I remember when Dante AV was announced at what we called a trade show. Long ago, in the before times BC, your may remember that the tribes used to gather from across the county and the world into air-conditioned palaces where we crowded tightly together wearing amulets around our necks and traded amongst ourselves in cards, information, trinkets, and QR codes.
I can still remember where I was standing on one such trading floor when I first heard tell of Dante AV. It was just two years ago, but 2019 seems like forever ago now
Dante AV is Audinate’s take on 1G integrated audio and video networking, drafting off of Dante’s transformative effect on audio networking. Dante AV (JPEG2000 4K@60 4:4:4) was designed to solve the problem of networked video and audio sync with a single network clock for signals that remained independently routable via the Dante Controller software. The idea was to take advantage of the large installed base of 2000 Dante-enabled audio products to solve time alignment issues and eliminate the need for audio de-embedders.
That was the case at the time. Since then, and with the proliferation of hybrid everything, Dante AV has even broader aspirations, like everybody does. This is reflected in the first two products to come to market Dante AV-enabled—a series of encoder/decoders and a PTZ camera.
At the time of the Dante AV debut, Audinate announced that the new Dante AV Module and the Dante AV Product Design Suite were commercially available for order by manufacturers, along with an API. The company shared that Patton Electronics, a US manufacturer and OEM/ODM supplier of networking and connectivity solutions for Pro AV and telephony, would adopt the platform into a new generation of AV-Over-IP products.
Patton was a tangential but familiar name to some—the company had taken on the FiberPlex (aka LightViper) brand in 2017. The company specializes in UC, network, and cloud. Now, as announced in June, Patton’s first Dante AV products are shipping—the FPX6000 series of encoders and decoders.
With the June announcement, Audinate also debuted a second product partner, BOLIN Technology. A leader in the design and manufacture of PTZ cameras (including some for other Pro AV brands) has come to market this month with its new D-series PTZ cameras featuring Dante AV. The D-series is available in both HD and 4K resolutions.
Who will be next to come to market with Dante AV and will it draft on and surpass Dante? Time will tell. I also happen to remember where I was standing—at a trade show—when I was first introduced to a company called Audinate with an audio networking product called Dante and we know where that went.
