The problem I inherited
The Dante network ran on APIPA (link-local) addressing. The symptoms were the kind that are easy to blame on everything else:
- clock drift between sites
- more latency than the plant should need
- intermittent connectivity
- devices dropping out of view in Dante Controller
What I found
The problems showed up once Dante traffic left a single access switch. Nearly everything lived on one switch, and that hid the fact that there was no end-to-end QoS anywhere in the path.
The devices having trouble were the ones on other switches: a Dante Virtual Soundcard machine, a stage box in another building, and an edit suite. A production console that ran on external word clock was fine, which fit the picture: it didn’t depend on PTP across the network for its timing.
I also found secondary Dante interfaces in switched mode, sitting on APIPA. They weren’t part of any redundant design. They were just adding noise.
What I did
- Designed a dedicated Dante subnet with static addressing, so every device had a known, documented address.
- Deployed Dante Domain Manager, with a separate domain per facility and a dedicated PTP leader clock instead of letting election pick one.
- Ran a pilot group first: a production console, a cross-building stage box, and the controller PC. I watched it for stability before touching anything else.
- Cut over the full plant once the pilot held.
- Disabled the secondary interfaces until there is a proper redundant (primary/secondary) design to put them on.
Results
- Lowest observed cross-building latency during the pilot was around 300 µs.
- No issues reported in the first three weeks after cutover.
What I took from it
- “It works on one switch” is not the same as “the network supports Dante.” Test the path that crosses switches and buildings.
- Pick the clock leader on purpose. Election is fine until the wrong device wins.
- A pilot group is cheap insurance. It gave me a known-good baseline before the full cutover.
- Leaving secondary interfaces half-configured is worse than leaving them off.
Next
QoS is the open item. That work is tracked in Dante QoS for broadcast networks.