Dante Audio

Asgeir Hustad had asked about Dante audio units in another thread. As not to hijack the ongoing discussion about OB units for just an audio rant...well here we go.


We have many different Dante units. Let me start by saying as cool as Dante is, it adds a substantial cost to the rig. In our case, the benefits are worth it. Less weight to ship in both gear and cables, better quality over long distance, and the fast recall of previous show setups are all benefits we believe are worth the extra monies.

We use many units from Radio Design Labs. The RU-MLB4P, and RU-LB4P are in a lot of our field cases. They cost around $600-$700 and give us 4in and 4 out. They are also POE powered by our managed switches-one cat5 cable and done. Also using the Atterotech uNDIO2x2+, a similar unit with 2x2 IO for about $500. They are also very small, and just double stick taped to the inside of the rack somewhere-zero RU required!

The switcher rack pictured in the other thread has a Focusrite RedNet2 which is 16x16 line level. It has been discontinued and was replaced by the A16r, retails for $3600. As you found these are some of the higher priced units available. I don't hear any difference in the audio, nor can I measure any difference between this and just about any of the other Dante units we have. We also bought a RedNet6 (Dante to madi, got it used for cheap) but have found its latency is too high for our tastes. It's safe to say we are done with this brand...

Our favorite unit for high channel counts is currently the Ferrofish A32 Dante. It has 32x32 analog, 32x32 ADAT, 64x64 MADI, and of course 64x64 Dante-all in 1RU of space! Price is around $3000. We have 2 of these and plan on at least 2 more in the next year. We are having a minor issue with the unit not recalling its internal patch presets correctly, but at least the routing sticks thru a power cycle. We are just routing externally for now.

The other good bang-for-buck unit we have looked at is the Yamaha Tio1608-D. Retails for $999 (around 850 street) and has 16 mic/line in, 8 line out, all XLR connections in 2RU. You can remote control the mic pres with a laptop/software. We have not purchased this, mostly due to its size alone-2RU and very deep, just doesn't fit our size plans for field boxes.

The good thing about all of our Dante upgrades, is that we now only have audio interfaces in the field. Our old engines required a box at both ends, and cabling to the mixer et all as well. With Dante natively in our audio consoles now, the control room end of gear is GONE. Just plug a cat5 into audio board, intercom, etc and done. All of our XLR connection cables between racks are gone as well. Only short audio jumpers in the field boxes to the Dante units remain.

Really interesting post!

And nice, the cost of those units were less than half what I found in my quick google search and local vendors I had seen the Tio - but not sure if it was available yet. Now I think I know what my next investment will be, when I'll be adding audio to my private setup.

Currently I'm mostly used to receiving a few lines from the sound guy, setting up a few room mics, running XLR everywhere, through multiple snakes, patch cords and all that jazz. This is with my main client supplying the gear, which was built a few years ago, and consists of several different copper-based multi's, with a few channels here and a few there.

Running a fiber-multi for the cameras and a regular network, with a Dante link trunked over it seems like the way to go. The El-Cheapo way of doing the control room would be with a Behringer X32 in the control room and a Dante expansion card. But unfortunately, that's all some time in the future - need to grow the business a bit first

Running a fiber-multi for the cameras and a regular network, with a Dante link trunked over it seems like the way to go.

EXACTLY! our newer systems are simply a fiber video mux (multiple SDI channels per fiber core) and a managed switch with 2 fiber trunks. The video paths give us connection for cameras and monitor feeds, the switch gives us internet, control data, and dante. the switches all trunk together back at the control room, so dante goes everywhere we drop a field box. we've put a 4x4 audio unit in them for the basic IO needs (room mics, pa feed, etc) and have left 6 or 8 ports for dante on the switch. this allows us to plug in additional devices on a as needed basis. big show or small it scales either way. wish i could have done all of this years ago-its very efficient.

Really wish that the Atem mixers could take Dante. This would solve issues we have with mixing live for the audience and one for a webcast.


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I know it's not a native solution (are you listening BMD??-this tweak would be sexy) but that's exactly what we bought the atterotech uNDIO2x2 units for. they connect to the ATEM audio in and out, and give us both on our Dante network. We made a few mini stage boxes out of them as well...

Really wish that the Atem mixers could take Dante. This would solve issues we have with mixing live for the audience and one for a webcast.

Bound to licenses of Dante you will end up with a video mixer that costs a lot more.. +$300/500 for development and license costs per unit..

Really wish that the Atem mixers could take Dante. This would solve issues we have with mixing live for the audience and one for a webcast.

Bound to licenses of Dante you will end up with a video mixer that costs a lot more.. +$300/500 for development and license costs per unit..

A lot cheaper than a Dante mixer.


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Rather pay $1600 for an X32 with Dante card. Being able to mix every Dante channel. Add delay's other effects, being able to control EQ and stuff.. This is something you will never be able to regulate in a BMD mixer..

While adding a lot of extra costs.. And Also a lot of users will never use Dante.. So they all pay for something they won't use..

So what is the problem to add a Dante 2x2 on the XLR's of the Atem.
Yes i would like to have all embedded audio channels available.. But that would add more and more costs..

If you need audio for streaming, you can use dante virtual soundcard on the computer that you use for streaming. The good thing at using digital signals for audio is the absence of disortions.

There’s also very interesting product called Dante-Via from audinate.com
all you need is extra network card in PC and you have your multichannel in and out.
Would be really nice to have Dante in Atem as many new audio mixers already offer at least an expansion card to allow for digital I/O.

Maybe share the development costs with Fairlight (Resolve) (i see Fairlight used to have Dante powered i/o)

How is Dante when it comes to setting gain of mic pres etc? With line level units I'm guessing this isn't a problem, but what about typical mic preamp stagebox setups?

