Getting hardware components to talk to each other can be challenging in a world where each manufacturer not only has their own software, it’s written in a language specific to that company, so most other manufacturer’s components would encounter communication errors when wired together. Engineers need a framework, so the component they are creating is designed to work with it’s partner pieces. They haven’t tested to see if it will work with other brands and can’t promise anything outside of what they designed, built and tested, which is only their stuff, working with their stuff. For best results, stick with one brand, so that everything can talk to everything, but that is often challenging to accomplish unless you are starting from scratch.
What usually happens is that the oldest tech problems get fixed first so that nothing is horrifically out of date but very little is actually new at any given time. That also means that different budgets and different people making decisions down the line results in various purchases, not all from the same manufacturer. Even if a strategic plan is in place and all of the purchases are made according to that plan regardless of when the orders are placed, if you ever work with anyone who doesn’t share your building, they might be using something different.
Basically, unless you are building a system from the ground up all at once and plan to restrict your projects so that no one outside your building sends or receives files, you have to be more flexible then proprietary. Luckily, there is now a product that bridges the gaps and lets multiple creative software platforms communicate through a central service. It is scalable, so you can buy what you need now and add later, and it is specifically designed to play well with others, in-house or remotely. Someone finally did it—SNS.
If you have ever known the pain of trying to get different manufacturer’s products to work together, or if you are considering an upgrade that’s not as expensive as replacing everything at the same time, reach out to us and we’d be happy to have a Skytech Engineer go over your needs and explain how it would work for you.