Audinate Dante, User Manual

Page 1: ...Document version 2 3 Document name AUD MAN PCIe R User_Guide v2 3 Published Wednesday 28 January 2015 Feedback if you would like to suggest improvements to this information please feel free to email us at documentation audinate com ...

Page 2: ...While effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information no guarantee is given nor responsibility taken by Audinate for errors or omissions in the data Audinate is not liable for any loss or damage that may be suffered or incurred in any way as a result of acting on information in this document The information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be respon...

Page 3: ...ontacts Audinate Pty Ltd Level 1 458 Wattle Street Ultimo NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA Tel 61 2 8090 1000 Postal address Audinate Pty Ltd PO Box 855 Broadway NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA Audinate Inc 1732 NW Quimby Street Suite 215 Portland OR 97209 USA Tel 1 503 224 2998 info audinate com www audinate com ...

Page 4: ...High performance PC Configuration 14 Connecting to a Network 15 Before You Set Up Your Network Important Notes 15 Gigabit Ethernet Support 15 Choosing a Gigabit Ethernet Switch 15 Choosing Ethernet Cabling 15 Network Configuration 16 General Information 16 About Dante Redundancy 16 Network Configuration Non redundant 16 Network Configuration Redundant 17 Unsupported Dante Network Configurations 18...

Page 5: ...s your Audio Interface 25 Windows 25 Mac OS X 25 Troubleshooting 29 Introduction 29 Network Configuration 29 Gigabit Ethernet 29 What are the symptoms of NOT using Gigabit Ethernet 29 How can I check whether I AM using Gigabit Ethernet 30 Computer Configuration 30 Switch Configuration and Cabling 30 Symptoms of switch or cabling issues 30 Switch and Cabling Checklist 31 System Checklist 31 Checkin...

Page 6: ... is capable of running on inexpensive off the shelf computer networking hardware and with the use of standard QoS can share installed networks with other data and computing traffic Dante provides sample accurate synchronization and can deliver the very low latency required by professional audio Dante s network centric audio independent approach to synchronization allows perfectly synchronized play...

Page 7: ...le the equipment carefully n Drain any static electricity from your body or clothing before handling the equipment n Do not drop the equipment or subject it to physical shock n Avoid loose screws or other extraneous metal objects coming into contact with the equipment when installed and powered up n Do not expose the equipment to sudden temperature changes from cold to hot n Do not expose the equi...

Page 8: ...s below 1 Install your Dante PCIe R and driver software Refer to the section About Your PCIe Card for details about your card specification and installation instructions 2 Download and install your Audinate software From the Audinate website www audinate com 3 Set up your Dante network Refer to the section Connecting to a network for details 4 Configure your audio software to use the Dante PCIe R ...

Page 9: ...ss card Compatible with PCIe x4 slots v1 0 and above Audio Interface Presents as standard ASIO audio interface Windows or Core Audio Mac OS X soundcard Audio channels 256 up to 96kHz 128x128 128 176 4 and 192kHz 64x64 Supported Sample Rates 44 1 48 88 2 96 176 4 and 192kHz Pull up down 4 1667 0 1 0 1 4 0 Sample bit depth 24 bit PCM Round Trip Latency Less than 2 99ms digital round trip to from con...

Page 10: ... Secondary RJ45 Ethernet port Used to connect to a secondary network for glitch free redundancy Status LEDs The status LEDs indicate the following conditions SYS Indicates the status of the Dante system on this card A green light indicates the system has booted successfully and is operating properly The SYS LED will be amber while the system is booting If it persists the system has failed to boot ...

Page 11: ... All LEDs flashing green All LEDs will flash green when the card s Identify function has been activated using Dante Controller All LEDs solid red If all LEDs are solid red it indicates that the Dante PCIe R has encountered errors on boot and entered failsafe mode To restore the device from failsafe mode use the Dante Firmware Update Manager available from your device manufacturer s website ...

Page 12: ... relevant Thunderbolt expansion chassis manual if applicable If you remove the card store the card in its anti static bag and packaging while not in use Installing the Dante PCIe R Driver You will need to install the relevant driver files on your computer before your Dante PCIe R can be used Please refer to the README file included with the driver software for instructions on how to install the dr...

