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Why does the Wifi adapter on my StudioLive AI console mixer no longer reconnect to my Wifi network on power up?

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asked Nov 28, 2015 in Ai Mixers by jspring (10,770 points)
Ever since I updated to firmware v7045, the Wifi adapter on my StudioLive AI console mixer no longer reliably reconnects to my Wifi network on power up. Sometimes is does seem to connect (the mixer shows up in UC Surface) but the Network Menu doesn't show it as connected to my Wifi network. What's going on?

1 Answer

+1 vote
answered Nov 28, 2015 by jspring (10,770 points)
 
Best answer

The StudioLive AI consoles experienced some major changes in firmware v7045 which were necessitated by changes to the StudioLive RM series mixers for the arrival of the CS18AI control surface. One of these changes was the addition of the ability for the AI mixer family devices to self-assign an IP address when no DHCP server is present. This allows Direct Ethernet Connection of an AI Console to an RM mixer for AVB Stagebox functionality. See here for more info.

Unfortunately, a side-effect of these fundamental changes to the network functions of the AI Consoles was that two issues were introduced.

One issue is that the Wifi adapter may not reliably reconnect to the previously connected Wifi network upon power on. It is a timing issue related to bringing the network connections down and back up so that a self-assigned IP address can be assigned when no DHCP server is detected. Sometimes the Wifi adapter does correctly reconnect during this process, but it is unfortunately unreliable. The Wifi adapter does always connect when you manually join the Wifi network from the Network Menu.

The other issue only affects AI Consoles with the stock Option card installed, and it results in the Network Menu not displaying the correct network information. Instead, it always shows Connected To: Ethernet with a blank IP Address field, even when the Wifi adapter is actually connected to your Wifi network. This makes is extremely difficult to determine whether your mixer is correctly connected via Wifi. This issue does not affect AI Consoles with AVB or Dante option cards installed.

Both of these issues are documented and have been corrected in beta firmware, so the fixes will be included in the next public firmware release. Until then, PreSonus can recommend either of the following:

1) Revert your mixer to a prior firmware version. Firmware v7045 was intended primarily to support Direct Connect AVB Stagebox mode with RM mixers so if you're not using your AI Console in combination with an RM mixer in an AVB Stagebox configuration, firmware v7045 isn't really necessary. There were no important bug fixes for the AI Consoles in v7045. Firmware v6452 contains all the latest AI Console bug fixes, and all the latest features, with the exception of the ability to self-assign an IP address.

2) Use the mixer with an Ethernet hard-wired connection to your router/network where possible. A hard-wired Ethernet connection is always recommended and preferred over any sort of wireless connection so as to avoid the compromises in reliability and stability that are inherent to any sort of wireless connections.

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