Rules for names and labels, Routing audio, Routing terminology – Extron Electronics Dante Controller User Manual

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Dante Controller User Guide

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Dante routing is performed using the device names and channel labels. A receive channel can be
subscribed to the name of a transmit channel at a device.

Example: “Analog L@my-transmitter” describes a channel labelled “Analog L” on a device
named “my-transmitter”. Device names must be unique on a Dante network. Channel labels
must be unique on the device.

If a device or channel is renamed, Dante routing considers it to be a different device or channel. If a
new device or channel is then given the old name, Dante routing will route from the new device in
place of the previous device.

Example: The power supply on “stage-box” fails and “stage-box” needs to be replaced. The
old “stage-box” is removed, and a new box is plugged in and named “stage-box”. Dante
receivers previously subscribed to the old “stage-box” will now automatically restore their
subscriptions to the new “stage-box”.

Device names must be unique on the network. If you attempt to rename a device using Dante
Controller to a name that is already in use on the network, Dante Controller will notify you and reject
the name change.

Example: There is an existing device on the network called “MY16-slot1”. If user attempts to
rename another device to “MY16-slot1” Dante Controller will notify the user that the name is
already in use. The device will not be renamed.

If a new device is added to the network with a name that already exists, a name conflict is detected,
and one of the devices will rename itself by appending (2) to its name. This device will not be able to
transmit audio until it is renamed.

Note: A device that has been renamed with (2) appended (e.g. “MY16-slot1(2)”) WILL NOT BE
ABLE TO TRANSMIT AUDIO until it is renamed. The device name must be changed by the user to
be a valid non-conflicting name before the device can become fully functional.

Rules for Names and Labels

All Dante names and labels are up to 30 characters in length. Name and label comparisons are case-
insensitive; “Guitar” and “guitar” are treated as the same label. Unicode and non-roman
characters are not supported.

Device names should follow Domain Name System (DNS) hostname rules. Legal characters are A-
Z, a-z, 0-9, and '-' (dash or hyphen). Device names must begin with A-Z (or a-z).

Tx channel labels may use any character except '=' (equals), '.' (full stop or period), or '@' (at). Tx
channel labels must be unique on a device. Tx channel labels do not need to be unique on the
network as they are always qualified by device (channel@device).

Rx channel labels follow the same rules as Tx channel labels.

Routing Audio

Routing Terminology

Device: A device means a Dante-enabled device, and more specifically that component of the audio
equipment that implements the Dante interface. A Dante device typically has Tx and Rx channels
and other routing-related properties.