I'm trying to make Avid S3L-X system work with Digiface AVB. What "work" means in this context remains to be seen, one aim is to figure out if Digiface AVB (or many of them) would be able to replace UFX (or many) in live setup and the other is to have better understanding if AVB would be good for future studio updates and if that could somehow include using parts of the somewhat obsolote S3L.

Our S3L-X system consists of engine unit with three AVB ports (ABC), control surface with two AVB ports (AB) and two 16 in 8 out stageboxes with two AVB ports each (AB).

Main problem so far is that no matter how I connect the Digiface AVB, the RME AVB controller window does not appear, to my understanding this means that the connection does not produce AVB network or the AVB functionality of Digiface is limited for some reason. I've tried connecting Digiface AVB to B or C port of the engine, B port of the second stage box, A port of a single stage box, B port of surface.

Driver is 3.24 and 2021-03-17 rme_netifc_mac.zip is installed. Computer is 15" Macbook Pro 2018 that's just updated to Big Sur. Digiface AVB works as an audio device, totalmix works and I can play audio and listen to it with headphones. Hive sees digiface as feth10000, but no other functionality is available. I also tried connecting Digiface AVB with a cat cable to 2012 Macbook ethernet adapter, but no network. I would have tried the Digiface with usb on the older macbook but driver is from 10.12 and up and the old mac still has 10.11.6.

What would be a foolproof way to check if the driver installation is ok and big sur is not the cause of incompatibility here? Should the Digiface AVB be visible in system preferences -> network as a network device? Should it be visible in audio midi setup's network device browser?

Would a switch help, if this avb experiment is not a total dead end I will need one anyway at some point. About available switches, is there a difference between presonus and motu? Should i look into something else like extreme networks, luminex, l-acoustics or yet something else?

There's an interesting video and blog about making Motu B16 and Avid S3L work with each other: https://blog.forestent.com/2020/01/04/t … -motu-m64/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bkhsHlYF_g. It involves changing avdecc_layout.xml via ftp in Avid Engine to enable 8 ch streams for motu compatibility, but somehow it also seems enable 16 ch streams. My understanding is pretty limited still I have not yet figured out if all this is needed for use with Digiface AVB as well or not.

I'm running out of ideas, any help is greatly appreciated.