In this guide: What Dante is · Clocking and latency · Three ways to reach the desk · Network requirements · Cable and connectors · Redundancy · AES67 and Milan · Where each one wins · Should you go Dante · Fault-finding · Common mistakes · FAQ

An analogue multicore is one screened pair of copper per channel: the count is fixed the day the loom is built, and a second console needing the same inputs means a splitter and more copper. Audio networking replaces copper-per-channel with data, so hundreds of channels fit down one thin cable both ways at once. The trade is that a passive lump of copper becomes a network.

What Dante is

Dante is Audinate’s audio-over-IP system: chipsets, firmware and software carrying uncompressed digital audio over ordinary IP networks. In Audinate’s words it “is based on common IT standards, enabling Dante to run alongside data traffic on networks comprised of readily available conventional switches and cabling”. No audio-specific switches required.

Devices address themselves: DHCP where a server exists, otherwise a link-local address in 169.254.0.0/16 on the primary network or 172.31.0.0/16 on the secondary. They find each other with mDNS and DNS-SD, so kit simply appears in Dante Controller, Audinate’s free software. It shows a matrix of transmitters against receivers: tick a crosspoint and that receiver subscribes to that channel. Subscriptions live in the devices rather than the laptop, and are held by name, so a replacement unit with the same names inherits them.

Audio is uncompressed PCM, typically 48 kHz at 24 bits, packaged into flows. Flows are unicast by default, up to four channels each at around 6 Mbps; multicast flows, created deliberately for one-to-many distribution, carry up to eight channels at roughly 1.5 Mbps per channel. One gigabit link carries up to 512 channels in each direction at 48 kHz and 24 bits, the figure Yamaha and d&b audiotechnik both publish. At 96 kHz that halves; 100 Mbps manages 48 each way. Dante audio cannot be sent over Wi-Fi.

Clocking and latency

Dante distributes one reference clock using Precision Time Protocol, and Audinate specify PTP version 1 (IEEE 1588-2002) by default. One clock leader is elected per subnet, preferring devices with a word clock or AES3 input. Lose the leader and a replacement takes over without interrupting audio; Preferred Leader anchors it to a chosen device. No PTP-aware switches are needed. The classic mistake is a digital console: consoles have their own clock and must be told explicitly to clock from Dante, or they show clock errors and may pass no audio.

Latency is a buffer, not a specification: a receiver holds audio long enough to cover the worst delay it expects, and where transmitter and receiver differ the higher value wins. Audinate give 1 ms as the typical default. Gigabit-only networks reach 150 microseconds on very fast devices such as PCIe cards, and 1 ms is the floor on a 100 Mbps port. Selectable values vary by platform within roughly 150 microseconds to 5 ms. Each gigabit hop adds about 0.1 ms, and every Dante device counts too:

The number matters less than the fact that Dante latency is deterministic: a declared buffer, identical every night, not a best-effort average with spikes. Two devices driving the two sides of a PA must share the same setting, and changing it re-establishes the flows, so do it at setup.

Three ways to get channels from stage to desk

Most people weighing Dante against a snake are really choosing between three things, and the middle one gets overlooked: a digital stagebox on the console maker’s own point-to-point link. Allen & Heath’s SLink is a good example because the numbers are published. It is not a protocol but an intelligent port that senses what is plugged in: dSNAKE at 48 kHz for 40 in and 20 out over 100BASE-TX, DX at 96 kHz for 32 in and out, or gigaACE/GX at 96 kHz for 128 in and out over 1000BASE-T. Cat5e STP or better, 100 m per connection.

For plenty of bands and venues the proprietary link is the sweet spot. Dante earns its place when channels must be shared between manufacturers, or with more than one destination. Our Qu vs SQ vs Avantis comparison covers where those ports sit.

Network requirements

Gigabit, non-blocking. Fast Ethernet works but, per d&b, “considerably reduce[s] the achievable channel count and increase[s] the minimum possible latency”. Switches should be non-blocking: an eight-port gigabit switch needs at least 16 Gbps internal capacity.

Managed or unmanaged. Two devices plugged into each other need no switch, and a few on a dedicated all-gigabit audio-only network usually run fine through a good unmanaged one. Cheap unmanaged switches earn their reputation on bigger systems by removing every tool you need when something goes wrong: no DSCP prioritisation, no way to disable EEE, no IGMP snooping, often no genuine non-blocking backplane.

QoS. Dante tags its own packets with DiffServ (DSCP) labels, and a switch should read them and prioritise across at least four queues using strict priority:

Note that PTPv2 shares EF/46 with audio; only Dante’s PTPv1 time-critical events get CS7/56. Audinate say QoS should be used on any mixed-use network, but is only a hard requirement on an audio-only network where 100 Mbps or mixed-speed kit is involved.

VLANs keep Dante away from office and guest traffic; running it on a shared corporate LAN with no VLAN separation and no QoS invites trouble the first time somebody starts a large backup. VLANs also build primary and secondary on shared switches, but then only the endpoint links are truly redundant.

