Netgear GS308 8-Port Switch

The Netgear GS308 is the unglamorous backbone of a small audio network — eight gigabit ports in a metal desktop chassis barely longer than your hand. In a live rig its job is straightforward: connect your console, stagebox, personal monitor controllers, and any networked playback or IEM devices so they can all talk to each other. It is unmanaged, meaning there is no login page, no VLAN configuration, no quality-of-service tuning — you plug in cables and it works. For rigs where all your network traffic is already on a single protocol and you are not trying to segment anything, that simplicity is the whole point.

Eight ports sounds like plenty until load-in. Count carefully: console control surface, FOH laptop, monitor world tablet, dante-enabled stagebox, wireless system manager — you can chew through ports faster than expected. At 4–5 watts draw and 0.3 kg, the GS308 contributes almost nothing to your power budget or case weight, which matters when you are already fighting every pound in a fly rig. The desktop form factor is the real operational consideration: this is not rack-mountable in the traditional sense, so you need a shelf or a velcro solution to keep it from rattling around inside the rack.

This switch belongs in a compact IEM or playback rig where the entire network is one simple, flat architecture and budget is tight. At $22 it is hard to argue with for a rehearsal setup or a secondary rack where you just need connectivity. It is not the right call if you need to segment audio-over-IP traffic from control traffic, if you are running multiple protocols that benefit from managed QoS, or if you need the switch to live cleanly in a rack without a shelf eating up extra U space. For those situations, a managed switch with proper rack ears is worth the investment.