Dante-MY16-AUD2 User Guide
Copyright © 2016 Audinate Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Dante Synchronization and Clocking
All Dante-enabled audio equipment on the same Ethernet network uses the IEEE1588 Precision Time
Protocol (PTP) to automatically and accurately synchronize their clocks with each other to sub-
microsecond accuracy.
Use the Dante Controller 'Clock Status' tab to view and configure Dante device clock settings for all Dante
devices connected to the network, including Dante-MY16-AUD2 cards.
Figure 5 - Dante Controller ‘Clock Status’ tab
Dante Clock Types
Each Dante hardware device can derive its clock from either its high-quality on-board voltage-controlled
crystal oscillator (VCXO) circuit, or an externally connected word clock. In the case of Dante Virtual
Soundcard and Dante Via, the computer’s clock will be used.
Each Dante device clock has a quality setting associated with it, indicating how accurate a clock it is. The
lowest quality clocks are computer clocks. Dante devices with Gigabit connections will be deemed better
than otherwise equal quality clocks with 100Mbps connections.
A Dante device clock can be either a PTP Master Clock or a PTP Slave Clock. A Dante network will
always have one active PTP Master Clock at any one time, and all Dante slave clocks will synchronize
their clocks over the network with the chosen master clock.
The Dante PTP Master Clock
The ‘best master clock election’ determines which Dante device will provide the PTP master clock. The
election is performed on startup, when new devices join the network or a current PTP Master Clock device
leaves. The Master Clock is chosen automatically by comparing the different Dante device clocks,
choosing the ‘best’ clock and designating it as the PTP Master Clock for that network. If a number of
‘equally-best’ clocks are found, the MAC addresses are used to decide which of them will become the
Master Clock.
Once a PTP Master Clock has been chosen, all other Dante device clocks will become Slaves, and lock
their on-board VCXOs to the PTP Master Clock.
