Dante Audio Networking Sets the Stage for Live Wynton Marsalis Recording in Cuba

	Historic concert in March 2016 featuring Diplo and Major Lazer in Havana, which was attended by more than 450,000 fans.

OKeventos, a professional audio rental and production company based in Havana, is finding value in Audinate's Dante audio over IP networking for a variety of projects ranging from live multitrack recording to television production.

"We mainly provide services for live concerts, but also support corporate, theater, dance, and sporting events across Cuba," said Mauricio Blanco, owner and president of OKeventos. "As a live sound engineer, digitization brings comfort with reduced set up times, simpler and more secure connections, lower noise levels, low latency and higher capacity. I underwent an exhaustive study of all digital audio networking solutions, and in my estimation no one beats Dante."

Blanco was the first sound engineer to use Dante in Cuba on the recently released Live in Cuba album by Wynton Marsalis on Blue Engine Records. When it was originally recorded in October 2010, Blanco, seeking a simpler way to multitrack for both the recording and a live television broadcast in Cuba, looked at all available digital audio networking solutions available at the time. This included CobraNet, which at the time was considered the most prominent audio networking solution on the market.

He found that Dante would further streamline the installation process, using single-wire connections to move 40 channels of audio between his Yamaha M7CL console (outfitted with Dante MYAUD16 modules) and an off-the-shelf switch. From there, the team used Dante Controller software to enable effortless signal flow to Cubase DAW software for live multitracking -- both for the recording and the TV broadcast.

In the six years following the Live in Cuba project, OKeventos has amplified its Dante architecture by adding two Yamaha CL consoles, Yamaha RIO stageboxes, and an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system. The expansion of their Dante systems has brought further flexibility and versatility to various production projects that keep the company busy around Cuba. On the live sound side, they deployed a Dante network to link several mixers used to produce the historic March 2016 Diplo and Major Lazer concert in Havana, which was attended by more than 450,000 fans. Blanco was also the first to use Dante for reality TV in production for Sonando en Cuba, which he calls a "tremendous success."

"We are regularly moving signals over long distances -- typically more than 100m -- without any interference from electric traffic, radio signals, and DMX wires that are in close proximity," said Blanco. "The Dante audio is clean, and to date we have not had one failure using Dante. Its ability to support redundant signals adds further comfort for protecting our content and productions."

Blanco expects to continue expanding his Dante audio over IP networking architecture. He is now evaluating the many available Dante-enabled products for routing audio directly to PA systems.

"We are already saving hours at a time in setup with Dante, and extending that network to the PA systems will further reduce that labor and save money," said Blanco. "Current market conditions put a major emphasis on reducing setup time, storage volumes, and transport weights. Dante is superior in all these aspects, and brings great value to these essential requirements."