Art-Net vs sACN: which should you use?
Art-Net and sACN both carry DMX512 over an ordinary Ethernet network. sACN is the ANSI standard, E1.31, and multicasts by default. Art-Net is older, is implemented in a very wide range of equipment, and is easier to find second-hand. For most small rigs either one is fine.
Key facts
- The short answer
- Use whichever protocol your node already speaks. If it speaks both, choose sACN when you want a formal standard and built-in source priority, and Art-Net when your gear or its documentation is built around it. On a single-console rig on its own switch, the difference will not be visible to you.
- What they have in common
- Art-Net and sACN both send ordinary DMX512 universes over UDP on an ordinary Ethernet network. Neither changes what a fixture receives: the node at the far end converts the data back to a standard DMX output, and the fixtures cannot tell which protocol was used.
- What actually decides it
- Equipment support decides it far more often than protocol design does. Read the manual for the node you own or intend to buy, and let that make the choice.
What is Art-Net?
Art-Net is a protocol that carries DMX512 universes over an Ethernet network using UDP. It was created by Artistic Licence and published openly, so any manufacturer could implement it without joining or paying for anything — which is a large part of why it ended up in so much equipment. Art-Net predates sACN, and the installed base of gear reflects that.
Art-Net groups universes into a net and sub-net structure, which is how it addresses far more than one universe on the same wire. It also includes a discovery mechanism: a controller can poll the network and nodes answer, so a console can list the nodes it can see rather than making you type in addresses.
Historically Art-Net broadcast its data to the whole network, which is simple and works, but means every device on that network receives every packet. Most current implementations can unicast to specific nodes once they have been discovered, which is considerably kinder to a busy network. Whether your gear does that is a question for its manual.
What is sACN (E1.31)?
sACN is the streaming lighting-control protocol defined by ANSI E1.31, published through ESTA's technical standards process. Like Art-Net it carries DMX512 universes over Ethernet using UDP, but it multicasts by default: each universe has its own multicast group, so a receiver subscribes only to the universes it cares about instead of filtering everything.
The feature that most distinguishes sACN is source priority. Every packet carries an identifier for the source that sent it and a priority value, 100 by default. If two sources send the same universe, a receiver follows the higher priority. That is the mechanism most backup-console setups are built on, and it is defined by the standard rather than left to each manufacturer.
sACN also supports unicast, so multicast is a default rather than a requirement. Universes are numbered from 1, which sounds trivial and is the source of a genuinely common fault — see the network section below.
How do Art-Net and sACN differ?
They differ in five places that matter in practice: how they are standardised, how packets travel on the network, what happens when two sources send the same universe, where each tends to be used, and how easy the gear is to find. The protocols are equivalent in the one place people expect a difference — the data your fixtures receive is identical.
| Aspect | Art-Net | sACN (ANSI E1.31) |
|---|---|---|
| Standardisation | Published openly by Artistic Licence, who created it. Very widely implemented, but it is a vendor-published specification rather than an ANSI standard. | An ANSI standard, E1.31, published through ESTA's standards process. This is the formal industry standard for streaming DMX over a network. |
| How packets travel | UDP. Historically broadcast to the whole network, so every device receives every packet. Most current gear can unicast to nodes it has discovered instead. | UDP, multicast by default, with one multicast group per universe. A receiver joins only the universes it needs. Unicast is also supported. |
| Two sources on one universe | Not defined by the protocol. Nodes commonly merge two sources themselves, usually highest-takes-precedence, but the behaviour is a property of the node and varies between manufacturers. | Defined by the protocol. Each packet carries a source identifier and a priority value, and the receiver follows the highest-priority source. This is how backup consoles are normally arranged. |
| Universe numbering | Universes are addressed as net, sub-net and universe, and are commonly numbered from 0 in the gear that uses them. | Universes are numbered from 1. An off-by-one between an sACN console and an Art-Net node is a classic first-night fault. |
| Where you tend to meet it | Small and mid-size rigs, permanent installations, and anything built around older or second-hand nodes. Often the default in budget hardware and in hobbyist tools. | Larger and networked installations, multi-console setups, and venues with a managed network where multicast and priority are worth having. |
| Availability of gear | Extremely widely implemented and easy to find used. A node that speaks only one protocol usually speaks this one. | Supported by most current professional nodes and consoles, and increasingly by budget hardware. Older equipment may not have it at all. |
Which should you choose?
Choose the protocol your node supports. If it supports both, choose sACN when you want the formal standard, multicast, and built-in source priority; choose Art-Net when your equipment, its documentation or the rest of your rig is already built around it. On a small rig with one controller and one node on a dedicated switch, both will do the same job and you will not be able to tell them apart from the audience.
- Buying second-hand or on a budget? Art-Net is the safer assumption. Older single-protocol nodes are far more likely to speak Art-Net than sACN.
- Running a backup controller, or two operators on one rig? sACN, because priority is part of the standard rather than a per-node merge behaviour you have to test.
- On a managed network you share with anything else? sACN's multicast is tidier in principle, but only if the switches are configured for multicast. On an unmanaged switch, both protocols end up reaching every port anyway.
- Do not run both to the same node at once unless you have tested how that node merges them. Two live sources arriving by two different routes is one of the harder faults to diagnose under time pressure.
Sizing the rig rather than choosing a protocol? What is a DMX universe works through how many fixtures fit in 512 channels and when you need a second universe.
How does HitLight handle Art-Net and sACN?
HitLight outputs both Art-Net and sACN from the macOS app, so any standard network node works without a USB adapter. It does not sell a DMX dongle, and it never charges per universe — adding a universe is a hardware question rather than a licensing one. A USB interface such as the ENTTEC Open DMX USB or DMX USB Pro remains an option if you would rather not put lighting on a network at all.
What can go wrong on the network?
Most network DMX faults are addressing or transport problems rather than protocol problems, and they show up as nothing happening at all or as intermittent stutter. Work down this list before you suspect either protocol.
- Subnet mismatch. This is the most common one. Art-Net has historically used its own 2.x.x.x address range with a 255.0.0.0 mask, so a node sitting on 2.x.x.x will never hear a Mac on 192.168.x.x. Put both devices on the same subnet, or give the Mac a second IP address in the node's range.
- Universe numbered from 0 at one end and 1 at the other. If the node responds to nothing but is clearly on the network, try the universe one either side of the one you set.
- Wi-Fi. Both protocols are UDP and neither retransmits, so a dropped packet is simply a dropped frame. On Wi-Fi that shows up as stutter in fast chases and hesitation in moving-head position. Use a wire whenever you have the choice.
- Managed switches and IGMP snooping. Multicast on a managed switch needs IGMP snooping configured correctly, with a querier present on the network. Configured badly, it can prune the sACN traffic you actually want. An unmanaged switch has no snooping and floods multicast to every port, which is fine on a dedicated lighting switch and unwelcome on a shared office network.
- Sharing the network with everything else. Lighting data is continuous. Give it its own switch, or its own VLAN, rather than the venue Wi-Fi that the card readers are on.
- A second source still sending. A console or a laptop left powered on and still transmitting the same universe will fight your output. With Art-Net the result depends on how the node merges; with sACN, whichever source has the higher priority wins.
Before you run anything in front of people, test Blackout on the real rig and watch it go dark. It is the one control you will need in a hurry, and the only way to know it is wired correctly is to use it.
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