Page 13: ...mode n 2 66 GHz quad core CPU with 4GB RAM PCIe expansion slot n PCI Express Version 1 0 or above n Must have an available PCI Express x4 expansion slot n On OS X the slot closest to the motherboard will often provide the best lowest latency This is normally slot 2 directly above the graphics card Thunderbolt expansion chassis OS X The following Thunderbolt expansion chassis are supported n OWC Ot...

Page 14: ...ions n Approximately 2 99ms round trip latency Processor Intel i5 or i7 Motherboard Chipset N A PCIe Slot Any PCIe x4 slot Windows High performance PC Configuration The following configuration supports n Up to 128 channels in out n 32 sample ASIO buffers n 16 sample DMA transactions n Approximately 2 4ms round trip latency when enabled Processor Second generation Intel i7 Motherboard Chipset Intel...

Page 15: ...ce QoS to ensure its high quality synchronization is not affected even on loaded networks Switch features to look for on a product datasheet include n DSCP based QoS support with four queues and strict priority queuing n Filtering and ACL support n If you need to run long cables consider fiber support including SFP pluggable modules n Managed switches allow you to manage the switch and monitor net...

Page 16: ...s means that they have two Dante network ports RJ45 connectors The primary port is connected to the primary Dante network The secondary port is connected to a separate network with separate switches to which other redundant Dante devices are also connected via their secondary ports Dante audio runs on the primary and secondary networks simultaneously There is no need to set up extra routing in Dan...

Page 17: ...uration Redundant To set up and use Dante Redundancy connect your redundant Dante enabled audio equipment using duplicate Gigabit switches and Ethernet cables as shown below Connect the following to the primary network only n Any computers running Dante Virtual Soundcard n Any non redundant Dante enabled equipment All Dante enabled devices that support redundancy should be connected to both the pr...

Page 18: ...both switches if the computer has two or more network interfaces You may need to reboot the computers if they have active previous IP network configurations All devices will automatically be assigned IP network configurations Unsupported Dante Network Configurations Straight through connection to another Dante enabled device Because the Dante PCIe R is a dedicated Dante audio interface the Dante C...

Page 19: ...use Figure 2 Unsupported redundant network configuration Dante Audio Traffic over Wireless Networks Wireless Ethernet networks should not be used to carry Dante audio traffic and Audinate applications installed on a PC or Mac will not allow selection of Wireless Ethernet interface or any other non standard wired Ethernet interface You should not install any wireless components in your Dante networ...

Page 20: ...ual Soundcard n Set up a network between your computer and your Dante enabled devices n Referred to the Dante Controller and optionally Dante Virtual Soundcard User Guides Using Dante Controller When you open the Dante Controller it displays a grid view which shows all the Dante enabled devices on the network Initially it will display devices but not channels within devices Devices with transmitte...

Page 21: ...a Tx channel column and an Rx channel row it is possible to establish an audio route between them Using the network view click on the cell at the intersection of a transmit and receive channel to configure an audio route from the transmitting channel to the receiving channel A green icon will appear when the route is established Click again to remove the route Configuring the Card To configure fea...

Page 22: ...h a device name beginning PCIe If you have more than one Dante PCIe R to identify a particular card n Look for the device name ending in the last six characters of its MAC address or n After selecting a device at random use the Identify feature in the Dante Controller to check which card it is Identifying Individual Dante PCIe R Cards When you have several Dante PCIe R cards installed it can be ve...

Page 23: ...e Note Tx transmit labels must be unique for that device Changing the Sample Rate By default the Dante PCIe R is configured to operate using a 192kHz sample rate Audio routes can only be set up between devices that are operating at the same sample rate It is possible to change the sample rate To do this open Device View in Dante Controller select the card you wish to modify in the Device View and ...

Page 24: ...ost any conceivable size If a value other than the current setting is selected a message will be displayed warning the user that the effect of changing the latency is that any existing audio routes to the device will be temporarily suspended resulting in some loss of audio data If you wish to make the change select Yes button otherwise select No ...