The Dante transport does not have provisions for mic pre control per se, it was designed solely to move audio over a network. However, the network is perfectly capable of providing a connection for this function. It's up to each device manufacturer to tackle this issue.

The Atterotech units we have can be adjusted by the software that ships with the unit. It's a rudimentary 3 step adjustment, but gets you in the ballpark. The Yamaha TIO can be finely controlled with the Yamaha R-Remote software, or controlled directly on the surface of some of their consoles. The RDL units simply have a mic/line switch on the unit. We use Sennheiser wireless mics and IEMs, their units are all controllable over a separate network (just a different VLAN on our switch) with the WSM software.

I used to feel that remote control of mic pres was EVERYTHING. However, my feelings changed after many years with my older digital snake system. It uses 96k 24bit audio and has quite a bit of dynamic range. Unless you are doing symphony orchestra, you can park your gain inside of a 40db window and have totally acceptable performance making up any difference on the console end. We found with that system, 30db or so of gain was enough to get your mic well above the -125dbm noise floor and still leave you around 40db of headroom before clipping at +24dbm. At this point I felt like remote pre adjustment was no longer something I needed to worry about. For our Dante units without control, we are still finding this theory works for us.

How is Dante when it comes to setting gain of mic pres etc? With line level units I'm guessing this isn't a problem, but what about typical mic preamp stagebox setups?

Dante is just digital audio over network protocol it has nothing to do as far as controlling end units and their Analog stages.



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The new box from Neutrik seems interesting - haven't seen it priced anywhere yet, but this could be a nice addition to the kit. Drop one of these in the main rack, and audio to/from the ATEM is sorted.

Dual line in- and out in a small form factor, powered over PoE. A shame it can't be switched to mic level, though. Guess I'll still go with the Tio-series for mic pre's inside the venue.

EDIT: Added link to Neutrik product page: http://www.neutrik.com/en/news/new-dant ... om-neutrik

Any comments to update this thread about dante ?

I look for stage box and any feedbacks on neutrick or others are welcome.

I have this neutrik box here .. but i was never used it .. I got info from my dealer , that in any TV was all broken after any time .. Im using SoundDevices MD4 .. I love it .. its great .. but SD was discontinued it .. IN OBVAN i was bought YAMAHA TIO 1608 .. Its good .. Im using it with behringer X32+dante card .. And Im setting Gains with R CONTROL aplication ..

For patchbay, I will keep yamaha in mind

I look for small I/O devices intended for commentator's cabin, or feeding a remote amplifier...
- UNiKA NBB-0202 : no software for setting up
- Neutrik NA2-IO-DPRO : some feedbacks about thermal problem, automatic settings.

Choice seems limited...

For a commentator booth.. Why not go for a Dante Comentator box.. They make pretty nice ones..

sent a mail... I'm curious about prices

Im using SoundDevices MD4 .. I love it .. its great .. but SD was discontinued it

The Sound Devices MD-4 was essentially just a re-branded Studio Technologies Model 5414 interface:
https://studio-tech.com/products/md-4-m ... interface/
https://studio-tech.com/products/m5414/

And while the Model 5414 interface (4-channels in/4-channels out) has been discontinued, Studio Technologies does have an updated Model 5418 with 8-channels of mic/line input and 8-channels of line level output. But of course it costs twice as much as the older 4-channel model did.
https://studio-tech.com/products/m5418/

Studio Technologies also has a pretty extensive lineup of Dante-enabled commentator boxes that might be worth a look as well:
https://studio-tech.com/product-type/da ... -consoles/

sent a mail... I'm curious about prices

GLEN SOUND is top ! We wanted to buy this one :

https://www.glensound.co.uk/product-det ... s-ip-mini/

I have 2 in TV .. But price is similar to :

https://www.glensound.co.uk/product-det ... s-ip-mkii/

I think it was somewhere about 2700 EUR ..

But Glen is really great ! We have analog version https://www.glensound.co.uk/product-det ... -box-mkii/ about 4-5 years and I love it !!

Dave : Studio Tech is very interesting .. I will check my dealer for prices ..

For a commentator booth.. Why not go for a Dante Comentator box.. They make pretty nice ones..

thanks for the link. Not so expensive for all the functions.

also found a dante speaker with priority:
https://www.glensound.co.uk/product-details/divine-617/

by the way, any feedback on yamaha box ?
https://usa.yamaha.com/products/proaudi ... index.html

Im using TIO in OBVAN .. What feedback do you need ?

Reliability ? Is setting easy with R-remote ?

I balance between yamaha and Allen & Heath DT168.

I really like the Tio1608 Problem is getting your hands on 1 at the moment..
As Dante chipsets are out of stock for months now.. Its really a wait and see game at the moment..

Daniel : as most everything today

Videobegin : Yes .. Setting with R-remote is easy .. U only open APP, and it find TIO automaticaly ..

Cant compare to A&H DT168 .. Never listened it head to head ..
Im working sometimes in small Cabaret , where is A&H Sq5 and DT168.. It sound great .. And SQ mixers are great .. If U want SQ5(6,7?) then DR168 is right choice for you

As Dante chipsets are out of stock for months now.. Its really a wait and see game at the moment..

Totaly true and not only dante chipset. From raspberry to isolation panels, buying became a mess.

But workflow must go on

I think of a multiconverter with constellation (MADI), behringer wing (aes50), yamaha or A&H stagebox (dante)...

Heard the Multiconverter is due to another year of waiting.. At least that is what was told me last week..

Heard the Multiconverter is due to another year of waiting.. At least that is what was told me last week..

Yes I bought the last one