Sound Design Live

Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer

  • Podcast
  • Training
    • My Courses
  • Archive

Is your Dante network truly redundant?

By Nathan Lively

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live, I talk with the Field Sales Engineering Manager at Yamaha Global, Preston Gray. We discuss the benefits of finding a mentor, redundant Dante networks, and how scuba diving is like pro audio.

I ask:

  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to Yamaha consoles?
  • When it comes to Dante networks, I have some small problems every time I use them. Could you talk a little bit about proper system connection and boot up procedures?
  • Tell us about the biggest or maybe most painful mistake you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
  • FB
    • Dave Gammon: How does he see rapid prototyping and the ability of printing parts effectively change the possible configurations in pro audio for the better.
  • What’s in your work bag?
preston gray

Talking about redundancy we want to look for single-point failures. If we have a network switch and it’s handling both primary and secondary networks, chances are it has one power supply. If that power supply goes down we lose both primary and secondary.

Preston Gray

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Mile Twenty Four.
  2. Switched-mode: primary and secondary port are doing the same thing. Redundant: primary and secondary are separate. If you start with only the primary network connection then you can open Dante controller and confirm that everything is in redundant mode and check all network settings.
  3. Workbag: Bose noise-canceling headphones, Leicia D810, iSEMcon EMX7150, Lectrosonic plugin wireless, Trupulse range finder
  4. Books: Scuba Confidential
  5. Podcast: Breach, 20,000 Hz
  6. Quotes
    1. Being able to find a mentor and build a relationship that has been able to be in the industry much longer than you and is willing to share them with you is probably the most influential decision I have made.
    2. We need to constantly be updating the gain structure.
    3. I want to make sure I’m hitting the preamp hard enough to make sure I’m getting the characteristics out of the preamp, but I don’t want to overdrive it. I want to ride the line.
    4. We have to be careful in how all of those busses and inputs are summing with respect to latency. We can quickly create comb filtering inadvertently if we don’t pay attention to the audio paths and the time it takes to go to Waves servers and whatnot.
    5. With Rivage, we have a really powerful latency compensation engine.
    6. Let’s get the primary network first and then the secondary, but let’s explore why that is.
    7. Rule #1 when working with redundant systems: Don’t cross the streams.
    8. If we set static IP addresses we want to make sure they are all in the same sub-domain.
    9. If you’re on a rig consistency. If it’s a network your setting up for an installation that’s going to be left alone. I like to set a static IP address.
    10. I might have a 192.168.1 address for all house left amplifiers. And 192.168.2 address for house right amplifiers and maybe a .3 address for DSP.
    11. If we have devices that are looking for the DHCP server and it’s the last thing to get powered on, it may have already defaulted to a link-local address while it was waiting for the DHCP server to come along. Whatever device you are using for the DHCP server, that really needs to come on first.
    12. Connect everything from the start, primary and secondary, just don’t power up the secondary network.
    13. Talking about redundancy we want to look for single-point failures. If we have a network switch and it’s handling both primary and secondary networks, chances are it has one power supply. If that power supply goes down we lose both primary and secondary.
    14. If we are going to deploy a redundant network, primary stays on one set of switches and secondary stays on another set of switches.
    15. Hunting or golfing range finders can be used that are fairly inexpensive.
    16. [Scuba diving] is very technical but at the end of the day, you also get to experience art and connect with emotion.

Mixing Monitors for Tears for Fears

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-mixing-monitors-tears-for-fears-chris-leonard-featured

Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with the the Director of Audio at IMS Technology Services, Chris Leonard. We discuss mixing monitors for Tears for Fears, setting up the sound system for the presidential inauguration, and Dante troubleshooting tips. I ask:

      • How did you get your job at Maryland Sound?
      • Walk me through the sound system at your last gig at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
      • How do you troubleshoot Dante networks?
      • What was the biggest mistake you’ve made on the job?

sound-design-live-mixing-monitors-tears-for-fears-chris-leonard-headshotThe day you stop learning, you’re only moving yourself back.

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Tears for Fears.
  2. Educational resources Chris recommends: SynAudCon, Smaart classes, Smaart manual, Smaart User Group on Facebook, InfoCOMM, Sound Design Live podcast, Bob McCarthy’s book, MXu,
  3. Hardware: RAT tools CAT snake, Yamaha Ri8-D, CL5, QL5, VRX 932LA-1, Q-Box, GoPro, Shure55
  4. Dante troubleshooting
    1. Unplug the secondary (redundant) network. It’s easy to get those crossed.
    2.  ULXD Dante configuration needs to be set to Redundant Audio if you are running a star topology network.
  5. TM Array
  6. Stage Jammer: Patching the stage, jamming the stage together
  7.  Quotes
    1. A lot of it has to do with your attitude and work ethic. Nowadays work ethic seems like a thing of the past.
    2. As a company you don’t always have the space the bring in a green person right away. You need to have them mature a little bit, but if they mature in a labor pool that you work with all the time and they get to know your gear, I’m more inclined to bring them along on a show.
    3. Networking is key. If you came to town for the first time and said, “Hey I’d like to work with you,” the first thing I’d do is see who you are connected with on LinkedIn or who I know that already knows you.
    4. They were making fun of me for volunteering to work for free and the truck driver said, “You’re all laughing. One day you’re all going to work for him.”

sound-design-live-mixing-monitors-tears-for-fears-chris-leonard-tour

 

Search 200 articles and podcasts

Copyright © 2022 Nathan Lively

 

Loading Comments...