HogNet

showstack / protocols / hognet

Also called Hog Net, HES Net.

High End Systems' proprietary Ethernet network for linking Hog consoles, DPs and nodes, on a dedicated NIC/connector separate from the FixtureNet connection Hog consoles use for outbound Art-Net/sACN to fixtures and gateways. High End Systems (now part of ETC) has confirmed on the record that HogNet is undocumented outside their own equipment.

Lighting controlProprietaryHigh End SystemsReported

Stewarded by High End Systems (part of Electronic Theatre Controls).

Control Small, urgent, must arrive

Small messages that either repeat constantly or fire once. Bandwidth is almost never the problem.

What kills it. Latency and loss on the messages that fire once. A repeating level survives a dropped packet; a GO does not.

The four flows, and why the model is worth having →

Ports

udp/6600 Default show/session identification port; additional shows increment from 6600 (6601, 6602, ...)
ETC's own Hog console documentation states the port number for show separation but does not state whether it is UDP or TCP; UDP is inferred here because the same documentation says HogNet "depends on multi-cast network traffic," and multicast requires UDP.

Multicast

ETC's Hog console documentation states that "Hog 4 OS depends on multi-cast network traffic for communication to other system devices," but does not publish the specific multicast group addresses used.

What goes wrong

Asked directly on ETC's own community forum whether HogNet uses a documented UDP/IP port, ETC staff (Chris Davis) replied only that "HogNet is a combination of more than one transport protocol... a proprietary mechanism only understood by HES equipment," declining to confirm packet-level details.

No open-source HogNet client or listener is known to exist; the Open Lighting Architecture project, which reverse-engineers many proprietary lighting protocols, has no HogNet plugin.

HogNet (console/node networking) and FixtureNet (fixture-facing Art-Net/sACN output) are two separate physical connections on Hog consoles; cross-wiring the fixture network into the HogNet port, or vice versa, is a common on-site mistake.

What speaks HogNet (1)

Product	Direction	Notes
L8 L8 LLC	bidirectional needs licence	Documented literally as "Hog 3/4 (bidirectional)" DMX input/output on the Trace and Unlimited editions.

Typical use

Networking Hog consoles, DPs (Data Processors) and nodes within a single show
Separating multiple independent shows on one physical network via incrementing port numbers from a 6600 base
Kept on a separate NIC/connector from FixtureNet, which carries outbound Art-Net/sACN to fixtures

Sources

Details on HogNet? — ETC staff confirming HogNet is a proprietary mechanism only understood by HES equipment — Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) community forum primary
3.3 HogNet Network / Setting Up the Console — Hog 4 OS documentation (port 6600 default, multicast dependency) — Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) primary
ETC acquires High End Systems — Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) primary
Lighting Control Protocols and Standards (HogNet described as a proprietary Ethernet suite, separate FixtureNet connection) — Jeff Glass
Open Lighting Architecture — supported protocols (no HogNet entry) — Open Lighting Project

Understand the mechanism

DMX on the wire Show networks

Something wrong, or missing?

Known gaps on this entry: first_published, implementations. If you can source one of them, that is a ten minute pull request.

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