Hi, i want to connect a SQ to a GLD80 mixer using Dante.
Once the connection is made, can i disconnect the computer?
I have never used Dante before.
So hoping the computer isn’t needed the whole time after 2 devices are connected with Dante?
As i have never used Dante before i have no idea how stable the connection between SQ-GLD would be. Will it be as stable as S-Link?
Also, can the Dante card for the GLD run communication with SQ’s/QU’s and multitrack recording simultaneously?
Keep in mind that there are potentially two places for each device where you have to route the Dante audio. First, you have the normal routing pages on a console (like the SQ and GLD80). You would need to route any audio to/from the console into the physical Dante card using the console’s routing page. (Even though the Dante card is physically inserted into the console, it is really a separate device that you have to route the audio in/out of).
However you also have to route the audio between the different Dante devices on the network. In order to set up the routing between the SQ’s Dante card and the GLD’s Dante card, you have to use the Dante Controller software. That being said, the Dante Controller software (and the computer running it) does not need to be active during an event. It’s a “set and forget” type of setup. The only time you would need to start Dante Controller again is if you need to change the routing between the different Dante devices.
Long story short, your computer and the Dante Controller software does not need to be running normally.
As far as the stability of Dante, it really depends on your setup. In general Dante is very stable when set up correctly. If you have a simple setup (like directly connecting the Dante card on the SQ to the Dante card on the GLD) it will be extremely stable. However the more Dante device your add and the more complicated your Dante network gets, the more opportunities there will be for something to go wrong. My advice is to create a “Dante only” network. Although Dante is designed to travel alongside regular network traffic, when you put Dante devices on a larger network with non-Dante devices, it gets more complicated and less stable. By creating a separate network that only has Dante devices on it, it is pretty easy to build a stable system that is very reliable.
An SLink connection is always a direct connection between two devices. Unlike Dante, it cannot be made into a more complicated network and therefore it is extremely stable. I would argue that it is easier to setup and more reliable than Dante, but really only because of this “forced simplicity.”
The SLink connection will be faster (ie have less latency) than a Dante network, but the differences are really too small to worry about in most cases.