PTP (Precision Time Protocol, IEEE 1588) distributes a shared clock across a network with sub-microsecond accuracy — far tighter than NTP — by having devices exchange timestamped messages and measure the path delay between them. That precision is what professional audio-over-IP needs: in AES67 and SMPTE ST 2110, dozens of separate audio and video flows must stay sample-aligned across a facility, and PTP is the common timebase that makes it possible. A grandmaster clock anchors the network and everything slaves to it. For an audio engineer, PTP is the invisible infrastructure that lets uncompressed IP streams from many devices be mixed and switched as if they shared one cable.
The book · Volume 5 of 7
Audio for Video: A Complete Guide to Sound in Video Products: From Jitter Buffers and Lip Sync to Atmos, Quality Metrics, and Neural Codecs
PTP keeps AES67 and SMPTE 2110 devices sample-aligned, and a weak grandmaster or switch setup shows up as clicks and drift. This volume covers PTP in detail with clock domains, timestamps, drift correction and synchronization, so you can design audio-over-IP timing that holds up in production. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
Seeing clicks or drift in AES67 or SMPTE 2110 audio because of PTP timing?
Tell us about your network and devices and we will review your PTP design, find timing weak points and give you a remediation plan. 250+ video products shipped since 2005.
