Dante network smooths university shift to remote learning

Established in 1583, the University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s oldest universities in continuous operation. It has five main campuses around the Scottish capital that support more than 42,000 students, making it one of the UK’s 10 largest universities.

In early 2020, as the realities of the pandemic were starting to take hold, the university’s School of Engineering reached out to the learning spaces technology team asking for a way to share audio between its three instruction labs, as well as with students attending remotely.

At the time, because of campus restrictions, the university could not bring contractors or electricians onsite to install the new audio cable systems needed. As a result, the learning spaces technology team began researching IP-based audio, to make use of the university’s existing IP network.

The resulting solution involved a set of Dante-enabled audio components, all connected via the university’s regular network, switches and cabling on the same VLAN as the other AV, and managed by DDM (Dante Domain Manager).

Stephen Dishon, the learning spaces technology team manager, says the school had already invested in Extron AV control systems and Sennheiser in-ceiling and wireless microphone systems, so he started looking into what these manufacturers and their equipment had to offer.

“I spoke with our Sennheiser associate about their intelligent ceiling mics and learned that the system is Dante enabled – and that we actually had a demo unit on campus,” he adds. “So we borrowed the unit, popped it into the ceiling in one of the engineering labs, connected it to the network – and it worked. We made a few network connections with lab techs on campus, and with some users connected remotely, and everyone was impressed with the quality. The Dante connectivity made our audio network test a quick and easy success, so we were off and running.”

Dishon says the Extron control/DSP and HDMI switch units, and the Sennheiser multi-channel wireless microphone receivers they owned, were all out-of-the-box Dante equipped. Each lab and overflow room also had a pair of Monacor Dante connected speakers, as well as Yamaha and Lightware equipment to complete the audio setup.

Inesh Patel, Sennheiser’s business development manager, says: “One of the key trends we have seen in the past few years is more and more universities adopting the use of Dante as an audio transport standard. Much of the reason for this is down to the general adoption of Dante throughout the AV industry, the guarantee of interoperability and the incredible variety of products available. Sennheiser’s TeamConnect Ceiling 2, with its complete pack of audio features and integrated Dante and support for DDM, has helped many universities improve their sound reinforcement and remote/distance learning delivery.”

The Dante platform from Audinate is a complete AV-over-IP solution that allows audio, video and control data to be transported over standard 1GB ethernet networks. Supported in more than 3,000 Dante-enabled products from more than 500 manufacturers, Dante replaces point-to-point analogue and digital connections with software-based routing.

For the engineering labs, the digital audio signals run from the ceiling mics to the signal processor over the network, then from the signal processor – also Dante-enabled – to a pair of network-ready speakers in each room. Additionally, the speakers and microphones are powered via the IP network connection.

For hybrid learning, each engineering lab has an instructor and about 10 students spaced properly within the classroom, with about 30 students attending remotely. The labs are used for instruction for six hours a day, five days a week. At any one time, there are roughly 90 to 100 remote students.

“We keep growing our audio network system, and everything keeps working. There’s no need to buy, build or run long, multiple runs of analogue cables. We just plug our equipment into data points on the network – which we have everywhere – configure the workflow with Dante Controller software or Dante Domain Manager, and we’re good to go,” says Dishon.

Dante Domain Manager is a server-based solution that offers a centralised view of the entire networked audio deployment. Dante Domain Manager makes it easy to define user access for any area of the system, and alerts and audit logs ensure issues are quick to identify and solve. It delivers campus-wide AV network monitoring and management for better remote, hybrid and in-person education experiences.

“We also have a few Dante AVIO USB adaptors in each space, just in case the instructor or a guest needs to quickly connect their laptop or device to the audio network,” says Dishon. “The adaptors are easy-to-use, plug-and-play devices, and we can add nearly anything to the audio network with them.

“We have many instruction spaces here with audio equipment that is not Dante-enabled, so we’ll be relying on AVIO adaptors to onboard gear in those situations. We’re also looking at getting some of the Bluetooth adaptors because a couple of our instructors would like a cable-less connection.”

The Dante AVIO adaptors allow users to connect any audio gear or computer to a Dante network – delivering the interoperability, performance and scalability that networking brings. Available in a range of USB, XLR, AES3 and Bluetooth configurations, the Dante AVIO input/output adaptors connect audio devices to any Dante network without the need for software to be installed.

“As we moved the engineering lab systems over to the network, all users were impressed with the performance,” says Dishon. “And as the scale of the pandemic became more apparent, we started to look at how we could continue to grow our audio network. We next set up a couple of larger lecture spaces for Edinburgh College of Art, which was using a Dante-enabled Bose Panaray steerable array loudspeaker system – and it connected as easily as everything else.”

A large seminar room at the art college also needed to move to a hybrid learning model. The room features cameras and a pair of large projection screens that display the remote students. The department needed complete audio interaction between the instructors and in-class and remote students. Similar Dante-connected control, DSP, microphones and the Bose sound system are connected over the department’s IP network.

“This seminar room is larger than the engineering labs, but again, everything worked perfectly,” adds Dishon. “We’re still figuring out some design elements with our campus-wide network, and the general AV equipment shortage hasn’t helped, but I see nothing other than the continued growth of Dante at the University of Edinburgh. “Dante audio networking helped us adjust and adapt during the pandemic, and we’ve expanded the system since then.”