Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Nearly Two Decades Of Dante: The History & Evolution Of Audinate’s Networking Platform
ProSoundWeb: Audinate Dante technology has helped revolutionize the field of AV networking, offering a consistent, cost-effective solution for the digital transmission of audio signals (initially) and now audio and video signals over standard IP networks. It has been widely adopted in various applications, from live sound and broadcasting to education and corporate environments.
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I always gravitate towards the Dante articles because I love the concept of it as a system. It’s undeniably fun to work on huge patch bays in analog, but it’s so satisfying to be able to plug in one or two network cables and do the rest from a computer or digital console. It’s awesome to have one digital protocol to connect all devices in a system. Recently, Dante Connect has made it much more flexible, and I’m excited to get to use it. I think that Dante has been a huge step for the world of audio and, more recently, video. I’m excited to see how Dante, as well as other areas of entertainment, will develop in the future. Seeing as Dante now supports video media, I don’t think they’re far off from including lighting control. Of course, lighting is already well into the networking world, but of course it would be great to have one integrated system of control.
I spent a decent chunk of time this summer exploring the conceptual part of Dante and networking concepts - and so reading this article about the concrete history and changes that have brought the platform to where it is today is really interesting. The growing use of networking in audio systems is fascinating, especially seeing how theaters have evolved and adapted their own systems to begin to integrate Dante networking into them. Looking at CMU, as of this year we officially have two theaters fully integrated with Dante systems with some capabilities in the third, I think it’s more critical than ever to understand Dante and be able to use it to effectively network the sound systems we create. Being able to network a sound system for the Rauh last year using Dante in order to have a larger and more flexible system was really cool. I’m excited to watch how this technology continues to evolve over the coming years.
Reading this history and evolution of Audinate’s Dante systems demonstrates how quickly technology can change, especially in theater spaces, when it becomes easier to use and integrate into pre-existing systems, or when those systems are easier to replace entirely. It seems that functionality will always reign supreme when it comes to creating better audio-visual experiences and that pre-existing systems will need to prove themselves in order to stay in the conversation. It seems that even people who swear by particular set ups will always have to concede to innovation as the technology speaks for itself. Further, it shows that those who are best equipped to improve these systems are those who work so closely with it’s practical limitations as the original engineers were inspired by ‘flaws’ or inadequacies with prior systems. It is essential to always be on the ground using the systems that consumers will be working with in order to better understand how to improve technology and build upon it.
Seeing the progression of Dante technology is fascinating, especially when thinking to the future of AV in a live theatre setting. I’m not very familiar with this facet of technology, but efficiency - both digitally and physically - can lead to growth both on-stage and off-. I think this technology could really open the door for innovation in regard to video/media and sound departments. The growth in the 2000s is interesting to me because the company prioritized compatibility, then leveraged that platform to evolve with and beyond their market. Dante Virtual Soundcard, to me, sounds like the watershed moment in the group’s history, since it didn’t need any sort of additional hardware. The continued evolution throughout the 2010’s and up until 2024 goes beyond my realm of understanding, but the seeming expansion and adaptability of the product is promising. I look forward to seeing Dante’s development in management and control as alluded to in the article.
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