MTRX Studio HDX and Dolby Atmos Production Suite

[Goombot]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

I tried this this week and can confirm it works. I'm yet to work out exactly what the right sample delay is to get it aligned, not that really matters too much (I believe it's setup out of the box to work with Dolby Audio Bridge).

I found using MTC over IAC to be more reliable than the LTC plugin over Dante.

The only issue I found was that running DVS at 64x64 was occasionally a bit flakey (I'm running it using the Ethernet port in an OWC Dock, because the 10GbE port in the MacPro7,1 still isn't supported by DVS). If you were doing this in production I would definitely look at a PCIeR card or using MADI (if you have the MTRX instead of the MTRX Studio).

Agreed with the flakey part. It does work but I'm having to restart. I don't have everything I need to try it with MTC. I think biting the bullet and getting a MTRX is the best solution.

[Goombot]

Basically what is happening is the Dante connection is intermittent now. If I go to the Dante Controller all I have is my Mac Pro and the MTRX Studio. All the connections will go from green to red and back to green and back to red. Not sure if there is a way to make it more stable. Any suggestions?

[LDS]

Originally Posted by Goombot

Yeah I figured that and did it. And no need to clarify, your directions were great. Like I said, everything is working. The only thing is my computer has slightly “bugged” out. It got bricked like I said before and during the night it randomly restarted. It might just take a minute for it to get used to this new routing. Thank You again

Clarified more for the sake of other people who might be reading. I found setting up the monitoring the part that was least similar to using DAB.

[LDS]

I am surprised to hear you are both having issues with it. I've ran this set up with both a 2018 MBP and 2013 mac pro and both LTC and dante have been incredibly stable. Other than maybe half a dozen atmos master recordings dropping out over the last 12 months it has been great.

Is there perhaps something amiss with the Ethernet adapters you are using? I know DVS has issues when running with the built in Ethernet ports in the new mac pro. Have you tried using different network adapters? Keeping Eucon on a separate network? I would steer clear of anything that isn't absolutely a known thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter. It's a little clunky, but an apple tb3 to tb2 adapter, followed by a tb2 to Ethernet adapter is 100% thunderbolt.

[Goombot]

Right. Thank you again for that. I just wish I could figure out the intermittent Dante signal. If anyone has any insight that would be great.

[LukeHoward]

Yes, this appears to have nothing to do with DAPS, it's just DVS with large (32x32) channel widths being unreliable, even at the maximum latency.

Note: the built-in 10GbE adapter in recent Macs doesn't work at all with DVS. I'm using an OWC Thunderbolt dock in lieu, just for DVS (default route is through the built-in adapter.)

[gives]

Originally Posted by Goombot

So again, it does work but it's not super stable. Not sure why. My computer is 2019 16 core Mac Pro so there really shouldn't be an issue with it handling that routing but it does go in and out compared to just using it Natively with the DAB which works with no issue.

Not sure if this would help, since I am not ready through all this thread. On the job...
I use two Digilink cables for more stable connections per Jeff Komar off Avid's recommendations. Jeff is on vacation I think, so he may chime in on this. He is very good with this stuff.

G

[LDS]

There is a lot that can go wrong with Dante. Dante controller mismatches, firmware mismatches, IP conflicts, clocking conflicts, ethernet chipset compatibility issues. The PCIeR is one way to get around some of it, but there really isn't anything inherently buggy with DVS in my experience. I use it regularly in 64 channel mode not just for Atmos stuff, but also venue backup recordings for a lot of radio and television programs and it has never missed a beat. Certainly no dropouts like you are both experiencing. I'm not sure how my setup differs but perhaps something here might help?

Some suggestions -

Elevate your MTRX Studio to preferred master, with sample rate set to follow in the Dante tab in DADman. In the Clock Status tab of Dante Controller you can also tick "Preferred Leader" and "Enable Sync To External" for the MTRX Studio.

Confirm that your MTRX Studio is running the latest Dante firmware. I don't know the specifics of this with the MTRX Studio, but with my DX32, it is a case of downloading it from DAD.

Check to see that Dante Controller and DVS are up to date. All of my Dante stuff is running 4.#.#.#.

Check your ethernet/network configuration. The MTRX Studio is probably very similar to the DX32 in that it has two ethernet ports but can connect in a variety of ways. The second ethernet port can be set as a redundant secondary Dante connection for a redundant Dante network (needs to run on a separate IP rage). Or it can be set as a switched output, and functions just like a standard ethernet switch. If you are using an external router/switch, and not running a redundant Dante network, I would make sure that second ethernet port is set to Switched, and that you only have one ethernet cable attached between your external router/switch and the primary Dante port of your MTRX Studio. If you only have the MTRX and DVS running on your Dante network, that second switched ethernet output can patch straight into your computer's DVS ethernet port...

Check your DHCP/IP settings. If you are running DHCP, try manually assigning IP addresses instead and see if it improves. Also running a dedicated Dante network never hurts either.

And NICs. Not all a created the same when it comes to Dante. A lot of people have issues with integrated intel NICs for example.

[Goombot]

Thank you LDS for all your insight. I'm using a 2019 Mac Pro with an approved Apple USBc to Ethernet adaptor into a Cisco switch that is on it's own network. So all of that has been working great for the last year. I believe my MTRX Studio is the preferred master, and it is a static IP. There are a few more things in there that you mentioned that I'll have to look at. Once I do that I'll report my results. Thank you again.

[Goombot]

So I have everything checked off on your list.

MTRX Studio is preferred master, sample rate is set to follow
MRTX Studio is set to Leader in the Dante Controller and "Enable Synch To External"
All software, DADMan, DVS, Dante Controller, ProTools, EuCon and DAPS are fully up to date

MTRX setup
- only top port is plugged in set to switched
- Static IP
- I have Digilink 1-32 routed to MTRX 1-32
- I have Digilink 33-64 routed to MTRX 33-64

- I have all 64 channels of the MTRX Transmitting to all 64 of the DVS.
- I have all 64 channels of the DVS Transmitting to all 64 of the MTRX.

I believe I have a dedicated Dante network on my first 4 ports of my Cisco SG350 switch.

My Mac Pro is connected to the MTRX via a Belkin USBC to Ethernet adaptor. This connector has always worked.

I saved my Dante Controller preset before I did the HDX routing. Made some changes to the Dante Controller.

The wrench in the works is switching over to HDX (with Hybrid Engine engaged). As soon as I switch over to the HDX playback engine both of my Dante interfaces, the MTRX Studio and my Mac go red on the Dante Controller app. Sometimes they'll pop on green for a second, sometimes they'll just disappear entirely. I'll have to force quit everything. If I try to restart any of the programs the computer just automatically restarts.

Again, when I run ProTools off the DVS or DAB in the playback engine I get no issues. So it's something to do with the HDX part of it I believe or the fact that I'm switching presets in the Dante Controller. Those are the only two things that changing.

So I'm at a loss because it all looks great. I'm not sure what I'm missing at this part. I really tried to go through everything. If anyone has any more suggestions that would be great. thanks