for the poor.
rana763
[dead]
StageConnect is a connection to transmit 32 uncompressed audio-channels via a single XLR cable. StageConnect is based on A2B, the Automotive Audio Bus (A2B).