Dante Digital Network Audio and Switch Back M8RX Demo
Vložit
- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Today’s episode is an explanation and demonstration of Dante digital network audio and the Switch Back M8RX preamp/headphone mixer. What is Dante and why do you care? Dante can help solve several problems such as long audio cable runs and how to capture large numbers of audio channels in a single production. Even if you don’t have a need for it now, let’s show you how it works so you are aware and can solve these types of problems if you do find yourself running a larger production some day.
The hear Technologies Switch Back M8RX is a small, 4 input preamp (2 XLR mic/line inputs plus a 3.5mm line input) plus a 4 channel Dante headphone mixer. The preamps are very high quality, with Burr Brown converters and very little THD. This is one of the more affordable ways to get into Dante network audio and solves several potential problems for location and production sound mixing. It can also be very useful in dialogue replacement and foley studio recording. This is one of those devices that might make you might scratch your head at first, but once you get it, you quickly see its value.
You can learn more about Dante at www.audinate.com
You can learn more about hear Technologies products and the Switch Back M8RX at www.hearback.com
Learn more about how Dante was used in the production of La La Land: www.audinate.com/meet-dante/d...
#Dante #M8RX #DigitalNetworkAudio
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses at school.learnlightandsound.com including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.
Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:
- hear Technologies Switch Back M8RX Dante preamp and headphone mixer - B&H bhpho.to/2uHpAn2
- Sound Devices 888 Mixer/Recorder - B&H bhpho.to/2Q3aRL8
- Cisco SG350-10MP Gigabit PoE+ Network Switch - B&H bhpho.to/3cF3v9x
- Canon C200 Camera for talking head portion - B&H bhpho.to/2hBbpJt
- Canon 24 - 105mm f/4 L IS II lens - B&H bhpho.to/2IsrM4Z
- Panasonic GH5 Camera for b-roll shots - B&H bhpho.to/2UNeAA0 Amazon geni.us/POEv7
- Aputure MC Mini LED RGB Light - B&H bhpho.to/2PE64zA
- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 OIS Lens for Pocket 4K - B&H bhpho.to/2i6s2gv Amazon geni.us/QXvPz8b
- Sound Devices MixPre II Audio Recorder - B&H bhpho.to/2vXszYI
Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself: geni.us/G7by
Copyright 2020, Curtis Judd
It is amazing how every single of your videos is top notch regarding content, content and value for viewers.
Thank you Sheik Yerbouti.
Your videos are deeply interesting even though I'm an audio beginner - most trustworthy, understandable and concise. Dante is fascinating - will keep an ear open for developments.
Thanks runbei!
🤯 You just blew my mind. The possibilities with the correct equipment appear to be near limitless.
-Will
Pretty neat!
as an audio engineer.it’s shows how easy way to convert information about dante processer in technical manner.thank you sir for your valuable time to spend on youtube. i learned lot in this video i request you to keep on posting video’s like this
👍
As someone who has only recently jumped into the Dante world, thanks for showing me that handy little device!
You bet! 👍
This ist defenitely the best youtube channel regarding lighnig and audio technic I know. A boon against the other flurry and loud channels.
And in adition as a german viewer, i can improof my english.
Thank you.
Thanks Jojo! Good to hear from you!
Thank you for another mind blowing audio and video (4k thank you)! Beyond perfection! All Dante audio is 100% lossless 24- or 32-bit, and sample rates from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz are supported.
👍
Interesting. Thank you for keeping us in the know with technology.
Thanks Huy!
Dante has been around for many years. As has Cat5-6 routing.
Excellent video demo on Dante Curtis. I’m looking forward to exploring this more on future workflows on my production cart since I’ve recently integrated the Aaton X3 with the Dante option. The bus powered M8RX device could be very useful in a lot of scenarios. Your making me want an 888 too!
Hi Michael, great to hear from you! I heard you added the X3. Curious how things are going with that. Such a beautiful mixer - got a demo at NAB a couple of years ago. And the 888 has been fantastic so far.! Best wishes!
