Art-Net Protocol
Art-Net — DMX Over Ethernet
Art-Net is the most widely adopted royalty-free protocol for transporting multiple DMX universes over standard Ethernet networks.
Technical Specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard | Art-Net 4 (backward compatible) |
| Transport | UDP/IP (Ethernet) |
| Port | UDP 6454 |
| Max universes | 32,768 (Art-Net 4) |
| Universe naming | Port-Net-SubNet-Universe (0-15 each) |
| IP support | IPv4 |
| License | Royalty-free (Artistic Licence) |
Key Advantages
- Royalty-free — Anyone can implement without licensing costs
- Wide adoption — Supported by nearly every lighting console and software
- Unicast — Send data to specific devices (reduces network load)
- Easy setup — No DHCP server needed, works with static IPs
- Low latency — ~1ms per universe on gigabit networks
Limitations
- IPv4 only (no IPv6)
- No multicast support (higher network load per device)
- Less efficient than sACN for large installations with many receivers