Audinate used the occasion of the AV Networking Congress to announce the newest member of the Dante product family: Ultimo.
Ultimo is a complete, fully-featured, ready-to-use Dante interface for networked audio products, integrated into a single 13 x 13mm chip. By providing an integrated, cost-effective networked audio solution over a 100Mbps Ethernet interface, Ultimo extends the benefits of Dante networking to a wide new range of audio devices.
Audinate calls Dante “the most interoperable, easy-to-use digital network solution available”—and many AV integrators agree with that. Dante is licensed by more than 70 OEM manufacturers, and Dante networked devices are currently being designed into hundreds of AV OEM products.
Ultimo delivers a low-cost, small-footprint solution without sacrificing audio quality. As with Audinate’s other networked products, Ultimo uses high-quality, low-jitter clocks with ±1µs time alignment between networked devices. Ultimo does not require specialized switches, and works with existing network infrastructure.
Ultimo includes well-established Dante features like automatic device discovery, plug-and-play networking, network-based firmware updates, and customization of device names and channel labels.
“The Ultimo integrated chip solution accelerates the migration from analog to digital signal distribution,” says Gary Southwell, Audinate’s Vice President of Product Management [shown in photo]. Southwell adds “Ultimo allows our OEMs to achieve their desired cost targets for networked low channel count endpoints for the first time. Ultimo is already a success, and is actively being designed into commercial products by many of the industry's largest and most recognized AV OEMs.”
Applications targeted for Ultimo include powered speakers, microphones, speakerphones, amplifiers, paging stations, personal monitoring systems, AV wall plates, recording interfaces, analog/digital break-in/break out, and musical instruments.