Incredibly helpful, thank you!
👍
Excellent technical intro to Dante.
Thanks Blair.
Hey! Thanks for the great review. For those who are interested, Dante latency will be anywhere between 1ms(Most of Dante devices) to 10ms(DVS can adjust all on 48khz). The advantage being is 1 cat 5e-6a cable between devices, but if you are using a building infrastructure this can be a remote location within the building to anywhere in the building with RJ-45. So in live production, all you need is 1 RJ-45 at the stage and another RJ-45 connected to devices such as "Digiface Dante" USB interface or Dante PCIe card in a control room. This will give you 192khz sound with 1 ms latency which is crazy with just 1 single cable. My industry, live broadcasting, video delay is usually 200ms due to the encoding and decoding process, so 1-10ms delay is nothing compared to the sound quality I get.
Thanks for the details, Daniel!
Sorry, what... the major advantage is the routing abilities. If you have loads of sources and loads of destinations, dante is great. Sure, dante is, eventhough not nearly universaly, somewhat widely adopted so you can mix and match stuff, but the whole "only 1ms compared to the sound quality" is bullshit. All other protocols are faster and sound as good or better because dante has some clocking issues. Only they are P2P, but in "your industry", live broadcasting, that's no issue. On a different note, I have yet to find the first broadcaster who worked with dante. It's all MADI so far.
Dante is fast becoming a Conference Room device of choice as well. I can't wait to get Dante in my wheel house. Great Video Curtis.
Thanks Vincent!
Dante has been in conference rooms for YEARS! Look at the Shure MXA-910 and MXA-310 mics and I have been using Biamp Tesira Forte DAN-VT and QSC Q-Sys Core DSPs for a long time with Dante. Audio Technica also makes PoE powered desktop Dante mics that work pretty good.
@@jasoncherry2508 Thanks Jason, will check them out!
I used to work for the parent company for Hear Technologies and I worked with Nason and all them. They are AWESOME guys and the products are some of the best in the world! They really care about the sound quality and flexibility of the systems. The main design for the M8RX was that it could be put on a stand or worn as a belt clip for on-stage musicians with an instrument input, microphone and ears all plugged into a single PoE device (no batteries) and used on-stage for gigs or in a studio for recording. Novel design and very cool! They also have a ton of other equipment. Their most popular system is the Hear Back Pro. It is a central audio personal mixing platform meant for musicians to mix there own sound monitoring for on-stage or recording work. They have a simple design with 16 channels (per bank) of rotary dial mixing and each personal mixer is also PoE and the rack unit functions as a "swiss-army" style audio signal transcode to go from any to any signals for a studio (if needed) and sends all channels to each of the personal mixers (as many as you need) so each person can make their own mix. They have some really cool new accessories for the mixers now too with digital overlays for the mixers and phone apps to go along with them. Really cool stuff and so much thought goes into every part. Because of the easy dial per channel design, it is great for blind musicians and used by Stevie Wonder and other blind d musicians and used every day on tour by some of the world's most well known bands. Another really cool idea is to give each audience member a "perfect" mix and have them wear headphones so that everyone hears exactly what you want them to hear. A perfect example of a band that sometimes does this is Snarky Puppy and their official video of "Lingus" is AMAZING! Link to follow. Sorry to sound like a salesman but I just love the equipment and the people behind it. I dont work for that company any more and moved away, but am always excited to see what they do next. Join their FB page (Hear Technologies) to see all the cool behind the scenes hardware updates and the live videos from the tradeshows they attend. All the equipment is designed and engineered in Huntsville, Alabama (USA) and supported from the actual developers in the lab! Which is crazy rare!
Link as described: czcams.com/video/L_XJ_s5IsQc/video.html
Amazing.... Good explanation.
Thanks Sam
Nice overview.
Thanks RallenMan.
ty! always curious about dante
👍
Great videos!
