Page 110 - Dante Controller User Guide

Dante Controller User Guide

Troubleshooting

Fanout

About Transmit Flows

Transmit flows are 'streams' of audio packets which supply data between devices. Dante devices can
support a finite number of transmit flows, depending on their specific hardware configuration and firmware
version.
Dante supports two types of flows - unicast and multicast.
Unicast flows are used to supply audio to specific devices, and support up to 4 channels of audio
simultaneously. So if you subscribe 4 channels on a receiver to 4 channels on a single transmitter, that
audio data will be supplied using one flow. If you were to then subscribe a fifth channel, a second flow
would have to be created.
If you were to subscribe 4 different receivers to the same channel on a single transmitter, Dante Controller
would have to create 4 unicast flows, because the audio data is going to 4 different places. In this case, it
would be better to create a multicast flow.
A multicast flow 'broadcasts' the audio across the network, so multiple receivers can subscribe to the
audio, but the transmitter is only using one of its available flows. Multicast flows can be configured with up
to 64 channels (depending on the Dante device type). However, multicast audio traffic can propagate
throughout an entire network, using up bandwidth on every link in the network. 100Mbps links in particular
are easily saturated when large numbers of multicast flows exist. Therefore, multicast flows should only be
used when there is a good reason to do so.
If you subscribe a number of devices to one channel via unicast, Dante Controller will alert you with the
following message: “Fanout Configuration detected.”
If you then exceed the supported number of transmit flows, any further subscriptions will fail, and the
tooltip for the failed subscription will read 'No more flows (TX): transmitter cannot support any more flows,
reduce fan out by unsubscribing receivers or switching to multicast.'

Messages on Startup

Error Message Meaning & Actions

'Dante Controller was unable to connect to the Affects: Windows only.
Dante Control and Monitoring manager. Dante Meaning: The 'Dante Control and Monitoring'
Controller cannot function without this connection. service is not responding. This can occur after a
This problem is most likely caused by the Dante computer has been in sleep mode.
Control and Monitoring ('conmon') service or Action: Restart Dante Controller. In the event that
daemon stopping unexpectedly. Click OK to restart does not work, reboot your PC, or restart the Dante
Dante Controller. You may also need to manually Control and Monitoring service via Control Panel >
restart the Dante Control and Monitoring service, or Administrative Tools > Services.
the computer, if the problem reoccurs.'

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