sACN over the internet

sACN was designed for a local network. BeamBridge carries it across the public internet as a single encrypted stream and re-emits real sACN on the far side, so the console and the fixtures never know a WAN was involved.

The problem

sACN (E1.31) is multicast UDP. That is perfect on a switch, and useless the moment a packet has to cross a router you do not control: the public internet does not forward multicast, NAT breaks the return path, and venue networks rarely let you forward ports. The usual workarounds — a site-to-site VPN, GRE tunnels, unicast hacks in the console — are fragile, need an IT person on both ends, and multiply your uplink bandwidth with every extra destination.

How BeamBridge does it

Capture at the source. A source node sits on the console network and listens to the universes you select in the dashboard. Nothing else leaves the desk.
Upload once. The node opens one outbound, encrypted WebSocket to the BeamBridge relay. Outbound only — no inbound ports, no public IP needed at the desk.
Relay fans out. The relay holds the stream state and distributes it to every remote node that subscribed to those universes.
Re-emit on site. Each remote beam node re-emits a clean local sACN (or Art-Net) stream and drives its DMX port. Fixtures see ordinary sACN.

What you need on site

A source node on the console network, or the console's own sACN/Art-Net output on a network the node can see.
Any internet uplink at the remote site: venue Ethernet, WiFi, or the node's own 4G/LTE modem if there is nothing else (see sACN over LTE).
A beam node on the far end: Raspberry Pi based, DMX out (Enttec USB Pro), OLED status display, 4G modem inside. We ship it configured for the production.
A browser. Routing, node health, data usage and config live in the BeamBridge dashboard at app.beambridge.net.

Good to know

Only the universes you route leave the source. The uplink at the desk does not multiply with the number of remote nodes; the relay does the fan-out.
Every node reports link type, carrier, signal, temperature, applied config and data usage, so a problem in the field is visible before it becomes a problem on set.
The node keeps a clean local network on site (DHCP, optional WiFi access point) so fixtures, Zigbee hubs or a small desk can simply plug in.
The dashboard's routing matrix is the whole configuration: click a cell to route a universe to a node, click again to drop it.

Questions we get about this

Can sACN multicast cross the public internet?

Not natively. Routers on the public internet do not forward multicast, so plain sACN stops at the first hop. BeamBridge converts it to a unicast, encrypted stream at the source and back to real multicast sACN at the destination.

Do I need a VPN or port forwarding?

No. Both ends make outbound connections to the relay, so there is nothing to open on the venue firewall and no public IP needed on either side.

Does the console need any special configuration?

No. It keeps outputting sACN on its own network exactly as before. The source node listens; the console does not know it is there.