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Dante Case Study: Purdue University Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center

Tuesday March 2, 2021. 02:00 PM , from Sweetwater inSync
Sweetwater has helped design Dante digital networking systems for countless studios, houses of worship, and universities, including the Purdue University Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center located right here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dante audio networking provides their students real-world experience with industry-standard recording and broadcast technology and gives faculty amazing flexibility in how they structure their curriculum. At Sweetwater, we’ve found that many educators understand the potential of Dante networking but aren’t sure where to start — do they need to set up a separate network for Dante? Why choose Dante over other networking protocols? To learn more, we sat down with John M. Buteyn — Director of Popular Music and Music Industry Programs and Clinical Assistant Professor of Music at Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW). John is a producer, audio engineer, musician, and composer, and he is also responsible for the administration and growth of the programs, their partnership with Sweetwater Sound, the management of the recording facilities, and their Avid Learning Partnership. John teaches various courses in music production and recording, including Avid Certification courses. We spoke to John to get an inside look at how they use their Dante network in PFW’s Popular Music and Music Technology programs.

Q: Over the last couple of decades, multiple digital audio-network formats have emerged. Why did the Purdue University Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center choose Dante for audio networking?

A: We needed to connect multiple complex audio systems
together with something fast, stable, reliable, flexible, and expandable.
Audinate’s Dante protocol has been widely adopted across all facets of
professional audio — studios, corporate A/V installations, and educational
facilities like ours. When we considered the maturity of the protocol, the wide
range of Dante-compatible equipment available, and the ease of scaling it up
when needed, it was clear Dante would meet all of our needs.

Q: Between live performance, studio recording, and broadcast audio, networked audio is a flexible concept that can fit countless applications. What are the main priorities for Purdue Fort Wayne’s Dante system? In other words, what did you need it to accomplish?

A: We have several audio systems operating within two
facilities — the Purdue Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center on Sweetwater’s
campus and the Rhinehart Music Center on the PFW Main Campus. We’re obliged to
have one of our facilities located on Sweetwater’s campus. Our goal was to find
a multichannel, two-way protocol that offers robust and flexible routing for a
wide range of productions between all of our systems. For us, Dante provides
that. We have fully networked audio routing between various audio systems over
a common protocol. The icing on the cake is the ability to tie in with some of
Sweetwater’s Dante-capable systems so we can offer our students even more
production experience through collaborative efforts.

Q: Tell us about some of the Dante-equipped gear you’re using in the Purdue University Fort Wayne Music Technology program.

A: The Purdue Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center is home to
our Russ Berger–designed recording studio. The “Pro Tools HD with Dante” option
card for our Apogee Symphony I/O Mk II creates the ability to send and receive
channels through our API 1608 console. This allows us to do productions beyond
the original studio design, things we’d never be able to achieve without a
digital audio network. The Rhinehart Music Center houses our two beautiful
performance halls. In addition to the Allen & Heath dLive digital audio
console, equipped with a Dante audio networking card, and an array of Focusrite
RedNet products, our event productions staff utilizes an SSL Nucleus 2 DAW and studio
controller to capture pristine recordings of a variety of performances — all
through the power and flexibility of Dante.

Q: Dante has been adopted by many audio manufacturers, and there is a wide range of Dante-compatible gear to choose from. How did you choose the gear to use for the Purdue facility?

A: For starters, Sweetwater has been instrumental in helping
us select gear for all of our audio solutions. We host a wide variety of
productions, including on-site live performances, live performances that are
broadcast/streamed live, recording sessions, livestreamed classes, and
conferences. We also have the potential to think outside the scope of our
immediate needs, as we collaborate with Sweetwater on special projects that are
conducted on the Sweetwater campus. Dante, being such a nimble link between
systems, played a big role in our gear selection.

Apogee Symphony IO Mk II

Q: What does Dante allow you to do that other networked audio solutions would not?

A: There are a number of perks we have found implementing
Dante into our audio systems. The familiar IP network infrastructure and
organized routing workflow make Dante an easy protocol to teach to students.
Dante’s modular product offerings make it very easy to expand or adapt one
system to integrate into another. With hundreds of third-party products that
have integrated Dante options, we’re seeing more and more facilities adopt this
protocol into their systems. That is great for our students when we think about
grooming viable candidates for the workforce — they’re able to gain proficiency
with one of the most widely used audio-networking protocols available. Another
appealing factor is the free training options that Audinate offers, which help
students and faculty alike to better understand and utilize Dante in an array
of scenarios.

Q: When upgrading to a Dante digital audio network, you have the option to either use it within an existing ethernet-network framework, or you can set up a dedicated network just for Dante. Was Dante integrated with an existing ethernet network, or did you create an independent Dante network?

A: On our main campus, we created an independent network
that allows us to execute productions in either of our two performance halls
with a central set of products that provide flexible workflow options. In our
Sweetwater Music Center facility, we equipped our systems to tie into others on
Sweetwater’s campus for seamless integration during collaborative productions
like Sweetwater’s annual GearFest event. We also have many opportunities in the
Sweetwater Music Center for students to creatively implement Dante into a
variety of projects to expand possibilities. For example, we have offered
options for students to get a Dante feed of Sweetwater’s Live at Lunch musical
performances — the Dante feed is supplied by the Behringer X32 digital mixer
used to mix the performance, and that’s connected directly to the Apogee
Symphony I/O in our studio. This gives our students an opportunity to record
and mix live musical performances.

Q: What advice do you have for educational facilities that are interested in upgrading their audio systems to a Dante audio network?

A: Anyone looking to integrate the Dante protocol into their system should be sure to take advantage of the free online trainings that Audinate offers. It is important to understand what Dante products you need and how they will integrate into the other equipment in your existing system. Whether you’re unsure of where to start or you’re looking to expand, Sweetwater’s knowledgeable Sales Engineers and world-class customer service will be all you need to build the perfect system for your needs.

We hope this inside look at a real-world Dante networking system gives you insight into how you could benefit from Dante networking, whether you’re an educator, a studio, or a multimedia facility technical director. Call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700 anytime if you’d like to know more about creating a Dante digital audio network. You should know that all our Sweetwater Sales Engineers are Dante certified and will be more than happy to assist you in designing your system.

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The post Dante Case Study: Purdue University Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center appeared first on inSync.
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