Using buildings network for talkback and foldback?

[gafyn]

At our work place, Due to Covid we have had to shut down one of our two dub suites, in order to have an engineer, director and voice over artist in seperate rooms.

The time has come where we now have to have 2 functioning dub suites. What is the best way to have a director in an edit suite with a talk back and foldback via the buildings network? How would dante work, using PTHD with HD8x8x8 I/O and a C24?

The pictures are viewed using a central matrix hub with media composer nexus and satellite link, I just need to get an audio feed to and from the director.

Thanks

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[uptheoctave]

You have several options.

You could use the Radial Catapult:

https://www.radialeng.com/product/catapult

or you could use some form of AOIP like Dante but you will need to then get the audio out of the Dante network, converter it to analogue and patch it into the analogue 888's or C24. That isn't as simple as sending audio from the director to a Dante receiver.
Receivers only listen, they don't route.
You will need some way to send the Dante signal from the receiver back to a transmitter.
Any Dante audio interface will do that, you might be able to use Dante VIA or Dante Sound Card in some combination of hardware.
I use Focusrite AM2's for headphone sense but if you want bidirectional communication then something like the Focusrite X2P would work, but it isn't cheap.

My whole studio is Dante'd up so it is a simple process but if this is the first time you are going to be using AOIP then the former option of Radial Catapults is probably cheaper and easier.

If you don't *really* care about SN (ie just for foldback and talkback) then you can use a pair of 4 channel Catapults as a stereo send and return by using XLR gender changers on one pair of IO. It will be noisier but probably not a massive issue in this instance.

[gafyn]

Thank you so much for the reply - it has opened my eyes and showed me how far audio has come in the past 10 years.

This is the first time we are looking in to AOIP, and has now become essential in the current environment. Looking at the Dante Via is showing it as an extremely versatile way of connecting anything to anything, so it sounds to me that if the director has a laptop with a built in microphone that would work? Maybe not as reliable as the Radial catapult. With the radial catapult would it be wise for the director to have a mini analogue mixer for his microphone and we could hook it up to the edit suite set of speakers?

Thanks - this is a massive help. uptheoctave

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by gafyn

... talk back and foldback via the buildings network? ...

This part of the question raises some flags; if "the building's network" means you're sharing existing network with non-audio data, you may have issues.

Of course, the "catapult" solution is really just using a piece of ethernet cable as an audio cable, so if there's data switches in the existing network or if it's a shared network that obviously won't work; has to be a dedicated piece of cable with no interruptions.

While Dante can use standard network switches, you may have issues if you're trying to piggyback onto an existing network with non-audio traffic on it. If you're planning to use AVB devices then you'll need dedicated AVB switches.

If the network is dedicated to audio only then you shouldn't have any problems.

[LukeHoward]

The Dante AVIO adapters might be useful.

https://www.audinate.com/products/devices/dante-avio

[uptheoctave]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

The Dante AVIO adapters might be useful.

https://www.audinate.com/products/devices/dante-avio

Good call.
They require PoE though, or an injector.

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by uptheoctave

Good call.
They require PoE though, or an injector.

Yeah, it's a good solution if the building has existing IP/PoE infrastructure (particularly as Dante is plug-and-play QoS-wise with most recent switches, because it uses the same DSCPs as VoIP). If it's just unconnected Cat5, then the Catapult is a good solution.