Company’s first Dante-enabled product marries modular flexibility with flexible multichannel audio applications for fiber transport
Hauppauge, NY, August 9, 2017 — 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.
Audinate’s Dante is the de facto leader in Audio over IP networking for the commercial AV and broadcast markets with more than 1100 Dante-enable products available today, and is used in facilities worldwide for reliable, low-latency, multichannel digital audio transport.
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 MultiDynehardware. 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 that the company will unveil at IBC2017 (September 15-19, Amsterdam RAI, Stand 11.D40). 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 while the new openGear module integrates a standard Dante “gateway” to move Dante audio in and out of MultiDyne hardware, what happens once inside that hardware is what sets MultiDyne’sinnovation apart. The result elevates its stature beyond a simple “line-in, line-out” product to a true long-distance transport platform for broadcast and live events.
“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” said Jachetta. “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 essentially 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 is perhaps more interesting, as it 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.”
About MultiDyne
With over 40 years of experience serving the Broadcasters and video production communities worldwide, MultiDyne Fiber Optic Systems leads the industry in developing pioneering signal conversion and fiber-optic-based transport systems for the broadcast, cable, satellite, production, digital cinema, pro A/V, corporate, retail, surveillance, teleconferencing, judicial arraignment, transportation, government, military, and healthcare markets.