From a long history of audio-over-ethernet in the live and installed sound markets, there are cheaper products and protocols like Cobranet and Behringer's Ultranet that use Layer 1 and Layer 2 ethernet formats. These have various disadvantages compared with Dante or less-proprietary AES67, but you do get what you pay for.
Of course, many of these assume you're just doing local connection stuff over a single LAN. Audio Over IP, which means you get to send your audio over the internet (say, between two production facilities), is a whole different realm of specification and standards again, and the terminology is never easy!
Thanks for the context, Alex.
I was using an 888 on a livestreamed event this weekend. We were using Dante in the 888 to send 5 channels of audio to Serbia for translation and insertion into the livestream. One thing I didn't realise is that even though live audio was being sent to Serbia, the recording to the SSD had to wait until the event was finished before it could start to upload to the cloud. I thought it would all happen in realtime during the livestream.
The recording to the 888’s internal SSD?
@@curtisjudd yes, we recorded to SSD and both slots. I think I didn't write the correct words! I didn't realise that once I had stopped the recording that was when the file was uploaded to the cloud. But I guess uploading to cloud probably has nothing to do with Dante and is maybe a permanent setting in the 888 for sending a copy to some cloud storage. Anyways!!! I got a bit of a slapped wrist for unplugging everything a few minutes after the event had closed. We had to plug it all back up to get the file uploading again.
@@curtisjudd Also what a gorgeous machine, I have a MixPre3 and this was the first time on an 888, night and day experience. I watched a few tutorials to understand the menus, you helped somewhat. But once I got my head around where the setting are located it wasn't that difficult.
@@JohnnyMotel99 Ok, you must be referring to Frame.io camera to cloud. Yes, that's normal. The file has to be closed to send it if I understand. And yes, the 888 is an amazing machine!
@@curtisjudd that must be it, I have heard of frame io but not looked at it closely. Thank you.
that last line in the disclaimer made me chuckle a bit haha
😀👍
Top drawer presentation and info as always. Your thoughts on Dante versus Ravena?
Thanks Gordon. Haven’t worked with Ravena.
From a long time computer networking tech, copper ethernet cables also have a distance limitation. I can certainly see how this would greatly simplify the 'cable snake' you speak of when having to mic a live performance.
Yes, and in studio running cable between control room and recording room.
Excellent Judd awesome information, again another Excellent (not) Tutorial 👍🏼
👍
This is very interesting. I hadn't heard of this before.
*_OFF TOPIC QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ANSWER HERE OR IN ANOTHER VIDEO_*
1. What is a slate mic? I've been an extra or observer on several pro location shoots. On one the sound mixer would lean in close to his mixer and say something just before a take. Was he reciting the slate info into a mic?
2. As the sound mixer on a shoot, how does slating work? Do you record the person reciting the slate info or do you do it yourself for sound only?
3. Do you log every take for your audio report?
4. How do you deliver your recorded sound files and to whom and when?
5. Do you keep a backup of your sound files before submitting them.
6. Do you deliver a sound report along with the sound files?
7. Is slating different on multi-camera shoots?
I'm not a pro (as you can tell from my questions) so I've had to make up my one procedures for all of this. I did DP/operate on a two camera amateur show for the local cable access station about 15 years ago. Since I did all the editing too I started using a different slating practice. Instead of reading the slate data first and then clicking the slate block, I had them snap the slate box first and then read the slate data after. This allowed me to trim every video and audio to the first slate click. That way I could line up the audio and the two video tracks to the slate clicks on all three for each take. It made that part of the process much simpler.
Hi Robert:
1) A slate mic is for recording the slate call at the start of each take, yes. The mixer was most likely recording the slate call info. This is useful, from my perspective, when you cannot get the slate call on the boom mic for whatever reason.
2) Either way works - do what works best for the production.
