One of the better Mikrotik devices is the Audience – especially with newer wifi-qcom-ac drivers. Yet, all the other models have been “refresh” & no sign of newer Audience on the horizon (i.e. based the FCC filing).
My main grips in current model (specifically Audience+LTE6 model) are:
lack of PoE IN+OUT so it can be used to passthrough power to another router (or even just accept PoE power), today there is no PoE support which is limiting for AP usage.
Global 5G modem and/or M.2 modem slot for one
The current LTE antennas are pretty poor (while Wi-Fi one are best-in-class IMO) so some 4x4 MIMO antenna for LTE/5G, and/or SMA/QMA jacks for an external LTE/5G antenna — there are 4 sides to the audience so seems possible to use 4x4 MIMO…
I cannot be alone in wanted a newer Audience, including with LTE/5G support. The current Audience is limited to LTE6 and poor band support in North America.
Everyone likes the Audience, at least since first wifiwave2 driver. I just ordered more, which had me checking the FCC, and thus this post. It’s actually the vlan assignment in AX drivers that bigger issue for me than AX specifically & some better antenna design for LTE/5G (since it doesn’t even match wAPac which AFAIK uses same antennas internally).
But it’s a really nice device, yet I see every other device getting a refresh, except the Audience… So I wanted to get in my minor complaints, since hopefully one is horizon at some point.
Don’t ask me… They’re scared of commitment?
I take some different SKUs with North American variant of LTE modems, beyond the original R11e-LTE6. Even the current ATL is worthless in North America – even for just 4G… And all the 5G products are worthless too.
Well, the wAPac also had LTE variants – which have not come out… I just don’t want the same thing on some Audience AX, since our use case generally involve having LTE/5G. And they’ve done nothing for the US market. Basically everything lately has taken backwards steps IMO:
hAPac2 to hAPax2 loses USB
wAPax does not have miniPCIe/M.2 option
newer CAT18/5G Chateau/ATL with 0 bands for US
etc.
And current Audience has one additional benefit that it has 128MB flash, while same is not true for newer devices…
It’s actually quite frustrating – if someone can post roadmap PDF on Twitter… I have no idea why Mikrotik cannot post them on their website/forum. Or how to sign up for these communications with these PDFs.
There is PoE IN in the current generation. POE Out, IMO, is less important than more LAN ports, which would be a really nice replacement for switches near APs.
Dunno but i wanted to bump this old thread again as i would really like to see an AX version of the Audience.
Working with MikroTik many years for me audience was one of the bast WIFI products featuring a 3 wireless interfaces and being versatile to extending WIFI coverage without slicing speeds with WDS. I would rate Audience and capAX ( together with the capAC when launched ) the best indoor wifi products competing well with what is out there in the market.
If there are plans it would be nice to also have the ability to wall mount it
Additionally i would like to ask, is there any other indoor MikroTik product featuring the ability to install an extra wireless adapter if not having 3 wireless adapters ?
That would be a disaster ... unless the extra wireless adapter would operate in entirely distinct frequency band (e.g. 6GHz band where original radios would be limited to 2.4GHz and 5GHz).
Which is exactly the reason for 5GHz band being physically split between both 5GHz radios on Audience. And that goes beyond software block of available frequencies on both radios, physical band-pass filters are altered for sure.
I agree indeed the Audience split both audience in 5ghz and indeed the setup should be considered carefully or feel lucky with auto.
But as you said 6GHz gives an option to provide lets say WIFI6 to users with CAPSMAN and backbone with 160mhz audience backbone network or WDS if with press of a button
It's worse: receiver, which is set-up for reception in whole 5GHz band hardware-wise, can't survive strong RF in one part of band while "digitally" working in another part of same band.
Similar to e.g. sight: you can distinguish two colours from visible spectrum (if wavelengths are distinct enough), e.g. red and blue colour. But if one light source (e.g. red) is too strong, you're not capable of seeing fainter light from the other (e.g. blue) source. You'd need a band-pass filter (e.g. glasses with blue-passing filter) to block away the interfering (red) light.
“MWC Barcelona, Spain – [March, 2] – MikroTik has announced a new generation of cutting edge Wi-Fi 8 devices with integrated AI-driven traffic optimization, powered by Qualcomm Dragonwing Wi-Fi 8 platforms, starting with Audience 8.”
“MikroTik is one of the early adopters of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc’s Wi-Fi 8 technology. MikroTik is working closely with the Qualcomm Technologies team to bring Wi-Fi 8 solutions to market starting in 2027. This collaboration aims to deliver practical, high-performance platforms for advanced homeusers and demanding professional environments.”
“Audience 8 is positioned as a premium Wi-Fi 8 platform for high-performance homes, gaming environments, creative professionals, and growing businesses that demand more from their infrastructure. With tri-band Wi-Fi 8, 6 GHz support, multi-gigabit ports up to 10G, high-speed flash and DDR5 memory, and container support in RouterOS, Audience 8 gives advanced users enterprise-grade flexibility.
Development of Audience 8 is underway as part of MikroTik’s broader Wi-Fi 8 roadmap, with early prototypes expected later this year.”
