AKG HUB 4000 Q HiQnet Ethernet Interface for 8 Wireless Devices

AKG HUB 4000 Q: Bringing a Wireless Rack Onto an Ethernet Network

The AKG HUB 4000 Q is a HiQnet Ethernet interface that connects up to eight AKG wireless devices to a standard Ethernet control network from a single half-rack chassis. Eight RJ11 sockets take one data cable each to a receiver or in-ear monitoring transmitter, and a single RJ45 port presents that whole group to a network switch, so a rack of wireless hardware becomes one addressable node instead of eight separate front panels. Compatible devices span the DMS 700 digital wireless system, the WMS 4000 and WMS 4500 professional wireless platforms and the IVM 4 and IVM 4500 in-ear monitoring systems, all managed from compatible network control software and the AKG wireless control application. Current draw is only 200 mA, and this configuration is supplied without the external 12 V DC power supply. It is the part that turns walking the rack into reading a screen.

What Network Control Actually Changes in a Show

Bringing receivers onto a network is about observation before it is about control, and that distinction explains why engineers fit one. Without a control layer, checking RF level, audio level and battery status on a twelve-channel rack means physically walking to it and reading twelve small displays in sequence, which during a show is either impossible or disruptive; with the interface in place, all of that arrives on one screen at the mix position, updating continuously. Control follows naturally, since frequencies, names and settings can be pushed from software rather than dialled in on a front panel, and a rack that lives in a locked closet three floors away becomes as accessible as one at arm's length. Monitor engineers, RF technicians and installed-system managers describe this as the difference between managing wireless and hoping about it, and on a large rig it is the tool that catches a fading battery before the audience does.

The Wiring Model: Eight Data Ports and One Network Connection

Physically the interface is deliberately simple, with eight RJ11 device sockets on one side and a single RJ45 network port on the other. Eight data cables ship in the box, one per device, so each receiver or in-ear transmitter runs a short cable to the interface and nothing else is required inside the rack, while the RJ45 carries the aggregated data out to the network on standard structured cabling that any building already has. Running the control layer over ordinary Ethernet is the important design choice, because it means no proprietary control bus has to be pulled through walls or written into an installation specification, and the same switch that serves the rest of the facility can serve the wireless rack. A rack mounting kit is included as well, so the half-rack chassis mounts singly or paired in a 19 in. rack on the day it arrives.

Growing Past Eight Devices

Eight devices is the limit of one interface, and getting beyond that number requires nothing more than another interface and a network switch. Because each unit presents itself on standard Ethernet, several of them cascade through commercial switches and the control software sees the combined population as one system, which is how sixteen, twenty-four or forty channels of wireless and in-ear monitoring end up on a single screen. Planning that expansion is straightforward: count the devices, divide by eight, and provide a switch port for each interface, and because the switches involved are ordinary network hardware they can be specified from whatever a facility already standardises on. Convention centres running many rooms, festival production offices consolidating several stages, and broadcast facilities integrating wireless status into a wider control system all scale this way rather than replacing the control architecture as they grow.

Reading the 'none' Suffix and Powering the Interface

That trailing designation in the part string marks the configuration supplied without an external power supply, following the same convention as the antenna power splitter in the same accessory family. Required is a 12 V DC, 500 mA locking supply, and the interface draws a maximum of 200 mA, which is a small enough load that a rack with a central DC rail or a standardised spare supply can absorb it without any planning at all. Integrators who maintain many racks generally prefer it this way, because one supply part number on a shelf covers failures across an estate rather than a drawer of assorted adapters. Operating temperature spans 14 to 140 degrees F (-10 to 60 degrees C), which is wider than most rack environments will ever demand and useful in a closet with limited ventilation.

Compatible Systems and Who Deploys It

Coverage across the DMS 700 digital wireless system, the WMS 4000 and WMS 4500 professional wireless platforms and the IVM 4 and IVM 4500 in-ear monitoring systems is what makes the interface genuinely useful, because a working rig almost never contains only one kind of device. Monitoring microphone receivers and in-ear transmitters from the same software removes the awkward situation where half a rig is visible and half is not, and it puts battery and RF information for performers and presenters side by side. Typical deployments are touring productions with a dedicated RF technician, large houses of worship with racks in back-of-house rooms, theatres and concert halls, broadcast facilities feeding wireless status into a wider control system, convention centres managing many rooms, and rental inventories that would rather configure equipment from software than from front panels. Engineers who work with it consistently say the same thing, which is that seeing a whole rack at once changes how they run a show.