IGMP snooping stops switches flooding multicast out of every port. Dante implements IGMP v2 or v3, with one querier per VLAN. It matters once multicast audio or IP video shares the segment: see our HDMI vs SDI guide for the video side.

Cable, distance and connectors

Cat5e is the floor for gigabit and Cat6 or Cat6A is what most people now buy. The constraint that catches people out is the 100 m limit: Yamaha’s Dante network design guide gives 100 m for Cat5e or higher, applied per link rather than per system, and Allen & Heath state the same 100 m maximum per connection. Passive patch panels eat into that budget. Beyond 100 m, go to fibre, where d&b quote around 500 m on multimode and 10 km on single-mode.

For live work buy shielded cable. Allen & Heath specify STP Cat5e or higher for their links, and Yamaha recommend STP for Dante to reduce noise radiation, with the caveat that it must be properly grounded. Unshielded patch leads are fine inside a rack, and the wrong thing to drape across a stage beside mains multicores. Choose stranded conductors for anything coiled often.

A bare RJ45 is not a stage connector. etherCON wraps a standard RJ45 in a locking metal shell with strain relief, so it latches and takes cable weight without pulling the contacts. Neutrik rate their etherCON cable connectors at over 1,000 mating cycles, and d&b recommend etherCON for mobile use, citing far more connection cycles than bare RJ45. Chassis versions build etherCON tie-lines into stage boxes and racks; our audio connectors guide covers the wider family.

Redundancy, and why daisy-chaining is not it

A device set to Redundant duplicates its Dante traffic to both Ethernet ports, feeding two separate networks and transmitting on both constantly. Receivers take whichever packet arrives and discard the duplicate, so a failure causes no gap because there is no switchover. Not every device supports it; set to Switched, the secondary port becomes an ordinary switch port for daisy-chaining. Never connect primary and secondary together, and run the two routes physically apart, because most real failures are mechanical damage.

Daisy-chaining is easy and needs no switch, but every device becomes a hop, pushing up the latency you need; it consumes the secondary port, so redundancy is off the table; and one severed cable or unpowered device kills everything downstream. A star through a switch at each end is the better default. Commission each network alone before joining them.

One step up in scale, Dante Domain Manager is Audinate’s paid server software. It groups devices into domains that can span IP subnets, so audio routes across a routed network; it adds user authentication and role-based permissions; and it gives you a dashboard and audit log. A campus or broadcast facility needs it; a band or single hall does not.

AES67 and Milan

AES67 is an AES standard for high-performance streaming audio-over-IP interoperability. It invents nothing, specifying how existing protocols (RTP, PTP to IEEE 1588-2008, SDP, SAP) are used so different systems can exchange streams. On Dante it is a mode enabled per device, on supported devices only, and it buys transport interoperability alone:

• Multicast flows only, up to 8 channels per flow at 48 kHz or 96 kHz per Audinate’s current guide. Between two Dante devices, Dante’s native transport is always used regardless.
• No device discovery, no device control. Dante Controller sees flows rather than devices, identified by multicast IP address, and the transmitter must announce its stream by SAP before Dante Controller can find it.
• It changes clocking. Dante uses PTPv1, AES67 requires PTPv2, and the two are not inter-compatible, so an AES67-enabled device runs both and bridges the clock domains. Expect a reboot when you enable the mode.
• No redundancy. AES67 does not define it, so those flows get no primary and secondary protection.

So it is a bridge for handing a block of channels to somebody else’s audio-over-IP island: good for a broadcast feed, wrong for a show’s critical monitoring path.

Milan (Media Integrated Local Area Networking) is an Avnu Alliance specification built on IEEE AVB and TSN, with Avnu certifying devices against interoperability tests. The difference that matters when buying is infrastructure: Milan works at layer 2 and needs switches implementing IEEE 802.1AS (gPTP), 802.1Qav and 802.1Qat, meaning Avnu-certified AVB switches, where Dante’s proposition is conventional ones. Milan gives back bandwidth genuinely reserved for its streams. The two coexist on configured switches but do not natively interoperate.

Where each one wins

Analogue still wins on

• Small channel counts, short distances. Two mics and a DI twenty metres away needs three XLRs, not an infrastructure decision.
• Zero configuration. No addressing, clock, subscriptions, firmware or laptop.
• A tiny, local fault surface. A damaged core loses one channel; a damaged network cable loses everything downstream.
• Fault-finding anyone can do. Swap the lead, try another socket, listen.
• Easy isolated splits to a broadcast truck, with no shared ground or clock, and it is cheap and already in the building.

Dante wins on

• Channel count per cable. Up to 512 each way down one gigabit link at 48 kHz.
• Splitting without copper. Monitors, broadcast, a recording rig and a second console all subscribe to the same stage channels.
• Remote gain and control from the console or a laptop instead of a walk to the stagebox.
• One network for more than inputs. Amplifiers, DSP, system processors and wireless receivers join the same cable plant, and any spare switch port becomes an audio point.
• A shared ecosystem. Console, stagebox, amplifier and interface from four brands can work together; a proprietary link cannot. Do check gain sharing, though: two consoles on one stagebox share its single analogue preamp.

