ArtNet in Broadcast mode

[3raserHead]

Hi everybody,
I was working at a festival and I noticed that the ArtNet settings were set to "Broadcast mode" on a 255.0.0.0 subnet mask.
I was surprised as I know that broadcast mode means to broadcast all the data to all the IP addresses in the network and with a setting of subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 means sending simultaneously this data to 16.777.216 IPs!
I strongly suspect that the network was overflowed with unnecessary data creating a loss of packets and delays (we had 16 universes in total).

Can somebody confirm that this could be a reason for a really laggy and irresponsive ArtNet network? What's the recommended amount of addresses supported by Artnet to keep a fast and responsive network?

Thank you in advance for your response!
Best

[Niffo]

Are you talking about the software of this forum ? (SweetLight/ShowXPress, ...)
The Artnet protocol is usable in broadcast mode or unicast mode.
On our side, we have done the choice to use unicast mode, so you have to specify the IP adresse of each Artnet device in the software.

[3raserHead]

Hi, thanks for the reply.
This was a general question, not really related to any piece of equipment or software. However I think it's an important point to clarify and this will help many people to get the setup right.
I personally always use Unicast and tend to be really tidy with my network. But sometimes you have to deal with a setup already made and you cannot change it. For example when you have many fixtures, technicians tend to use few ArtNet Nodes on different IPs, so they tend to use Broadcast mode.

[Niffo]

Yes, the problem with broadcast mode is that every time an IP packet reach a network switch, it is duplicated on all ports

[3raserHead]

So anybody knows if a broadcast mode on a subnet 255.0.0.0 can cause a laggy ArtNet response?