Networked Audio (Dante, AES67, AVB)
How professional audio travels over standard Ethernet — for studios, live sound, and broadcast.
Until the 2000s, professional audio moved over dedicated cabling — analogue lines, ADAT lightpipe, AES/EBU. Now, audio routinely travels over standard Ethernet networks alongside data and video.
The protocols are not interchangeable, and each solves a slightly different problem.
The Protocols
Dante (Audinate)
The dominant protocol in installation, broadcast, and live sound. Proprietary, but Dante is widely supported across hardware and software.
Strengths: Extremely low latency, easy setup with Audinate's Dante Controller software, excellent industry support.
Weaknesses: Proprietary — equipment must include licensed Dante hardware. Cross-vendor interoperation outside Dante is via AES67 mode (an open subset).
Use case: Live sound (digital consoles like Yamaha QL/CL, Allen & Heath SQ); broadcast facilities; conference systems; theatre.
AES67
An open standard from the Audio Engineering Society. AES67 is interoperability — a baseline that lets Dante, Ravenna, Livewire+, and others talk to each other.
Strengths: Vendor-neutral. If you have AES67 mode enabled on a Dante device and an AES67-compatible Ravenna device, they can exchange streams.
Weaknesses: Lowest-common-denominator — fewer features than the proprietary protocols. Also requires careful network configuration; not as plug-and-play as Dante.
Use case: Mixed-vendor environments, broadcast facilities standardising on an open spec, future-proofing a network.
AVB (Audio Video Bridging)
An open IEEE standard backed by Apple, Avid, MOTU, and others. Hardware-level guaranteed delivery — uses special Ethernet switches that prioritise AVB traffic.
Strengths: Truly bandwidth-guaranteed audio. Sample-accurate sync. Open spec.
Weaknesses: Requires AVB-capable switches (more expensive than standard Ethernet switches). Smaller installed base than Dante.
Use case: Some recording studios, MOTU AVB setups, certain post-production environments.
Ravenna
European-developed open standard, used heavily in broadcast (especially BBC and EBU).
Strengths: Genuinely open spec. Strong broadcast adoption. AES67-compliant.
Weaknesses: Smaller installed base outside broadcast. More technical setup than Dante.
Use case: Broadcast facilities, particularly in Europe.
What Networked Audio Actually Lets You Do
- Replace 64-channel snake cables with a single Cat 6 Ethernet run.
- Route audio anywhere on the network — a microphone in studio A appears on the Pro Tools rig in studio B.
- Carry audio long distances — Ethernet over fibre means kilometres without quality loss.
- Reduce conversion loss — AD/DA happens once at the source, then audio stays digital across the network.
- Patch dynamically — software-controlled routing, no physical patch bays.
Latency
Networked protocols add latency, but well-designed ones add very little:
- Dante on a small network: ~150–250 µs (microseconds), typically inaudible.
- AVB: sub-millisecond, sample-accurate sync.
- AES67: typically 1 ms (1000 µs), still imperceptible for most musical work.
For live monitoring of musicians playing in front of microphones, anything under 5 ms total round-trip latency is usable. Networked protocols easily clear this.
Setting Up a Dante Network
The simplest case:
- Dante-equipped audio interface or stagebox at one end.
- Dante-equipped audio interface or stagebox at the other end.
- Cat 6 Ethernet cable between them (directly, or through a managed switch).
- Dante Controller software (free) on a laptop also connected to the network.
- Patch channels in Dante Controller. Source channels appear in the destination's I/O list.
For more complex setups (multiple devices, multiple switches), the network needs to be configured to prioritise audio traffic. Audinate's documentation is genuinely helpful.
Common Mistakes
Standard office switches. Most networked audio protocols work better through switches that support QoS (Quality of Service) and IGMP snooping. Office-grade switches sometimes work but are unreliable under load.
Mixing audio and data on the same VLAN. Bandwidth is shared. A Windows Update auto-download mid-session can disrupt audio. Best practice: dedicated audio VLAN.
Forgetting clock sync. All Dante devices on the same network derive clock from a designated master. If your master isn't stable, every device down-stream drifts.
Buying expensive Dante hardware for two-room setups. If you only need to route 8 channels between adjacent rooms, ADAT lightpipe is cheaper, simpler, and more than adequate.
Recommendations
- Live sound: Dante. Industry default.
- Studio with mixed-vendor gear: AES67 or Dante (in AES67 mode).
- Broadcast in Europe: Ravenna.
- Apple-heavy environment: AVB might suit a MOTU AVB switch + interfaces.