Should you go Dante? By scenario

• Function band, 16 to 24 channels, new venue weekly. Usually no. A stagebox on the console’s own link gives one thin cable and remote gain with nothing to configure.
• Church, growing system, volunteer operators. A good candidate with care: a livestream feed, overflow room and recording all subscribing to the same channels is a real win. Build a star on managed switches, label everything, and keep an analogue path for the main speaking microphone.
• School hall, shared with sport and assemblies. Frequently overkill: counts are modest and the real problems are gain before feedback and coverage. A permanent hall-to-control-room link is good value where cabling exists, on its own VLAN.
• Installed venue, theatre or multi-room site. Dante’s home ground: managed gigabit switches, QoS on, EEE off, fibre between comms rooms, primary and secondary for anything show-critical. See also our commercial background audio guide.
• Touring rig or festival stage. Yes, and design it redundant: separated primary and secondary routes, event-grade switches with etherCON, star topology, documented latency so both sides of the PA match.
• Conference room or corporate AV. Usually yes, because the room is already a network job. It is also the case most likely to land on a shared corporate network, where VLANs and QoS are non-negotiable.

Fault-finding basics

Most Dante faults are cables, switch settings or clocking, in that order.

1. Link lights first. Dark LEDs with a cable plugged in is a cable fault, and the commonest reason a device is missing. Then check the right network interface is selected in Dante Controller, and that firewall or antivirus software is not blocking UDP 8700 to 9705 and 8800.
2. Visible but unroutable? Either its sample rate does not match, or its addressing is incompatible, which is why it appears yet passes nothing. A device on 169.254.x.x found no DHCP server: fine if everything else is link-local, broken if half the system got DHCP addresses, because the halves are on different subnets.
3. Read the clock status tab. More than one clock master means the network has split into segments that cannot communicate, usually a firewall, port filter, faulty cabling or VLAN. Different masters on primary and secondary means the primary master is not on the secondary network.
4. Subscription errors and red latency histogram entries mean dropped packets, so latency is too low for the hop count. A wide spread of values points at network configuration instead.
5. The unmanaged switch signature. A system that behaves in rehearsal then fails on the show, or drops out once video or lighting control joins the segment, is telling you the switch cannot prioritise or is idling ports.

Common mistakes

• A consumer switch with EEE enabled. Everything looks right, audio drops out occasionally, and the cause is a power-saving feature you cannot see or disable.
• Mixing 100 Mbps and gigabit. One Fast Ethernet link drags minimum latency to 1 ms, restricts channel counts, and turns QoS into a requirement.
• No redundancy plan on a show that cannot stop, or joining primary and secondary together, which leaves one network with two of everything on it.
• Dante on the venue’s office LAN with no VLAN and no QoS. Fine in the quiet, then it competes with backups and CCTV at the worst moment.
• Leaving the console clocking internally, which gives clock errors and silence rather than an obvious fault, or setting 0.25 ms on a daisy-chained system without counting the hops.
• No analogue backup for the one microphone that matters. A single XLR from a splitter into a separate channel covers the failure that ends the event.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Dante audio?

Audinate’s system for sending uncompressed digital audio over ordinary IP networks using conventional switches and cabling. Devices find each other automatically, you route by ticking crosspoints in Dante Controller, and one gigabit link carries up to 512 channels each way at 48 kHz.

Is Dante better than an analogue snake?

Better at high channel counts, splitting to several destinations, remote gain and installed cabling. Worse at being simple, cheap and immune to configuration errors. For two or three channels over a short distance, analogue wins outright.

How do I set up a basic Dante system?

Wire the devices to a gigabit switch with EEE off, install Dante Controller, and let the devices self-address and appear. Set all devices to the same sample rate, confirm the clock leader on the Clock Status tab, set a latency suitable for your hop count, then tick crosspoints to subscribe receive channels to transmit channels. Name devices and channels sensibly before you patch, because subscriptions follow names.

How much latency does Dante add?

Whatever you set, within the device’s range. The typical default is 1 ms, gigabit-only networks reach 150 microseconds on suitable devices, and a 100 Mbps port cannot go below 1 ms. Each gigabit hop adds roughly 0.1 ms, so most live systems sit between 0.25 ms and 1 ms.

AES67 vs Dante: does AES67 mean Dante works with everything?

No. It is a transport interoperability standard, not a replacement for Dante. Enabling it lets a supported device exchange multicast flows with non-Dante AES67 devices, up to 8 channels per flow at 48 kHz or 96 kHz, with no device discovery, control or redundancy on those flows.

Can I put Dante on the network we already have?

Sometimes, and it is a conversation with whoever runs that network. You need gigabit non-blocking switching on every Dante-bearing port, DSCP QoS with strict priority, EEE disabled, IGMP snooping if multicast is used, and ideally a dedicated VLAN. Otherwise build a separate audio network. Dante audio also cannot run over Wi-Fi.