Joshua J. Campbell
Professor Blanka Roundtree
FMX 211-C
9 May 2019
“Dante”: A 21st Century Technology
Digital Audio is the standard for the professional
Audio/Visual (AV) Industry. Many of the benefits of digital audio networking
come from the previous technological advances in other industries. While
Digital Audio Networking is still evolving, the “Dante” protocol has become
“The Networking Standard for the Professional AV Industry”. (1)
Dante is “an uncompressed, multi-channel digital media
networking technology, with near-zero latency and synchronization.” (2) This
technology has been integrated into products from hundreds of manufacturers,
including AKG, Apogee, Audio-Technica, Avid, Clear-Com, EAW, JBL, Shure, Sony,
Tascam, and Yamaha. Dante allows hundreds of channels of audio to be
transmitted and received across several hundred meters of CAT6 cable over a
single, standard IP network.
Advancements in the field of IT and computer networking
paved the way for Dante. Before “Audio over IP” (AoIP) was used for Pro Audio,
it was already being used by business around the world to fill their
telecommunications needs. The integration of AoIP into pro audio allowed for
considerable cost savings in the industry due to the low cost and availability
of standard network swithes and CAT6 cable.
CobraNet and EtherSound are two of the primary AoIP technologies that Dante
improved upon. One of the most significant advantages was the ability to
“Multi-Cast”, meaning a channel could be transmitted to more than one receiver
at the same time. Prior to Dante, standards such as AVB only allowed a single
point to point transmission.
Dante provides significant advantages to alternative
technologies for audio networking. A significant cost savings with this
technology is not only due to the availability of materials, but the integration
into products from hundreds of manufacturers as well as Apple and PC computers.
This integration makes it possible to seamlessly integrate live sound
reinforcement with broadcast and recording. The redundancy available with Dante
allows users to run 2 parallel networks simultaneously, which immediately
switch over in the event of a failure, resulting in zero failures or dropouts.
The development of Dante can trace back not only through
previous audio technologies, but through the telecommunications industry.
“After Motorala closed an Australian research facility in 2003, current
Audinate CTO Aidan Williams brought a team of researchers to the National
Information and Communication Technology Australia (NICTA) research centre in
Sydney, Australia. There, with the help of government funding, the team spent
three years developing the foundations of Dante.” (3)
Dante will continue to improve as new products are developed
and used in the industry. Over the last decade, this technology has made
consistent progress in providing more stability, reliability, ease of use, end
user training, and development products with new chip sets for manufacturers.
According to Audinate’s prospectus, the have tripled their sales over the last
4 fiscal years. (4) With Yamaha as the majority stock holder in audinate, and
with their implementation of Dante in their professional products, it is
unlikely to see Dante going away anytime soon. According to sources including
“AV Nation”, Audinate will be adding “video to Dante for their video over IP
solutions”. (5)
Works Cited
Audinate
Company Homepage, www.audinate.com.
Accessed 9 May 2019.
Audinate
Website, www.audinate.com/solutions/dante-overview.
Accessed 9 May 2019.
Dante (networking) From Wikipedia.
En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_(networking). Last updated 21 December 2018.
Accessed 9 May 2019.
Audinate
Prospectus, https://investor.audinate.com/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/U31UphySGkWm4tEdvC_Xbw/file/Audinate_IPO_Prospectus.pdf.
Pospectus date 13 June 2017. Accessed 9 May 2019.
Albright, Tim,
AV Nation Episode 388, https://avnation.tv/podcast/avweek-388-dante-vb/.
Recorded 4 February 2019. Accessed 9 May 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment