The UNITE system from Beyerdynamic is a robust ecosystem that can be configured in a multitude of modes, which can in turn be used to deploy the product in various ways to fulfill a variety of use cases. However, within all the various operating modes and capabilities of the product range is the use of Public Group ID’s and Private Group ID’s.

 Below is a simplistic breakdown of these two types of Group ID and the key differences and considerations to be aware of when using either of them.

What is a Group ID?

A Group ID can be thought of as an encompassing “cluster” of devices that have visibility of each other, it is made up of information such as each device’s RFPI (similar to a device MAC address), audio encryption keys and sync information. All receiving devices (such as the RP) will have visibility of all available broadcast channels within a given Group ID.

In the above image, The RP set to Group ID number 210, would not be able to see any broadcast channels that existed within Group ID 200. However, as it is a PUBLIC Group ID number, the RP can be manually set at the device level to scan for channels within group ID 200 and as a result can be thought of us as being a part of the same ‘cluster’ of devices when set to the same Group ID.

The above concept remains true for PRIVATE Group ID’s, however it isn’t possible to set any device to a private Group ID at the device level (manually), so would need to be paired in a cockpit charger with the relevant pairing information, in order for a given device to be able to join a private Group ID.

Public / Private Group ID Ranges

Group ID Number 001-149 (PRIVATE Range): PRIVATE Audio keys, requires cockpit charging device for pairing, cannot be manually joined from devices that do not contain this pairing information.

Group ID Number 150-256 (PUBLIC Range): PUBLIC Audio keys, no definite pairing, can be joined manually from other devices set to the same public group ID number.