3) Yes, my SD 888, MixPre, and Zoom F series all allow me to enter metadata and generate sound reports at the end of the day. As a solo sound department, I usually manage it this way rather than write the sound report on paper. For tiny, simple productions where I'm the "everything" and we only have two or three takes, I don't bother with a sound report as I'm doing production, post, and there aren't a lot of assets to keep track of.
4) On one of the SD cards from my 888. I hand the card over to the director at the end of the shoot. If I'm lucky, I eventually get the card back, but it is not unusual to just charge for the card as part of kit rental.
5) Yes, the 888 has an internal SSD drive plus a second SD card.
6) Yes - generated by the SD 888.
7) Only in that we clap the slate in front of each of the cameras before calling action.
This can all change a bit depending on the production, but the above represent my experience on sets, usually for small budget productions.
@@curtisjudd Thanks for the comprehensive answers.
My experience is on no-budget productions (except one, a feature where I was the sound "everything" for three weeks on Willy Nelson's ranch, "The Magnificent Dead". It was a terrible movie but i thought the sound turned out okay. :)
@@RobertShaverOfAustin Hahaha! Sorry that the movie was terrible, but congrats on the sound!
I am slated to do Dante 1 and Dante 2 Certification. Getting this and my CCNA is what I want for 2020.
Get it done, Vincent! Dante is a great skill to have in the kit!
@@curtisjudd Helps the resume and LinkedIn too.
3:05 almost gone deaf with that super "S"
Sorry for the ssssssibilance. 😉
Hi Curtis, would it be possible to do a test to see what sort of latency you get then using it with Dante virtual soundcard? I really like the Dante system (apart from the high price) and I am looking at a solution for a DAW set-up but it would need to work with virtual soundcard and have low latency for tracking to be cost effective.
Hi D Hong Kong. I will endeavor to measure that when I have time.
Hi Curtis Judd, thank you for your Videos. I have a question about Dante and a DAW. Right now our livestream setup looks like this:
All microphones go into the Allen & Heath GLD80 mixer. This is where the FOH mix is made. So that we can mix the audio tracks for the live stream individually, we have built the Allen & Heath iLive iDR Dante card into the mixer. The sound from the mixer (Dante card) then goes to the standard Ethernet connection in the sound mixing PC. The DVS and the Dante controller are installed on this PC. We use ProTools as a DAW. Now the problem is that only a maximum of 32 Dante inputs can be added in ProTools. In addition, we do not know how we can then listen to the mixed sound and then bring it to the Black Magic ATEM Mini Pro Switcher. The only solution I found out was that I have another laptop and can send the mixed ProTools mix back to the Dante network. So that I can then bring the sound to the switcher, I imported the mix from the Dante network with vMix and DVS. And then I send this with vMix like HDMI to the ATEM Mini Switcher in Input 4.
Thus, the following problems arise:
- We need more than the 32 Dante inputs in Pro Tools
- Sound cannot be heard because the ATEM Mini Pro has no aux output
- The sound is too slow and the image cannot then be delayed in the ATEM Mini Pro.
Now I have some ideas and that results in the following questions:
- Could I add more than 32 Dante inputs in ProTools with a Focusrite RedNet PCIe R card?
- Is there a possibility with this card to listen to the sound from ProTools (to use two sound cards at the same time)? In ProTools there is only one sound card (Dante)
- Do you need a second laptop to send the mix to the ATEM Mini?
- Is there an easier way than with vMix to send the finished mix to the ATEM Mini Pro with an HDMI cable?
I hope someone can answer my question because I just don't know what to do.
Hi Davide, I don't have answers for all of your questions, but here's what I can say:
1) I assume this is a ProTools limitation but I'm not sure. I'd contact Avid support to confirm.
2) I believe it depends on your OS. macOS can make aggregate audio devices consisting of multiple audio I/O devices. I assume Windows can do this as well, I'm just not familiar enough with it to confirm.
3) It seems like this would be a viable approach. But maybe it would be easier to use a digital mixer with effects vs. running everything into ProTools.
