Dante Audio: How does it work

And Could It Be Used With My Future ATEM Mini Pro Setup

If you didn’t read my blog post yesterday, I wrote about a "shower thought" I had regarding an SDI multicore. Today, I’m going to look at one of the other technologies I mentioned: Dante Audio.

What is Dante Audio?

Dante is a hardware and software technology that enables you to convert audio into bits and bytes, send them over standard network gear, and convert those bits and bytes back to audio at the other end. This has a number of advantages:

• There’s no need to run long, heavy analog multicores.
• You can easily transmit audio from one space in a venue to another.
• It’s scalable.
• You can send one audio source to multiple places.
• You can send out from a computer without extra devices.

Having Dante a few years ago when I was working at The Spa in Bridlington would have been amazing for events that took up the whole building. It would have been great to send audio from the main venues to the breakout rooms, whilst also having a display showing the venue’s front-of-house camera. Dante makes this simple with the use of their Dante Controller software. The other great thing is that you could theoretically pair it with NDI to send video across the network, too.

What Setups Can I Use Dante With?

Dante can be used in setups large and small. Even if you just want to move audio from one side of your office to the other, it can do that—you don’t even need a dedicated switch if you’re doing a simple run using one Ethernet cable.

This got me thinking: could I use Dante instead of the SDI multicore solution I came up with yesterday? Here is the plan I devised:

Compared to my previous SDI multicore setup (which cost £5,675.94), that is a massive difference of £3,327.76.

For now, I think I’ll be adding the Dante system to my ATEM Mini setup. It pairs nicely with my Ubiquiti network gear and seems more versatile, as you can send two-way audio on a single cable. It would be interesting if Blackmagic used fiber for their audio multicore, or if they just added Dante to their ATEM switchers and cameras. If you’re already running a network between your control services in a venue, wouldn’t it be great if they could all work together?

What do you think? Would you choose Dante or SDI? Would you be interested in a fiber solution? Let me know in the comments below!