Audio over your existing network
DANTE stands for Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet and has become the standard for professional audio distribution. Instead of running thick audio cables through your building, DANTE uses the Cat6 cabling that is usually already there. A single network cable can carry hundreds of audio channels at once, uncompressed and with less than 1 millisecond of delay.
We have worked with DANTE for years on large hospitality installations and corporate environments. For Mondi Beach Club Curaçao, for example, we connected more than 100 loudspeakers via a DANTE network to an AUDAC Luna-F audio matrix.
What DANTE gives you
No separate audio cabling. Your existing Cat5e, Cat6 or fibre does the work. That saves considerably on installation time and cabling costs, especially in buildings where new cable routes are difficult.
Hundreds of channels over a single cable. One network cable can carry dozens to hundreds of audio channels at once. For multi-zone installations with many zones that is indispensable.
Low latency. Under 1 millisecond, which for 99% of applications sits well below the perceptible threshold. Even for live audio and speech reinforcement the timing stays tight.
Easy to expand. Adding a speaker in a new room? Run a cable to the switch, configure it in software, done. No building work.
Central control. You manage the whole system from a single point. Volumes, sources, scenes and zones. From a tablet or fixed touchscreen.
Future-proof. A standard supported by all the major manufacturers. An investment that is not outdated in 3 years.
Which environments DANTE works for
- Hospitality with several zones (main room, terrace, lounge, toilets) and separate sources
- Offices and meeting rooms with video conferencing and presentation audio
- Retail chains with centrally managed background music and paging
- Beach clubs and outdoor venues with several bars and stage zones
- Hotels with conference rooms, restaurants, lobbies and room audio
- Education and cultural venues with several spaces and streaming
Example: Mondi Beach Club Curaçao
For Mondi Beach Club we built a DANTE-based audio system that stands up to salt, moisture and sun. The setup:
- NETGEAR AV network switch M4250-26G4F-PoE+ as the backbone
- AUDAC WX-series weatherproof speakers (IP-55 certified)
- AUDAC BASO15 and BASO18 subwoofers in custom housings
- AUDAC SMQ and PMQ amplifiers in a climate-controlled equipment room
- AUDAC Luna-F audio matrix for zone routing
- Touchscreen control panels for the staff
The result: consistent, high sound quality across all zones, controls the bar team understands in 10 minutes, and a system we can monitor remotely from Rotterdam.
How we use DANTE in your project
We work from the design, not from the products. Based on the room, the number of zones and the sources you want, we choose which DANTE components fit. AUDAC for most hospitality projects, other brands where they fit better.
During installation we test the whole network under load. Switches, latency, redundancy. We document all IP addresses, channel assignments and scene configurations so that maintenance is easy later on.
Frequently asked questions
Often it does, provided your network is gigabit-capable and the switches can give DANTE traffic priority (QoS). For critical installations we recommend a dedicated VLAN or a separate AV switch such as the NETGEAR M4250 series, which is optimised specifically for DANTE.
DANTE traffic stays within your own network. We put it on a separate VLAN as standard so it is not reachable over the internet. For extra assurance we can use managed switches with access control.
For critical environments we design with redundancy: dual switches, backup routes, local fallback. For less critical environments we make sure there is a fast restore procedure.
DANTE is an open standard supported by hundreds of manufacturers. AUDAC, Yamaha, Allen & Heath, QSC, Shure, Sennheiser and virtually all professional audio brands work with DANTE. We can mix brands without any trouble.
A channel is one audio signal, such as a microphone, a music source or the feed to a zone. How many you need depends on the number of zones, sources and microphones, and whether live acts will play. We work it out in the design phase.
The components are often slightly more expensive, but the installation time and cabling costs are lower. For projects with more than 4 zones, DANTE is usually cheaper on the total price. For later expansions it is always cheaper.