ProSoundWeb: Welcome back for another article on audio patching! In my previous article (here), we delved into an overview of digital and analog patching, exploring essential tools like subsnakes and adapters. Now, we will take a look at Audinate Dante networks and the increasing capabilities of Dante Controller for digital input patching.
4 comments:
Dante is one of those things that I find a new thing about what it can do either in a broader sense about networking or specifically within the software or hardware every time I dive into it. While I’m a big proponent of the Audinate Dante courses for those looking to learn the software (they’re free! it’s great!) I really like how this article breaks down the different concepts required to get into the set-up of a Dante system as it is pretty in-depth for its length. Dante is such a powerful software and its networking capabilities just keep expanding. As CMU slowly transitions to a primarily Dante system (with the analog ports still there), understanding the functionalities of Dante has become more and more critical to the successful installation of sound systems in our different spaces. Most places I’ve worked at use some version of it as well, it’s just such an important software in the sound world.
I honestly just love reading and learning more about Dante and the engineering aspect of sound stuff. I wish I had known a lot more about this stuff in high school where our entire system was Dante and it took A LOT of trial and error and just researching online to figure stuff out because there was not a sound designer or engineer who could come in and help with set up so everything was kind of up to me to figure out how to do. Understanding ethernet and Dante is such a huge important thing to do because I feel like with how technology is progressing, using Dante to set up will become increasingly important and easy to do. Dante honestly just opens up so many doors and helps so much with cable management and streamlines a lot of engineering stuff once you have it figured out and set up.
Prior to high school I had never worked with a digital mixer, only analog. When I got to high school, it was my job to figure out how to use (and mostly set up) the new Behringer X32. Learning how to patch digitally was a huge learning curve, but also really helpful once I figured it out. I put all the wireless face mics on a separate digital snake, and connected them to the board with just a cat5 cable. It removed all the cable mess from my workspace, and still gave me digital room for other handheld and area mics, and Qlab. The ability to then send different buses to different outputs, and mix and match outputs was monumental. I’m able to keep digital effects out of the monitors, send certain sounds through only the left speaker, etc. I was able to run 3 separate systems for an immersive production all through the same sound board. For one show, I had a speaker set up in the middle of the theater with a vocal eq to make only certain microphones sound like they were coming from a radio.
Right now, in Stagecraft I we are learning about the Dante systems and how it works within the world of sound. When I first heard about the system I was very confused on how it works. For me, a lot of sound equipment makes no sense and I can barely figure out how it works. Leaning from Zach in class has done a lot for that knowledge but I still have a lot more to learn about sound equipment such as Dante. Reading an article such as this on, teaching me all the different components of how a Dante network works, how to set one up, and what parts are important to remember is super interesting to me. As I am learning more about Dante and its capabilities, I am also realizing why it has be such a big player in the sound industry since the early 2000’s. The ease of flow and connectivity provided by the Dante network is unmatched within the sound world. I can’t wait to do more work with Dante and sound equipment so that I can learn as much as possible in my four years at Carnegie Mellon.
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