Switches are managed or unmanaged. Managed are usually preferred.

If you are using only one switch, and only for Dante networking, you do not need a managed switch.

Recommendations

Start with default settings

Do not change any switch settings until that change is well understood and will solve a specific problem, or meet a requirement.

Resist the temptation to 'over configure'.

Features are usually unnecessary is a Dante stand-alone network.

Incorrect switch configurations are a common cause of problems.

Dante handles clocking 100% automatically, via election.

IEEE 1588 PTP

All devices sync to the Master.

Each device has its own clock

New Clock Master elected as needed

In a 44.1 kHz clock one second will be divided into 44,100 divisions. In a 48 kHz clock one second will be divided into 48,000 divisions.

Dante uses IEEE 1588 for Clock Master elections.

It is recommended that you allow Dante to perform its election process rather than select preferred masters.

You can set a 'Preferred Master(s)' and/or 'Enable Sync to External'.

If only one, it will win the election. If more than one, they will compete with one another.

You have to configure both Dante Controller AND the device(s) themselves. And every time you check 'Enable Sync to External', you should always also have 'Preferred Master' checked.

You must properly configure the external source (such as the mixing board). In that device set Dante IO to use the internal clock and then check 'Enable Sync to External' in Dante controller for the mixing console. Also, check 'Preferred Master' for the mixing console.

If you do not do the above steps properly, it can result in clicks and pops in the audio stream, and there will be two independent clocks attempting to run the Dante network.

Again, configure both the external clock device to use Dante IO, and check both 'Preferred Master' and 'Enable Sync to External' in Dante controller for that device.

Dante controller supports two types of clock monitoring - passive and active.

Passive (on all the time) only reports changes of clock master.

Active reports:
. signs that that clock master is acting unstable
. collects data over time
. shows spread of clock frequency.

Latency is the delay uncured by the transport and processing of audio signals.

Latency is an issue in all audio systems.

Latency is a problem when we hear delayed and un-delayed signal simultaneously.

Sounds travels in the air at 34 cm per second, or 1 ms. for every 34 cm the audio travels.

In VoIP latency was a real problem, and why it developed PTP to over come latency problems.

The latency for each device can be set within Dante Controller.

In Dante, Latency is strictly defined and consistent.

100% deterministic (always well defined).

Default Dante latency is 1 ms - suitable for large networks. This is extremely conservative.

You can set 150 micro seconds (μs) up to 5 milli seconds (ms)

The Dante Latency Rule; latency of a connection is always the higher latency of the two devices.

Latency is deterministic in Dante - we set a value on all devices, and they use that value to play-out samples in that sync. But this has some lower bounds that we need to consider. For example; a single switch Dante network can have all devices set to 150 μs and probably have no problems. But > 3 switches, the minimum latency must be increased. For a 3 switch network, latency should typically be set to 250 μs. At 10 switches, the recommended latency setting should be 1 ms (Dante default). These recommendations represent worst case scenarios.

Visualize actual latency in Latency Tab of Device View. Looking at the window, it will show the latency values and indicate if packets are taking longer than expected to be delivered.

Latency monitoring can be used to diagnose problems such as:
Increase latency
improve network performance (QoS)
replace faulty equipment
disable unneeded switch management

Too many switch hops increases latency.

Too much traffic can impact performance.

HW can misbehave.

Dante using unicast by default.

Unicast 1-to-1 private conversation. If traffic needs to be sent to more than one receiver, the sender must duplicate that traffic for each receiver. Quickly this becomes inefficient as more receivers are included.

1-to-many traffic. All receivers on the network receive this traffic, but the sender only has to send it once.

Without some management, all devices must devote some processing power to dealing with these packets.

Multicast can be managed in ways that broadcast cannot. You can setup groups of receivers that are included in multicast so that only they receive the traffic and all others do not. This is done with IGMP snooping.

When this traffic grows too large, you usually segment the devices into separate LANs or VLANs.

Dante uses unicast to transmit audio between devices. Subscriptions are organized into 'Flows' which contain 4 channels. Flows are unique to each receiver. Every receiver requires at least one flow. Flows may contain empty audio channels. This means that when a 'flow' is transmitted to a receiver, it uses the same bandwidth regardless of how many channels are used.

As subscriptions increase, so do flows.

Small devices (1-4 channels) support 2 flows.

Large devises (16 channels and up) support 32 flows.

The number of flows is limited between 2 and 32.

A condition called 'Fan Out' occurs when a transmitter runs out of flows and cannot transmit any addition material. Dante Controller will alert you when this happens so you can begin to use multicast to overcome the 'fan out' condition.

With multicast a transmitter can create a single flow that sends audio to as many receivers as it likes.

So, multicast eliminates any 'Fan Out' conditions.

Multicast flows are created in Dante controller and can create up to 8 audio channels in a single flow. If you need more than 8, you can create additional flows.

In Dante, multicast is invoked by the transmitter and nothing need be done with the receivers.

On a gigabit network, multicast traffic is unlikely to become a problem.

64 channels of multicast produces ~100 mbps of traffic. So Dante using multicast does not burden a gigabit network.

If you are using 100 mbps devices or WiFi, on the same network, you need to use multicast filter (IGMP snooping)

If you need to control multicast traffic, the tool to use is IGMP snooping in a managed switch.

Unmanaged multicast sends data to all devices.

Name devices before doing the routing. Changing a name after a subscription is created will break the subscription.

Dante uses device names to create subscripts.

