# Art-Net vs sACN: which one should carry your universes?

[Read on Lightshaped](https://lightshaped.com/guides/art-net-vs-sacn)

By Lightshaped

Published: 2026-09-27

Updated: 2026-11-07

Both protocols carry ordinary DMX512 universes over UDP/IP. The choice comes down to the network and the gear: Art-Net for pixel controllers and nodes that expect it, sACN for managed house networks, multicast and priority-based backup.

## What they have in common

Art-Net and sACN (Streaming ACN, standardised as ANSI E1.31) both send DMX512 data over Ethernet using UDP. Each packet carries one universe of up to 512 channels. A lighting controller can send hundreds of universes over one network cable, and a node or pixel controller turns them back into DMX lines or pixel data.

## Side by side

|  | Art-Net 4 | sACN (ANSI E1.31) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Maintained by | Artistic Licence | ESTA (ANSI standard) |
| UDP port | 6454 | 5568 |
| Universe numbering | 15-bit port-address, universe 0 is valid | 1 to 63999, universe 0 is not used |
| Delivery | Unicast to known nodes; broadcast is allowed but discouraged at scale | Multicast group per universe, or unicast |
| Discovery | ArtPoll / ArtPollReply finds nodes on the network | Sources can announce universes; receivers cannot be polled |
| Merging and backup | Merge modes in the receiver (HTP/LTP) | Per-source priority 0 to 200 for backup and handover |
| RDM | Carried over the network (ArtRdm) | Not part of E1.31; RDM needs a separate path such as RDMnet |

## When to choose Art-Net

- Pixel controllers and nodes whose documentation and configuration tools are built around Art-Net.
- Installations where you want to find controllers automatically with ArtPoll.
- Remote device management with RDM over the same network.
- Small, dedicated lighting networks where unicast to each node is easy to manage.

## When to choose sACN

- Managed venue or building networks where multicast is controlled with IGMP snooping.
- Systems with a main and a backup controller: the higher-priority source wins and the backup takes over when it stops.
- Consoles and gateways that are configured for sACN by default.

## Network practice for either protocol

- Keep lighting on its own VLAN or physical network, away from office and guest traffic.
- Prefer unicast Art-Net over broadcast once more than a handful of universes are in play.
- For sACN multicast, enable IGMP snooping and a querier so switches only forward the universes each receiver joined.
- Give every node a static address and document which universes it owns. Two sources writing the same universe is the most common cause of flicker.

## How Lightshaped handles it

In Lightshaped the protocol is a choice per universe route, so one rig can send Art-Net to a pixel controller, sACN to a house gateway and DDP to a WLED node at the same time. Lightshaped can identify what a controller speaks with read-only probes and proposes a protocol, but routes only change through the commissioning flow, and blackout and dead-man safety apply to every route.

## Questions people ask

### Is sACN better than Art-Net?

Neither is better in general. sACN's priority and multicast suit large managed networks and backup controllers; Art-Net's discovery and RDM suit pixel controllers and nodes that are configured for it.

### Can Art-Net and sACN run on the same network?

Yes. They use different UDP ports. Make sure each universe has exactly one source unless you deliberately use sACN priority for backup.

### Why does sACN not have universe 0?

E1.31 reserves universe 0 and numbers universes from 1 to 63999, while Art-Net's port-address starts at 0. Offsetting by one is a common source of patch errors when you move between the two.

## Sources

- [Artistic Licence: Art-Net 4 specification](https://art-net.org.uk/downloads/art-net.pdf)
- [ESTA: ANSI E1.31 (Streaming ACN)](https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php)

## Related guides

- [How many DMX universes does a pixel installation need?](https://lightshaped.com/guides/dmx-universes-for-pixel-installations)
- [Importing the lighting that is already in the BIM model.](https://lightshaped.com/guides/bim-ifc-lighting-import)