Audinate have announced Dante ‘As’ Software, two new products that break down the last barrier to devices and users joining the Dante ecosystem - the need for hardware.
The simplicity of Dante has enabled it to accelerate past its competitors and in a relatively short time it has become close to a de facto standard for AoIP. Ravenna and AVB have their place but these days it isn’t unfair to describe the choice as being between Dante or one of the alternatives.
Why Is Dante So Popular?
In spite of the traditional reluctance IT professionals have for proprietary solutions, Dante’s adoption has outstripped its competitors because it is simple to use and just as importantly it is simple to implement in hardware. The use of standard hardware modules offering different channel counts makes product development relatively simple, add a power supply, analogue circuitry, a case and (very simplistically) that’s it. Because of this the ecosystem of products which support Dante has grown hugely. However, the need for hardware designed for use on a Dante network necessarily excludes all the non-Dante equipment already in the field and the use of proprietary hardware modules carries with it a fixed cost per channel.
Software Only Dante
Dante Virtual Soundcard has existed for a long time but is designed to be a way to connect a computer to a hardware based Dante network. Dante Via offers a way to build software only Dante networks but while a very clever piece of software, Via only offers a partial solution. With the release of the two products, which form Dante As Software, Audinate are clearly looking to bring as many devices, and therefore users, into the Dante ecosystem as possible.
Dante Application Library
The first of these two Dante As Software products, Dante Application Library, puts the functionality of Dante Virtual Soundcard directly into Windows or macOS audio applications for complete control over user experience. What this means in practice is that rather than using Dante Virtual Soundcard as a system level virtual Dante interface, the Dante Application Library offers App level Dante integration. Each instance of Dante Application Library is tied exclusively to the application in which it is included, allowing multiple applications to each have their own Dante interfaces simultaneously without interference. Integration into DAW software looks like an obvious application and although fixed to a 48KHz sample rate, the benefits are clear to see.
Features - Dante Application Library
Delivered as code library for Windows and macOS
Up to 32x32 channels of bidirectional audio
48 kHz sample rate
Minimum network latency: 5 ms
May co-exist with multiple instances of Dante Application Library in other applications on same computer
Control interfaces: Dante Application Library connection API, Dante API
Works with all Dante-enabled devices and software implementations, such as Dante Virtual Soundcard and Dante Via
Compatible with Dante Controller
Compatible with Dante Domain Manager
Available for Windows and macOS
Applications
Unified Communications applications
DSPs as software
Lecture Capture
Courtroom Capture
Professional DAW software
Media Player software
Audio Recording software
Dante Embedded Platform
The second of these two products is Dante Embedded Platform. Dante Embedded Platform is designed to work in products that run Linux on compact ARM processors as well as large, powerful x86 CPUs. The low cost and convenience of developing AV products using low cost utility processors means that implementing Dante as software on these platforms, which are often low cost devices, opens up an area of the AV industry previously difficult to access with a fixed cost per channel, hardware based model. Dante Embedded Platform is ideal for developing families of interoperable products that range from small ARM-based products up to large, x86-based designs that deliver high channel counts with low, deterministic latency.
Features - Dante Embedded Platform
Up to 128x128 channels of bidirectional audio*
48 kHz default sample rate, support for existing Dante rates up to 192 kHz
Minimum network latency: 1 ms for Reference Design Kit, 5 ms typical for OEM systems using SDK*
Support for PTP-based precision clocking
Redundant network capable
Supports private encoding
Field upgradable when updates are available
Control interfaces: Dante API
Works with all Dante-enabled devices and software implementations
Compatible with Dante Controller
Compatible with Dante Domain Manager
* Maximum channel count and achievable latency will depend on processor type (x86 or ARM), speed, other processing loads, operating system configuration and tuning.
What Effect Will Dante As Software Have?
While this is very much a new announcement, our expectation is that some DAWs will connect directly to Dante networks using the Dante Application Library and the cost of entry to the Dante ecosystem will fall further. Some key partnerships have been announced such as with QSC who will begin to deploy the Dante Embedded Platform within the Q-SYS Ecosystem to enable native software-based Dante audio channels.
With the removal of the requirement for an Audinate hardware module to be part of the design of peripherals the possibility exists for Dante As Software capability to be introduced retrospectively. All in all this has the potential to be a very significant development, though we are yet to see details of licensing and pricing.