4) If the computer running vMix has an HDMI output, that should allow you to get the audio over to the ATEM Mini via HDMI, yes.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help but I wish you all the best!
Hey Curtis! Hope you're good! Any chance you could review the Comica Boomx-D wireless mics? Cheers!
@@LearnLightAndSoundSessions Thanks Curtis! Still loving your vids!
Hi Justin, I'm sorry, I won't be able to review any Comics products. One of their employees behaved unethically to me when I tried to review one of the other products so I choose not to review their products. I'm sorry about that.
Hello Curtis and thank you very much for your enriching videos
:)
There is a question about the Dante protocol, and for which I really can't find a solution !
Can you do audio recording as well as mixing on Cubase (for example) with one of these small Ethernet interfaces ?
What do they bring more (or less) than USB B and / or C audio interfaces ?
For my part, I do not intend to record 100 tracks but just a stereo signal, but I hesitate and I do not always find clear answers :(
Thank you very much in advance for your help !
Have a good day :)
Hi Façal, yes, as noted at 11:00, there is an app called Dante Virtual Sound Card which makes your computer a Dante device/receiver. From there you can route the network audio into Cubase or any other DAW. I'm not sure it will help a lot for a small home studio where you already have an audio interface connected to your computer. But it is more helpful when you have a large studio or for my corporate video work, in a big office during the pandemic, I can mix from one end of the building while the recording space is at the other end of the building.
@@curtisjudd
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond
Oh I'm so sorry, I don't know why this time around, I haven't finished watching your video, I must have been so impatient to ask you my question !
In any case, the answer to my question is indeed you who provided it to me !
Once again, thank you for your videos so well done and so rewarding !
I stay tuned and hope that one day, why not, you make a video about audio interfaces that work with the Dante protocol.
In the meantime, thank you again!
Best!
the latency is much more then 1ms if you use the dante virtual sound card. it is 1ms to the sound device though.
I suspect the 1ms latency is the network portion of the signal chain and the transmitter and receiver devices can add additional latency on top of that, if I understand correctly.
Can I use Dante only with set of preamps on one side (like some kind of stagebox) and PC on the other side with DAW as a recorder? What devise with preamps would you recommend?
Hi Pawel, Yes, you'll need Dante Virtual Soundcard installed on your computer. I believe the license for that is about $40 USD. The M8RX preamps are quite impressive if you only need two XLR inputs. If you need more than that, I don't have firsthand experience with any of the stage boxes to make a recommendation. I have been happy with my Allen + Heath SQ5 Mixer and I would hope that their Dante stage boxes would have that same quality - but again, haven't used them personally.
Not used the A&H stages boxes either, but I believe the DT (and DX) have dLive preamps. A&H also recently released 'DT preamp control' to control them without a mixer. I suspect they are one of the cheapest (per channel at least) ways to get into Dante.
can you run it from a different network switch or do they all have to be on the same switch? for example i send this to voice talent with mic, so i can montior and record in my daw with the dante plugin..? thank you
Eric
Hi Eric, you can use multiple switches though they need to be on the same LAN. Latency also increases with more infrastructure so you’ll want to keep that in mind.
Hi Curtis! I have a question for ya. I am in Taiwan. Could I use this device to setup a remote studio like say in the US over the Internet? Thanks!
That would not work too much latency
I don't think so - it is really designed for local networks.
Curtis Judd Thanks!
i want one on every level of my house and play music from my laptop is this possible?
Yes
How much latency might you have you if you are trying to conference in as much as real time across a reasonable distance, say within 200km? At least it seems a dante network would give you near to real time audio thats digital between two servers.
I know for games, I can have a data centre within a couple of cities, say 5 to 10km radius and getting about 10ms pings.
My understanding is that film directors in LA have set up ‘real time’ private screenings so across a or several oceans, they can have a ‘latency free experience’ (to conference with another collaborator). Maybe this can only happen for very specific situations; not at scale (like working directly with a telco and giving them 50kusd to 100kusd to connect you directly to this IP for a very specific window of time)
Great question. I haven't tested it over a WAN so I'm not sure.
