"Standards are great. That's why there are so many of them."

There's no area of technology in our industry where this maxim is more accurate than networked AV protocols. CobraNet, Dante, AVB, Ethersound, Ravenna, and more than a dozen others sometimes make it difficult to select the right protocol for the job.

Manufacturers of AV equipment must be even more careful in their selection of protocol(s) to support, because there's a great deal of investment in adopting and implementing a protocol in a networked AV product line.

For this reason, both Attero Tech and Stewart Audio (who share a stand in ISE 2013) chose CobraNet for their first line of networked AV products.

CobraNet is a robust and mature networking technology, with a large installed base and a significant number of manufacturers developing interoperable CobraNet devices.  CobraNet is very cost-effective to implement, and is still a great fit in many small and medium venues.

Over time, however, venues have gotten larger, and include channel counts in excess of the capabilities offered by CobraNet. In addition, as IT and AV networks increasingly share network infrastructure, networked AV approaches that use Layer 3 (rather than Layer 2 approaches like CobraNet) are preferred (and more easily managed) by IT groups. Also important is the ability to continue to use existing Ethernet switch infrastructure, rather than requiring new Ethernet switches alongside new networked audio equipment.

Given the general expansion in networked AV installations, and responding to increasing market demand, Stewart Audio and Attero Tech selected the Dante protocol by Audinate as the clear candidate upon which to base their new lines of networked products.

Dante already has a significant and growing product eco-system from a variety of manufacturers, and--as a Layer 3 protocol that uses standard Ethernet switches-- is very IT friendly.

Left: Attero Tech's  D32 32- Channel Breakout Interface

Attero Tech's first Dante enabled product in its new series is the D32 32-Channel Breakout Interface in 1 RU. With the capability to route 32 different Dante audio flows to each of its analog outputs, the D32 is especially suited for large venues, like stadiums, where many separate outputs drive large racks of amplifiers required for high power multi-driver speaker arrays.

An intuitive front panel user interface allows named Dante audio flows to be easily assigned to analog outputs, output volume to be controlled, and shows the audio signal level of each channel.  Redundant network connections allow seamless failover, and a third network connection gives network access to other equipment in the rack.