Can I Connect a Zephyr Xstream with a Z/IP ONE?

Updated by Johnny Goldsmith

Scope

This article covers connecting a Zephyr Xstream and a Z/IP One over the public internet.

We understand that more and more telephone companies are not supporting ISDN technology any longer. We also understand that you have an XStream that has been with you for years and years, providing quality and reliable remote broadcasts. It's only natural to try to find a way to continue to use it.

Is it possible?

While the Zephyr can stream over Ethernet, the Xstream was implemented in the early days of internet streaming.  This makes its offerings significantly more limited than that of the Z/IP ONE.  Xstream IP connections were intended to be used on a private network between two Xstreams, not on the public internet.  The Ethernet mode has no buffering in it and will have significant dropouts over the internet.

A Zephyr Xstream cannot register to the Z/IP Server.  If you want to try to connect to a Z/IP ONE using the public Internet, or any other IP-codec for that matter, you are going to need the public-facing IP of that unit and the port that is forwarded if that codec is behind a firewall.

You will also need to manually set the codec settings to match.  On the Z/IP ONE, you will need to constrain the codec settings to match the Zephyr.  There is a lot of setup involved and it takes away from the abilities of a Z/IP ONE.

A Z/IP ONE works wonderfully when connected to another Z/IP ONE unit over the internet.  It uses proprietary algorithms to minimize dropouts from the internet.  That capability, however, requires a connection between two Z/IP ONEs.

So while it is possible to connect an XStream and a Z/IP ONE, YMMV.

Let us know how we can help

If you have further questions on this topic or have ideas about how we can improve this document, please contact us.

How did we do?