so I am wanting to take all the audio outputs from a computer running my video mixer over to a digital mixer on another computer. About 12 channels of audio

So the best solution i can find is to take a sound card interface, for example, a firewire one, so im taking the audio, converting it to firewire, out to a card like the m-audio pro that converts it to optical, sends it over a fiber cable to another identical card that converts it BACK to firewire then BACK into audio ..

seems i lot of needless steps.

why isnt there just a firewire to firewire or ethernet or USB to usb software solution which would cut out like 4 steps

am i missing something here?