Art-Net vs sACN: which should you use?

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. Together they form a 15-bit Port-Address, so the specification has a theoretical limit of 32,768 universes; how many a real network carries depends on the network itself. Art-Net uses UDP port 6454 (0x1936) for both sending and receiving. 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. The current version, Art-Net 4, forbids that: lighting data must be unicast to the nodes that have subscribed to each universe, while discovery polls are still broadcast. Older equipment built to earlier versions may still broadcast, so check its manual if you share the network with anything else.

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.

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. Every account includes Venue / Install during the beta; after beta, Art-Net, sACN and multi-universe output are included in Pro without an add-on price for each universe. 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.

Sources

• Art-Net 4 specification, Artistic Licence (document revision 1.4dp, 23 October 2025). Source for the UDP port, the 15-bit Port-Address and 32,768-universe limit, unicast delivery and the merge rules.
• ANSI E1.31-2025, “Lightweight streaming protocol for transport of DMX512 using ACN” (sACN), published by ESTA's Technical Standards Program as a free download.
• ANSI E1.11-2024, USITT DMX512-A, the standard for the DMX512 data both protocols carry, from the same ESTA page.

Last verified 9 October 2026.