The lab’s audio system works with Dante. Dante stands for (Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet) and it’s a protocol for sending many audio channels over the internal network. This means that any workstation can both receive and send-out audio information to other Dante devices. The other Dante device we have is the FerroFish Pulse16 audio interface. Think of the FerroFish as the nexus for other audio devices (speakers, microphones, etc.) to connect to the Dante system.
The FerroFish Pulse16
As you can see on the back of the device there is a row with 16 audio in ports and 16 audio out ports. If you look at our device (at time of writing) in the rack you will see that there are 5 out ports being used (with purple cables). These ports are connected to the 5 speakers on the ceiling rail system.
Dante Virtual Soundcard
To be able to connect your workstation to the Dante network you need the Dante virtual soundcard software running. Depending on your needs you select the Audio Interface (ASIO or WDM).
After pressing start you should be sending out audio over the DVS Virtual Audio ports.
Multiple audio Transmit and Receive channels should now be visible in the Windows System > Sound settings:
For just sending out system audio you probably want to select Transmit 1-2 (not visible in this screenshot)
You might also need to select a different Format for Output settings of the specified channel:
Make sure it matches the expected Dante settings (at time of writing it’s 44100Hz)
Dante Controller
Another software package needed is Dante Controller. As it’s name suggests this controls the routing of the Dante system.
The columns represent the Transmitter devices and the rows the Receiver devices. In the example image there is a route being made between Transmitted channel 1 and 2 and Receiver channel 1-6. This means workstation with the name VICON is sending out audio over channel 1 and 2 that ends up in the FerroFish Pulse’s channel 1-6 (meaning the speakers)
You can make these connections by clicking them.
Troubleshooting
Workstation shows up in Dante Controller under devices but not the matrix
Restart the Workstation.
Glitches in audio stream
When glitches and/or dropouts in the audio occure often (especially when GUI windows are being interacted with) one possible solution is disabling Power Management in your NVIDIA Control Panel.
Open NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D settings.
In the list there is an option for Power Management Mode. Set that to Prefer Maximum performance. After a reboot of your PC this has a high chance of increasing the audio performance for Dante.
This works because real-time audio streams are highly sensitive to interrupts and DPC latency. When the GPU transitions between power states, it can introduce latency spikes or block critical system threads, disrupting audio processing.