In the past few years, production technologies have made a strong move toward IP (Internet Protocol) networks as a transport for audio, video and lighting signals and controls. Audinate’s Dante has emerged as the standard for transmitting audio over standard IP networks, video isn’t far behind, and we’ve been doing remote controls for consoles over wireless networks for years now. Knowing something about networking is essential to keeping up with the progress in today’s connected production systems. Unfortunately, the bits and bytes we use to make networks work are confusing if you have no experience with them. This article is my attempt to get you the basics that you’ll need to navigate an IP connected world.