MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions has amplified its audio strategy with the integration of Dante Audio over IP networking from Audinate into its range of openGear solutions for modular, high-density fiber transport and signal conversion.
MultiDyne’s innovation gives users a broader palette to leverage Dante across fiber networks, allowing users to convert XLR audio, line-level audio, intercom and more to Dante—and vice versa—at the inputs and outputs of MultiDyne hardware.
This includes the Bulldog field fiber transport system, and the FiberNet optical network control system among other platforms.
The interoperability between Dante networking software and MultiDyne hardware is in part made possible through a special openGear 8×8 module from MultiDyne’s OG Series. Though the initial release will support an 8×8 architecture, the scalability and high density associated with Dante and MultiDyne products will allow users to create a “matrix” within MultiDyne hardware to support multichannel capacities up to 64×64.
MultiDyne President Frank Jachetta notes that the new openGear module integrates a standard Dante “gateway” to move Dante audio in and out of MultiDyne hardware.
“We have designed this Dante-enabled openGear module to operate within a flexible framework of connections inside our fiber transport solutions that can move between XLR, mic and line switches, phantom power, on and off control, and even two-wire intercom” Jachetta said. “And with the benefits of this additional flexibility, our customers working with an ever-increasing number of audio channels get the additional capacity that Dante provides—as much as eight times the amount—along with that industry-standard, Ethernet-based Dante audio transport that broadcasters and content producers crave.”
In relation to specific MultiDyne hardware products, adding the Dante-enabled openGear module to the BullDog brings more channel capacity and functionality for field-based fiber transport to a studio or mobile production truck.
The integration of Dante-enabled audio within FiberNet eliminates interface equipment that was traditionally required to bring audio onto the fiber network.
“Optical network systems are faced with significant bottlenecks when it comes to moving audio in and out, and must rely on separate fiber-optic transmitters and receivers to put analog audio onto a digital fiber network,” said Jachetta. “With the interoperability of Dante, we have created a solution with the ease of use of a legacy I/O panel that integrates switches from mic lines, intercom and so forth, encodes the signals, and adds them to a modern digital network. It simplifies everything from live musical performance and event staging to live sports production on the sidelines.”
