Audinate's Dante Provides Networking Backbone For UAE's 40th National Day

The official ceremony for the UAE 40th National Day saw Zayed Sports Stadium full to capacity as thousands turned out to celebrate the achievements of the nation, and Audinate's Dante was there to make sure all the networked audio delivery functioned without a hitch.

The 360 degree stadium production placed complex demands upon audio contractors Britannia Row Productions. The stadium was covered by eight hangs containing L'-Acoustics Kudo, SB218, VDOSC, D-VDosc, 108XTs, Kiva, Kilo and other various distributed speakers, all controlled by 17 Lake LM26 Processors, three Yamaha DME Processors, six XTA Breakout Boxes, and connected by a Dual Redundant Fibre-optic IP network.

The Lake LM26 processors, which were distributed throughout the system, provided crossovers, EQ, and time alignment were all connected by Audinate's patented Dante networking technology. This proved essential as very high levels of RF interference were being audibly induced on all the analog copper connections. The use of fiber optics eliminated the analog electrical connections between amp racks. One of the Yamaha DME 64n's was equipped with a Dante-MY16-AUD card and acted as the main system matrix providing feeds to all Lake LM26's as well doing EQ and dynamics processing for press feeds, monitoring and audio distribution throughout the venue including backstage and outside the stadium.

Joshua Lloyd, who oversaw the setup and design of the PA system at the stadium, remarked, "Once again Dante has allowed us to deliver a reliable, high quality, fully redundant signal distribution system at a high profile international event. Without the use of Dante (audio over IP) the unusual amount of RF interference we experienced, where even short analog cable runs suffered from induction of local radio, would have made this job next to impossible." Lloyd adds, "Without the extreme flexibility that we get with Dante we would have struggled to achieve the fantastic results we did."

The system was a natural for Audinate's Dante Virtual Soundcard. DVS was used on a pair of Apple MacBook Pro computers running Qlab to form a dual redundant playback system via another Yamaha DME64 processor equipped with Dante-MY16-AUD card.

The media playback system was supervised by Gavin Tempany, who commented, "Dante provides large channel counts, directly from my workstations. This also allows me to take up less space in often cramped control areas, and still deliver critical content with confidence."

Tempany points out, "Dante is completely scalable. The system used nodes for processing, input and output. Ease of configuration and the confidence that Dante will just work, allows for greater concentration on the important aspects of delivering an imaginatively designed, first class audio experience to the audience."