Reflecting the A/V industry’s migration from purpose-built hardware to software-based solutions running on standardised hardware, Audinate has announced two new software-based Dante products. Dante Embedded Platform enables manufacturers to add full Dante functionality in software running on Linux for x86 and ARM processors, while the Dante Application Library allows software developers to seamlessly integrate Dante functionality directly into their PC and Mac applications.

These software-based options give manufacturers and developers the ability to employ Dante into products in ways not previously possible. Dante can now be incorporated into products where either the price-point or form-factor made the use of dedicated hardware challenging. Dante as software also provides significantly greater flexibility, with the potential to add new capabilities retrospectivelt to products already in the field, the ability to add new features and functions to products on the fly, and the possibility for manufacturers, integrators or customers to configure the number of Dante channels they want for a particular application.

QSC will begin to deploy the Dante Embedded Platform within the Q-Sys Ecosystem to enable native software-based Dante audio channels. The effort is part of the strategic partnership between the two companies announced earlier this year. Additionally, Audinate has announced a reference design with Analog Devices (ADI) for Dante Embedded Platform on the ADSP SC58x family of SOCs with ARM CPUs.

Zoom Video Communications, meanwhile, has teamed up with Audinate to integrate the Dante Application Library into its Zoom Rooms application for video meetings.

Leading manufacturers are already delivering A/V products built on powerful commodity x86 and ARM computing hardware running Linux, giving their users the flexibility of software-based DSPs and mixers in robust, compact packages. Dante Embedded Platform is designed for these OEMs, providing cost-effective Dante networking with minimal additional hardware, immediately giving users connectivity to the largest ecosystem of A/V-over-IP devices in the world.

Dante Embedded Platform will offer two options for manufacturers – an SDK with validation tools will eliminate costly guesswork by allowing OEMs to easily qualify existing x86 and ARM based products for Dante performance requirements. For new products under development, Audinate will also provide complete reference designs for popular ARM SoC chipsets such as the Analog Devices ADSP-SC589 and NXP i.MX 8M Mini QuadLite.

The Dante Application Library for Windows and MacOS enables developers to build Dante functionality directly into their products. Each instance is wholly contained within each application and not shared with other resources, allowing multiple Dante-enabled applications to run simultaneously on a single computer with complete independence.

With Dante Application Library, developers can integrate Dante device discovery and subscriptions directly into their conferencing, recording, lecture capture and media playback products for a ‘one-stop-shop’ to bring instant access to thousands of Dante-enabled products that include microphones, DSPs, amplifiers and powered speakers.

‘This is an inflection point in the A/V industry – the decreasing costs, increasing computational power and improved flexibility of the software approach will enable manufacturers and developers to deploy Dante into a plethora of next generation A/V products,’ says Audinate CEO, Lee Ellison. ‘The option to go with a software-based implementation will enable OEMs to add Dante functionality to existing products without a major redesign and will drive further growth for networked Dante endpoints.’

More: www.audinate.com