Audinate's New Dante Netspander Crosses the AV Chasm

Audinate, the developer of complete media networking solutions, has announced the introduction of Dante Netspanderä at InfoComm 2011.

Dante Netspander allows scalable digital A/V networks to be built without current constraints. For the first time, Dante Netspander makes it possible to deliver tightly synchronized networked audio across subnets in a Layer 3 TCP/IP routed network. In addition, Dante Netspander uses Dante's zero configuration networking capabilities to enable devices in a routed network to be discovered and easily managed. Dante Netspander will be made available as a powerful software application that runs on target PC platforms specified by Audinate.

Ethernet is a Layer 2 protocol limited to implementing flat networks that quickly become difficult to operate and manage as the number of nodes grows. Layer 3 TCP/IP networking was introduced to provide scalable and manageable networking. Using Layer 3 routers, large networks can be partitioned into subnets and network congestion is eliminated by restricting the broadcast of unnecessary data. Today's corporate networks are all Layer 3 routed networks, but until now, digital audio networking technologies have been limited to operation on a single Ethernet network or a single subnet of an IP network. Dante is a Layer 3 audio networking technology, and Dante Netspander allows the full potential of Dante networking over routed networks.

"A/V design consultants and contractors have been requesting solutions to route synchronized audio across subnets for large scale enterprise solutions such as campus-wide networks, universities, hospitals, theme parks, convention centers, broadcast centers, and other large scale network deployments", stated David Myers, COO of Audinate. "Dante Netspander is yet another example of Audinate's thought leadership position in networking to solve customer problems."

Dante currently runs at Layer 3. The emerging Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standard will support either a Layer 3 (IEEE 1733) or Layer 2 (IEEE 1722) transport. While Dante will support both AVB transport versions, the RTP based Layer 3 transport will be required to route audio across subnets. Dante Netspander is scheduled to be available by the end of this year.