Page 25: ...s such as iTunes Choosing Dante as your Audio Interface Audio applications generally provide a mechanism for selecting the sound card that they will use Before configuring the application to use the Dante PCIe R as its audio interface make sure you have configured the card with your required settings sample rate and latency and rebooted your computer if necessary Windows Select and configure the D...

Page 26: ...or applications which do not have a mechanism to select a sound card from within the application the System Preferences panel must be used to configure the default sound output and input settings as shown in the following screens Figure 6 Configuring Sound on Mac OS X System Preferences ...

Page 27: ...ghts Reserved 27 Figure 7 Figure 8 Configuring Sound on Mac OS X Input Figure 8 Configuring Sound on Mac OS X Output The system sound effects should be sent to the built in speakers rather than Dante so that they don t interfere with the audio traveling over the network ...

Page 28: ...Dante PCIe R Card CONFIDENTIAL Copyright 2014 Audinate Pty Ltd AllRights Reserved 28 Figure 9 Configuring Sound on Mac OS X Internal Speakers ...

Page 29: ...Configuration Gigabit Ethernet All your Dante PCIe R cards require Gigabit Ethernet interface s This means that they must be connected to Gigabit ports on Gigabit Ethernet switches What are the symptoms of NOT using Gigabit Ethernet 1 The Orange right hand side Gigabit LED on the PCIe Card Ethernet port will NOT be lit 2 It will take much longer than usual for the SYNC light to turn green 3 In Dan...

Page 30: ...nte Controller section of the Dante Controller user guide for more information about configuring your computer for use with Dante networks Switch Configuration and Cabling Cables are the most vulnerable part of a network system and home made manually terminated cables can be error prone If you suspect cabling issues check for n Unplugged badly connected Ethernet cables n Incorrectly configured swi...

Page 31: ...uration System Checklist A PC or Mac for use on the Dante network should have n Dante Controller installed n An audio application supporting the ASIO or Core Audio interface installed A correct PC or Mac Dante network configuration should have n The correct network interface s selected n The correct IP addresses used n DVS running if applicable before starting the audio application n An audio appl...

Page 32: ...t click the device select Properties and select the Driver tab Mac OS X In Mac OS X an installed Dante PCIe R will appear in the System Profiler The System Profiler is in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder The PCIe card will appear in the Hardware section under PCI Cards but to see the driver version navigate to Software Extensions ...

Page 33: ...roller to check Dante device sample rates Windows PC Optimization for Audio The suggestions below can be used to improve Windows PC performance for audio recording and processing in some most situations However all systems are different and there are no guarantees We recommend that you create a system restore point before making fundamental changes to your PC The suggestions below assume you are u...

Page 34: ...related to audio work are formatted as NTFS 9 Ensure your BIOS and chipset drivers are up to date Go to your chipset manufacturer s website for more information 10 Set processor scheduling to Background Services Control Panel System Advanced System Settings Advanced Performance This should improve audio driver performance 11 Switch off automatic indexing go to Start and type in indexing options pr...

Page 35: ...kes in the system This prevents the audio hardware and DAW from timely access to memory which will limit your ability to reduce ASIO buffers to the minimum possible value Your system running a driver called IASTOR SYS is indicative of hardware RAID being enabled Many motherboards provide an option to disable this however it will require the hard disk to be re formatted and the OS re installed If y...

Page 36: ...20 Dante Redundancy 17 Device Name 23 Disk 13 Disk speed 13 Driver Version 31 E Ethernet Cabling 15 G Gigabit Ethernet 29 Gigabit Ethernet Support 15 Gigabit link status 10 H Hardware 13 High performance PC Configuration 14 I Identifying Individual Dante PCIe Cards 22 Installing and Removing 12 L Latency 9 23 Link status 10 M MAC address 12 N Network Configuration 16 17 Network interface 9 Non red...

Page 37: ...l rights reserved 37 Specifications 9 Status LEDs 10 Status LEDS 10 Storage 13 Switch Configuration 30 System Checklist 31 System Requirements 12 T Thunderbolt expansion 13 Troubleshooting 29 U Unsupported Network Configurations 18 W Wireless Networks 19 ...