We recently purchased a Dante card for our iLive system, the setup is as follows -
One IDR-32 rack, with the ACE card installed in Slot B. The Main ACE output goes to the T112 surface. The ACE card outputs (CAT5) to a xDR-16 expansion unit, and the other output goes to the ME-U.
We installed the Dante card into the Slot-B of the xDR expansion unit.
Our issue is that we can only assign channels 1-20 into ProTools. We think it might be because channels 21-61 are being used for the ME-U.
Is there a way to separate the Dante channels from the ME-U channels, so that we can assign all available Dante channels into ProTools separately?
The bottleneck is the Port B ACE card in the iDR-32. This is a 64x64 interface, and the outputs are duplicated on both Link 1 and 2. So the same 64 outputs you are sending to Dante (via the xDR-16) are also going to the ME-U. The ME-U will then ‘extract’ 21-60 for ME-1 use (when fitted with the default ME-D card).
I assume the problem is you want to send post-processing Direct Outs to ME-1 and MixRack Inputs (pre-trim) to Dante? If you are using up to 32 Inputs this shouldn’t be a problem - patch to Port B 1-20 and 53-64 for recording and 21-52 for personal monitoring. Otherwise I’m afraid you’ll have to make some choices.
No I’m afraid, the short answer is a single iLive system is not designed to handle more than 64 outputs on Port B, you basically want to send out 64 + 40.
You could get a second iDR and ACE card for mixing monitors and feeding to ME-1:
T-112 + iDR-32 + xDR-16 + Dante, up to 64 ‘dry’ MixRack Inputs sent to Pro Tools (via Dante) for recording and to system B
iDR-16 + Dante receives up to 64 ch from system A, applies independent digital trim and processing and sends out Direct Outs to ME-U
You could control the iDR-16 from an iPad or laptop of course.