To ensure worship services, special events, and live streams run smoothly, churches require lots of AV hardware. This includes microphones, mixers, processors, amplifiers, speakers, cameras, lighting, and a collection of cabling to keep everything connected.
This excess in cabling can often lead to a proverbial “rat’s nest”, which can be challenging for AV technicians and engineers to manage. It’s particularly challenging for churches that meet in historic buildings with difficult wiring restrictions and/or strict budgetary constraints. Thankfully, Sydney-based Audinate developed the Dante audio protocol to help tackle this increasingly common challenge.
What is Dante audio networking?
Dante is the digital successor to the way traditional analog AV systems are set up and connected. Think VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) but for AV equipment. Dante utilizes networking hardware and software that are industry standard in the computing world to consolidate and replace legacy analog AV connectivity options. Capable of delivering uncompressed, multi-channel, and low-latency digital AV signals, Dante is also significantly more cost-effective, much easier to deploy, and notably more flexible than legacy alternatives as well.
How does Dante audio networking work?
Dante utilizes the same low-profile Ethernet cables used to connect your computers and networking equipment in lieu of bulky and cumbersome analog cables. This ensures that your AV signals transmit in flawless digital fidelity. AV equipment manufacturers can incorporate Dante functionality by integrating Dante hardware AV modules, chips, reference designs, and software into their products.
As of this writing, Dante is currently available in over 2000 products from more than 400 manufacturers. These can range from single-channel microphones to massive 500+ channel broadcast consoles. Say goodbye to unwieldy analog cabling that are labor-intensive and costly to install, prone to environmental interferences, and can only support a single type of signal and a single device at any one time.
Dante hardware and software takes audio and video signals and translates them into digital “packets.” These are suitable for transmission across a standard IP (Internet Protocol) network. They are essentially small, digital segments of the overall audio or visual signal that’s put out. These packets also contain additional data like timing information and source and destination network addresses. They help ensure the packets are efficiently routed through the network to the correct destination. Upon receiving these Dante audio or video packets, the destination device then reconstructs the packets into a continuous digital audio or video stream. Depending on the destination device’s role within your house of worship’s overall AV infrastructure, you can then play back, record, process, or broadcast reconstructed digital audio or video streams.
You can configure signal routes and other additional settings using the Dante Controller software. All routing information and settings are stored locally on each Dante device. Once configured, Dante devices “just work,” operating independently and even intelligently re-establish routes in the event of power loss.
Benefits of using Dante in houses of worship
In addition to cost savings and ease of deployment, Dante also allows you to manage all of your AV connections via the Dante Controller software. AV equipment connected via Dante essentially behaves like any other network device within your house of worship. This means you can transmit their signals can both on and off-site without running into physical limitations that often plague legacy analog AV distribution (i.e., signal degradation, electromagnetic interference, high-frequency attenuation, voltage drops).
You can also connect entire sections of your house of worship into a Dante-compatible network switch. You can then connect it to the rest of your Dante network using a single ethernet cable. This is a significantly more elegant solution than having to run cables individually for every single piece of AV equipment.
Dante systems are also easily expandable, making the deployment and replacement of AV equipment as simple as plugging in a new computer or printer to your home network.
Have you installed Dante in your institution? Let us know!
For more information and resources, contact our Adorama Business Solutions team.
TAGS: audio, Dante, house of worship
