Dante

showstack / protocols / dante

Also called Dante Audio Networking, Audinate Dante.

Audinate's proprietary audio-over-IP system carrying uncompressed multichannel audio, clocking and device control over ordinary gigabit ethernet. It is the default audio network on most touring and install jobs, and usually what a desk, a stagebox and an amp rack are talking to each other with.

Audio transportProprietaryAudinate Pty LtdVerified

Media Large, continuous, on time and in order

Continuous streams that are large enough to be sized properly, and that must arrive in order and on time.

What kills it. Anything that starves the link — usually a management transfer nobody scheduled — and jitter that outruns the receive buffer.

The four flows, and why the model is worth having →

Ports

udp/4321 Dante multicast audio (ATP)
Audinate lists this against the 239.255.0.0/16 multicast range.

udp/4440 Dante audio control

udp/4444 Dante audio control

udp/4455 Dante audio control

udp/8700 Multicast control and monitoring
Audinate documents the whole block 8700-8708 on 224.0.0.230-233 for control and monitoring, plus unicast equivalents at 28700-28708 (Via) and 38700-38708 (Dante Virtual Soundcard).

Multicast

239.255.0.0/16 (Dante audio and video flows)
239.69.0.0/16 (AES67 flows from Dante devices)
224.0.0.230-233 (control and monitoring)
Dante will run entirely unicast for small channel counts and only moves to multicast when a transmitter feeds several receivers. Audinate says IGMP snooping is required on mixed audio/video networks but is not a requirement for audio-only networks with few multicast flows.

What it carries

Sample rates: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz
Audio bit depth: 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit
Audio encoding: Linear PCM

Audio: Channel count is a property of the device rather than of the protocol. Higher sample rates halve or quarter the channels a given device carries, which is the trade people meet when they switch a rig to 96 kHz.

What goes wrong

Dante's own clock is PTP version 1 (IEEE 1588-2002). AES67 and ST 2110 use PTPv2. Putting a Dante device into AES67 mode moves it to a different clock domain, and the two do not share a grandmaster without a bridging device.

Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az, sold as "green ethernet") must be disabled on every port carrying Dante. Audinate names it as a cause of clock instability and occasional dropouts, and it is on by default on cheap switches.

QoS has to be strict priority queueing, not weighted. Audinate's scheme is DSCP CS7 for PTP event messages, EF for audio and PTPv2, CS1 for reserved. A switch doing weighted fair queueing will still drop audio under load.

Discovery is mDNS on 224.0.0.251, which is link-local and does not cross a router. Devices on a different subnet will not appear in Dante Controller unless you are running Dante Domain Manager.

Multicast flows need one IGMP querier elected per VLAN. Two queriers, or none, and the flows either flood every port or vanish after the group membership times out.

There is no published wire specification. Anything that speaks Dante does so with a licensed Audinate module, chip or software stack, so "we will just write a driver" is not an option on this one.

What speaks Dante (46)

46 products — 37 hardware, 9 softwareshow all

Product	Direction	Notes
Ardour Ardour Community	bidirectional	Via Dante Virtual Soundcard or a Dante interface.
Dante Controller Audinate	bidirectional	Discovers, routes and configures Dante devices. Does not itself carry audio.
Dante Domain Manager Audinate	bidirectional	Manages Dante devices, domains and routing policy.
Dante Virtual Soundcard Audinate	bidirectional	Presents Dante channels as an ASIO / Core Audio device.
Pro Tools Avid	bidirectional	Via Dante Virtual Soundcard or a Dante interface.
Q-SYS Designer QSC, LLC	bidirectional needs licence	Dante on a Core is the Software Dante feature licence, sold in channel-count tiers from 8x8 up to 512x512 depending on Core model and QDS version.
Smaart Rational Acoustics	in	Measurement input via Dante Virtual Soundcard or a Dante interface.
WATCHOUT Dataton	bidirectional
Waves SoundGrid Studio Waves Audio	bidirectional	Via a SoundGrid/Dante interface, not natively.
Allen & Heath Avantis Allen & Heath	bidirectional	Via option card.
Allen & Heath dLive S7000 Allen & Heath	bidirectional needs licence	Via I/O card in the MixRack or surface.
Allen & Heath SQ-6 Allen & Heath	bidirectional needs licence	Via optional SLink / option card.
Avid VENUE S6L-32D Avid	bidirectional needs licence	Via optional engine card.
Behringer X32 Behringer	bidirectional needs licence	Via optional expansion card.
Biamp TesiraFORTÉ Biamp	bidirectional	Dante on the network-equipped variants.
BSS Soundweb London BLU-806 BSS Audio	bidirectional	Dante card fitted on the 806 variant.
Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Cisco	bidirectional	Transported. Requires QoS DSCP trust and correct queue mapping.
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Cisco	bidirectional	Transported when configured correctly.
Clear-Com FreeSpeak II Clear-Com	bidirectional	Networked audio to the base station, depending on configuration.
d&b audiotechnik 40D installation amplifier d&b audiotechnik	bidirectional	Digital audio input.
d&b audiotechnik DS100 Signal Engine d&b audiotechnik	bidirectional	64 in / 64 out over Dante.
DiGiCo Quantum 338 DiGiCo	bidirectional needs licence	Via optional DMI card.
DiGiCo SD12 DiGiCo	bidirectional	Via optional card.
DirectOut PRODIGY.MP DirectOut	bidirectional	Via module.
Ferrofish A32 Dante Ferrofish	bidirectional	32 channels to and from Dante.
Focusrite RedNet A16R MkII Focusrite	bidirectional	16x16 analogue to Dante, primary and secondary ports.
Green-GO Digital Intercom Green-GO (ELC)	bidirectional	On specific interface models.
L-Acoustics LA4X L-Acoustics	in	Not native; AVB and AES67 are the network audio paths.
Lab.gruppen PLM 20K44 Lab.gruppen	in	Dante input, primary and secondary.
Lab.gruppen Lake LM44 Lab.gruppen	bidirectional	Networked audio.
Luminex GigaCore 10 Luminex Network Intelligence	bidirectional	Transported.
Luminex GigaCore 16Xt Luminex Network Intelligence	bidirectional	Transported. The manual claims low-jitter handling for Dante traffic.
Luminex GigaCore 26i Luminex Network Intelligence	bidirectional	Transported.
Midas HD96-24 Midas	bidirectional needs licence	Via expansion card.
NETGEAR M4250 (AV Line) NETGEAR	bidirectional	Transported, with a shipped AV profile that sets Dante's QoS and multicast handling.
Powersoft X8 Powersoft	in	Dante audio input with redundancy.
Q-SYS Core 510i QSC (Q-SYS)	bidirectional needs licence	Via Q-SYS Dante license or CDN64 card options.
Riedel Bolero Riedel Communications	bidirectional	Depending on configuration.
RME Digiface Dante RME	bidirectional	64 channels each way at base rates.
RTS ADAM Intercom Matrix RTS (Bosch)	bidirectional	Networked audio via cards.
SSL Live L550 Solid State Logic	bidirectional	Via option card.
Symetrix Radius NX 12x8 Symetrix	bidirectional	Networked audio.
Yamaha CL5 Yamaha	bidirectional	Dante is native, with primary and secondary ports.
Yamaha DM7 Yamaha	bidirectional	Primary I/O path.
Yamaha Rio3224-D2 Yamaha	bidirectional	Primary transport, with redundancy.
Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 Yamaha	bidirectional	Dante is native on the RPio boxes and the engine.