DQ & MQ-Rack User Guide
1.6 Connecting a DANTE rack
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1.6
Connecting a DANTE rack
PLEASE NOTE that for the connection and use of the A168D & A164D Dante IO boxes and DQ Rack, there
is a requirement for the following firmware updates to the Dante 64@96 DMI card:
1. DMI Dante 64@96 firmware update (v103) which is currently available (June 2021) as part of the
Quantum 2 V1454 update package and all other DMI equipped SD/Quantum consoles running software
application version v1280+.
2. A Dante firmware update (4.0.20) for the DMI Dante 64@96 card is required for control of the DQ-
Rack, details on how to update the DMI firmware can be found in TN514 available on the website and is
included in the Quantum 2 V1454 update package.
3. If A168D and A164D Dante IO Racks are used with SD/Quantum applications earlier than V1454 they
should remain using Dante DMI firmware version 4.0.19 which can be updated using Dante Updater in
Dante Controller.
Users who wish to use A164D and A168D with SD/Quantum applications V1454 or higher, need to
upgrade the Digico firmware in these IO devices to V1.5. This is done using the new DiGiCo Dante Rack
Utility and can be done over an IP Network. The update process is detailed in TN515.
Socket parameters on A168D, A164D and DQ-racks can be controlled in the same way as other DiGiCo I/O
racks when connected to a Dante 64@96 DMI card and routed in Audinate’s “Dante Controller” software.
With a DMI Dante 64@96 card installed in a console, access to 64 channels of IO to/from the Dante network is
provided.
A Dante IO box can provide a specific number of IO on the Dante network according to the rack’s capability.
168D = 16 analogue In and 8 analogue Out.
DQ-Rack = 48 analogue In and 24 analogue Out of which 4 are switchable AES Outs.
Any Dante network may have many more devices on it than just a single console and rack.
There might be multiple Dante equipped consoles, multiple racks and other Dante devices.
When a console has a DMI
Dante fitted, it “sees” that DMI as a 64 channel interface device to/from the Dante
network.
The source device of the audio signals it is receiving across that interface and the destination device of any
signals that it is sending out across that interface are generally “unknown” to the console.
The critical component in determining where the audio is going to/from is the Dante network controller which
is responsible for setting up audio paths (routing) on the network.
As an example, using just a single console and a single rack, the console could use its DMI Dante channel 1 as
an input signal to its own console Input Channel 1 but the audio signal which appeared on that DMI Dante
channel could be any signal from the Dante IO rack and is determined by the routing in the Dante Controller.
With the following routing in place, a console that selects any of the DMI card channels 1-16 as an input source
will receive the signal from the same numbered Rack Input socket
–
this is a logical setup.