Is there a way to use this system on location where there is no power source? For example, this would be amazing for wild track recording where I want to be far away from the mics. Running a cat6 cable from the microphone to my recorder instead of an xlr cable would be amazing.
This is powered via POE+ - power over ethernet - so you just need to use an ethernet switch which supplies POE+ or use a POE+ injector. I haven't attempted to do this in the field but it will require a power source for that Cat6 run. Do you have a sound card with an inverter with which you could power a switch or injector?
Could you say what a mic you used for this video, please?
Yes, that's the TechZone Audio Stellar X2 Vintage microphone: techzoneaudioproducts.com/collections/tz-collection/products/stellar-x2-vintage-large-capsule-condenser-microphone
Hi Curtis. Is this sending audio lossless or is it using some sort of compression? Are there any limits in resolution or is that based on bandwidth ?
Hi Claus, it is lossless digital audio at up to 192kHz. It is the same as a wav file in terms of quality, depending on the preamps and converters of the devices on the Dante network (like with any audio gear).
@@curtisjudd Thank you so much for the answer - I have been using stage connect when I did some FOH (Almost the same but from Behringer) a bit but there are so many different names for this technology all though I think Dante is the best known. It just gives so much flexibility and so many options :)
@@CSikora77 Agreed, and Dante is more than the "snake replacement" proprietary options from many of the mixing board manufacturers. They can replace a snake, but don't generally offer the additional benefits of things like virtual Soundcard for recording to your DAW, multicast transmission of audio, and multicast playback with an app called Via.
BTW, some Behringer Mixers have DANTE I/O card as option. I’m considering this to get multiple audio streams into Newtek Tricaster live video mixer and recorder. Instead of going analog from the digital mixing console to the video mixer. Saves me one ADDA conversion and has far better routing possibilities, including easy long distance cabling.
@@_Thumbnail_ Thanks for sharing!
Which Avio adapters would allow me to bring my DBX 286S channel strip, and Steinberg UR22C into the Dante Network?
Hi David, this will do the job and there are one and two channel versions: bhpho.to/3mcihvL
Full disclosure - this link is an affiliate link. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
@@curtisjudd - thank you, I just ordered from your link two XLR Single Channel Adapters. One for Input, One for Output.
did i need in every mixing Hardware lan input for i can use dante ? my mixer dont have a lan input
Depends on what you're doing. If you'd be using this for live sound, then your mixer will need Dante support. If recording, you can record directly to a computer with the Dante Virtual Soundcard app without your mixer.
Curtis Judd thx dude you help me so much for answering
I thought this was a lockpicking lawyer vid from the thumbnail
Love Lock Picking Lawyer. I started to learn about locks because of him and Bosnian Bill.
"Audio recording's biggest flaw bypassed quick - a CAT6 cable"
-Basically Curtis
Hahaha! Sorry, hard to represent Dante in a photo.
@@insanejughead I'm a CAT6 cowboy.
So you have a recommendation for a device that will transmit 8-12 or even up to 16 channels via CAT6? I’d love not to have to run 4 cables
A Dante stage box should do the job. Allen & Heath and many others make them. Here's the A&H version: bhpho.to/3vhJOxS
(full disclosure, this is an affiliate link. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases)
Newbie question, but how would the Dante system work with a digital mic like the Super Cmit in terms of latency and timecode.
It would work the same as if plugging directly into a mixer/recorder except you would have the very small latency of Dante added. Virtually no latency beyond the regular latency of the super CMIT.
Need 5.1 setup on Yamaha TF 5
Me too
please i need to know how can i connect personal moniter mixer to analoge mixer and i do not have direct output . i have insert input only ?
Need more details. Which personal monitor mixer?