Name primary and backup devices exactly the same. Then if a device fails, plug in the backup and the Dante info that backup device contains will allow it an all of its channels to immediately go into effect replacing the failed device.

Allows you to lock in a route and settings so they cannot be tampered with.

This requires Dante Controller 3.10 and firmware updates for hardware. (We have Dante Controller 4.0.4

This is supported in DVS and Dante Via.

Device locking only effects devices as seen through the Dante Controller. Changes from inside produces are not locked.

First determine if device lock is supported by the devices on your network.

Device lock is applied through Dante Controller. Click the 'Lock' button in the Device View or check Device lock checkbox in Device info.

To lock a device, click on the pad-lock icon for that device and provide a PIN and confirm it.

To unlock, click the pad-lock again and provide the PIN.

Once unlocked, that PIN is forgotten.

Device lock works best when it is supported by both the transmitter and receiver devices, which is not always the case.

Older devices that do not support device lock will not be able to participate in this feature, and may generate error messages when communicating with locked devices.

Dante configurations can be stored in a file that Dante controller can later read.

You can use labels in your preset so that it can be used with different setups.

Click the preset icon and then select the devices you want included. Then click save and save to any folder.

You can then choose load preset and select the file you want to load. You then alter anything you like and click apply to actually deploy that preset.

Presets include all settings and subscriptions.

A critical feature for special networks.

This allows you to connect Dante devices to two separate networks at the same time to guard against failures of cables or switches.

Setup is automatic.

To set it up. First setup a network of Dante devices using primary ports. Make sure your primary network is functioning properly before setting up a secondary network.

A second set of cables and switches are connected to the secondary ports.

Autocratically, routes and settings will be applied to the secondary network as exist in the primary network.

No user interaction is required in Dante Controller.

Any changes made to the primary network are automatically applied to the secondary network.

If the primary network cables or switches are disrupted, audio from the secondary network is used.

Some devices do not support redundancy, but they will not participate in the redundant network.

As changes are made Dante Controller applies those changes to both the primary and secondary networks.

A software product. Mac or PC. It behaves as a typical physical soundcard and interacts with other devices. Your computer becomes part of the Dante network..

You can play or record up to 64 channels using your favorite tools such as Reaper.

You open the application and make any adjustments before starting the DVS. Changes can only be made when DVS is stopped.

Set the channels as you need, no more so as to reduce the processing load.

You can also set the latency. Set to 4 for high performing hosts and 10 for low performance machines. Always start at the default value.

Set the network interface.

On Windows, there are additional settings. You can represent ASIO or WDM. ASIO is prefered by most professional and products. WDM is the Windows system for general audio products.

ASIO is developed by Stineburg for professional applications on Windows. It is not part of Windows. Audinate works with Stineberg to make sure Dante conforms to their specifications.

If you use WDM you are limited to 16x16 channels. WDM channels are always presented by Windows as stereo pairs. Each pair appears as a two channels device in Windows sound settings.

On OSX it is a Core Audio and is used for both pro and consumer applications.

DVS does not provide a PTP hardware clock, so it does not participate in Dante clock elections. Your host must be connected to a network that contains other Dante devices or a copy of Dante Via running on another host.

DVS and Dante Via cannot run at the same time on the same computer.

When the DVS is turned on, it will appear in Dante Controller just like any other Dante device. Its name is the same as your computer's name. This can be changed in Dante Controller.

The sample rate of a DVS is set in Dante Controller, just like any other Dante device.

Dante Via is software for Mac and Windows.

Dante Via allows you to connect any audio device to a Dante network; such as USB, firewire, Thunder Bolt.

Dante Via allows you to connect any running audio application to a Dante network.

Dante Via exposes applications and devices by name.

You can expose several audio applications at the same time.

Dante Via allows you to create novel internal routes between devices and applications on your computers.

Dante Via can function as a clock master on the network unlike DVS. Dante Via can provide a clock to DVS on the same network.

You can make your headphones a device on the Dante network and route them so that you can listen to any channel on the network. You simple enable the headphones with Dante Via and then in Dante Controller you route any Dante Channel to the headphones.

Dante Via only runs at 48 kHz and 24 bit-depth. And does support sample rate conversion so that any device can connect.

To test, create an 'http://www.audinate.com/certify' account and login with them and choose the level 2 test.

First is a knowledge test. The test contains 32 questions. You have 90 minutes to complete it.

Second take the hands-on test.

That does it for the Level 2 videos.

https://audinate.talentlms.com/unit/viewtestsurvey/id:1823,mode:test

Sorry you didn't pass the test this time. You can take the test as many times as needed. You may want to review the presentation slides.

I failed the first time I took the test.

You completed this test on 09/20/2020, 13:46
Your score is 78.13%

Below are the questions I got wrong, and the wrong answer I gave:

When should IGMP snooping be considered for use on a Dante network?
When a fan out condition is reported in Dante Controller.

Choose all that apply: A broadcast network connection is:
One to everyone.

You [ cannot ] have multiple Preferred Masters in a Dante network.

A single network that carries audio, telephone, video, and data communication services at once is...
A bad idea.

Multicast Flows should be used when you...
Wish to increase the number of channels of a transmitter.

When would you select the "Enable Sync to External" box for devices on the DC Clock Status tab?
When you hear jitter on that device.

Dante Controller has primary and secondary network connection options.> False

For the time being, I am going to skip ahead to Level 3 and get the info on advanced networking, which is what I need the most. I will come back to the Level 2 testing later.