AUDIO
AUDINATE’S DANTE IN WORSHIP, PART 3 | Jeff Hawley
In Part 1 of our Audinate’s Dante in Worship Ethernet switches are hardware units which Dante?” The good news is the short answer is,
series we hit on the key benefits of utilizing allow for the connection of multiple devices in a “All Ethernet switches are capable of working
Dante as the tech backbone in church audio network. Your church office likely has a number with Dante.” As with most tech short answers,
applications and Part 2 demonstrated a few of Ethernet switches in a tech closet to expand there are a few caveats though. Here are a few
sample applications and overview system and distribute network access throughout things to keep in mind as you search for the
diagrams. This Part 3 finale will dig into the campus. These same sorts of hardware right Ethernet switch for your church:
important details around the Dante network switches are used to expand and distribute itself and veer into the outskirts of IT land. networked audio in the same manner via Dante. • You’re better off going with Gigabit switches.
While there are companies which manufacture These switches are capable of transmitting
As we discussed in Part 1, Dante certainly can specialized switches designed just for Dante Ethernet signals at a gigabit (1,000,000,000
be used in a simple point-to-point connection networked audio, there really isn’t any ‘special per second). While you technically could use
between two Dante-enabled devices just as you sauce’ necessary for the vast majority of church slower 100Mbps (100,000,000 per second)
would plug a guitar into an amp. In this simple audio applications. If you’re lucky, there may switches to establish a Dante connection,
Dante application, perhaps multi-channel audio even be spare Dante-compatible switches there would be limits on how many channels
is coming out of a digital mixer to a laptop or available from your IT team which you could could be reliably supported. Also, millions of
from a laptop for virtual soundcheck. In this trade for pizza and/or donuts. bits aren’t nearly as cool as a billion bits. Go
basic configuration, all of the hardware needed
with Gigabit.
for connection is a cable. For any Dante system To this point, the most frequently asked that moves beyond two devices, we’ll need to question around Dante is usually some version • While being energy efficient is great in most
add an Ethernet switch to the mix. of, “Which switch should I get?” or, “Is the situations, the EEE (Energy Efficient Ethernet)
Brand X switch model Y compatible with functionality in most switches doesn’t play
174
May 2019
Subscribe for Free...