Page 26 - Dante Controller User Guide

Dante Controller User Guide

Each Dante domain will use its own individual clock domain, unless audio sharing between domains is
configured, in which case all domains in the shared audio group share the same clock domain.

Latency

In Dante, variation in latency in the network is compensated for at the receiver. Each receiver has a device
latency setting. This setting defines the latency between the timestamps on the incoming audio samples
and when those samples are played out.
The typical default latency for a Dante device is 1 msec. This is sufficient for a very large network,
consisting of a Gigabit network core (with up to 10 hops between edge switches) and 100 megabit links to
Dante devices. Smaller, Gigabit-only networks can use lower values of latency (down to 150 µsec for very
fast devices, such as PCIe cards). Recommended latency settings are displayed in Dante Controller, and
may also be found in the documentation accompanying the product.
Latency is set on the receiver. However, when a subscription is made, there is an automatic negotiation
process between the receiver and the transmitter, to ensure that the latency for the subscription is high
enough to prevent packet loss.
For example, Ultimo devices support a minimum of 1ms latency. If a faster device (such as a PCIe card) is
set to 0.25ms latency, and is then subscribed to an Ultimo transmitter, the latency used for the
subscription will be 1ms, which is the minimum supported latency for the subscription. Subscriptions to
other devices (such as a Brooklyn II device) will be set at 1ms (or whatever latency the receiver is set to).
This effectively makes the device latency setting a 'default' latency, which is used unless the transmitter
doesn't support it.

Note: The minimum latency available for a device connected to a 100 Mbps network port is 1 msec.

Using a latency lower than 1 msec over a 100 Mbps link will result in a subscription error, with the
tooltip 'Tx Scheduler Failure'.

Latency Monitoring

Dante Controller provides latency monitoring for supported devices. For more information, see Latency
Tab.

Latency and Dante Virtual Soundcard

Dante Virtual Soundcard allows a standard Apple Mac or Windows PC to function as a Dante device.
Because Dante Virtual Soundcard runs on a general purpose computer without special hardware to support
Dante timing requirements, additional latency needs to be added to connections received from a Dante
Virtual Soundcard transmitter.

Dante Virtual Soundcard is configured with custom latency values for reliable operation. Dante devices
with Rx channels that are subscribed to Tx channels from a Dante Virtual Soundcard transmitter will
automatically configure themselves to use these higher latency values for those channels only. The
latency on all other subscriptions on the receiver is unaffected.

Latency in DDM Networks

Devices that are enrolled in a Dante domain may support extra latency values, to accommodate larger
network topologies.

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