@@curtisjuddhear back and yamaha mixer Mg 166 c
Hi, thanks..Does it work on internet, for example between 2 cities over internet.
No, Dante is made to work over local area networks, not wide area networks.
@@curtisjudd thanks Sir..
Any technology in which I can keep the main mixer in one city and analog i/o box in another city and have it working over internet??
@@rameshsinha5451 Hmm, not that I've used.
@@curtisjudd please suggest how I can send audio over internet through stage box
What’s the mic , doesn’t sound as good as your regular one ?
In this episode, we recorded with the TZAudio Stellar X2 Vintage microphone.
I was thinking this was a wonderful system. Maybe it is still maturing but 600usd JUST for a stereo balanced analogue signal to digital converter seems steep. Yes I get you could have two stage mics (both mono) connect into this but I'm thinking of the net system price; it isn’t made for the consumer market. Kind of a shame.
Think how cheap mini gigabit switches are and how to build out your own network. Like if you have a 200usd budget or a 600usd budget or 1200usd budget to get the most wi fi and ethernet coverage; that dollar amount goes a long ways. Seems like the issue is the analogue conversion to digital still. Maybe the price wouldnt be so steep if you only had unbalanced audio?
Like I would like to see handheld recorders (like the Zoom H5/H6) have ethernet expansion to record over network. Basically enabling you to read and transmit directly from the tethered ‘recorder’, via a digital signal. Thinking you could easily get 10 channels for 500usd or better pricing. Maybe the self noise is what is not being considered though? Not sure how to measure that on the Zoom products.
Hi dragge101, Understand, I would like for the gear to be less expensive as well. But that is why this is not a review, but a demo of some of the gear used for professional sound situations where the budgets are larger than for those of us using Zoom H series recorders. Also note that Hear Technologies is not operating at the scale that manufacturers of ethernet network gear generally are. They are a small company serving a niche market. The M8RX and Sound Devices 888 are great pro-grade devices with very high quality converters and preamps as well as all of the circuitry to support Dante networking. Perhaps Zoom will make Dante enabled devices at some point though I suspect if they do, they'd put it in their F series recorders before their H series. I can say that the Zoom H series preamps and converters are not anywhere near the quality of those in the M8RX. Hear Technologies is not competing on price, they're more focused on quality and functionality for professional sound. I suspect most consumers are not willing to spend the premium for their H series grade recorders to have Dante capability - costs which take the form of engineering, hardware, manufacturing, and licensing of the Dante technology.
@@curtisjudd fair.
I loved the hobbyist and semi pro solutions that enabled quite a few choices of powering, mixing and generally manipulating analogue audio. Sadly there isn’t anything like that with digital. The industry, or the apparent demand is not there. Like through a receiver + analogue mixer, I would remix a variety of audio sources just because I could engineer my personal time. Now, too often I am having to give up one comfort to have something basic. Like only having one device that connected via Bluetooth and the eco system doesn’t let me control navi sounds vs music sound levels while I am driving.
The best you can do now is having multiple devices and several tiny speakers playing all at once (thus you can manually fiddle with each device’s volume). It sounds like dante for wi-fi, when, will be helpful.
Audio guy shows up to set with a mic, boom, and an ethernet cable...
Everyone sweats in doubt.
As someone who is Level 3 certified in Dante. I can confirm this.
Hahaha!
😂
Dante is great, however, does require that you have some strong network skills when things go bad. Dumb network switches are great for it providing users don't mess with it and it NOT used for any other networks including lighting. Managed switches allow VLAN's and seperation of the networks but can also play havock with traffic. Cisco web-smart switches are known to be bastards with uplink ports and traffic flow mess. Gigabit PoE is best, use fibre to interconnect switches around venues, especially when different power sources are used (imune to noise ad electrically safe). Don't be that guy who uses solid-core patch cables.
PS: you can wireless link systems but need dedicated wireless bridges that have well into the sub-millisecond latency. No Wi-Fi crap.
Thanks Ben, appreciate the additional details.