Dante Controller FAQs

In a Windows multi-user environment, Dante Controller 4.7.0 can crash with the message ‘Child process exited with code 1’.

This issue has been fixed within Dante Controller 4.7.1.1, which can be downloaded from Dante Controller 4.7.1.1

If you receive the error on 4.7.1.1 or later, delete LocalAppData%\Audinate\Interprocess folder, it will be recreated after turning on Dante Controller.

Any continued errors please submit a support case and we will look into the problem.

Affected Products / Versions: None known at this time.

Publication Date: 21 December 2021

Summary: Audinate products and services have no known exposure to the Apache Log4j security vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) at this time. This FAQ will be updated if this situation changes.

Details:  There have been recent concerns regarding the widespread exploitation of a critical remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) affecting Apache Log4j, a Java logging framework. Audinate has looked for and not identified the use of the Log4j library in any of our public products and services. Our investigation continues, but Audinate products and services have no known direct exposure to this vulnerability at this point in time.

Beyond Audinate’s core products and services, Audinate utilises software products & cloud services from a range of third parties across our business. We will continue to systematically evaluate these for exposure and take remediation action as appropriate.

Remediation: None necessary at this time. This FAQ will be updated if this situation changes.

This symptom indicates that the Dante services cannot communicate with the Dante-enabled devices on the network. This may be caused by port blockage due to protection software, a network configuration issue, or by the failure of a background service.

Windows PCs

• Make sure that no third-party firewalls or Internet protection products are active on the computer. Dante software will automatically adjust the built-in Windows firewall. Should the firewall need manual configuration, refer to this FAQ Firewall Configuration Example
• If you have multiple network interfaces (NICs) on the computer, disable any that are not being used by Dante.
• Check the Services application (Start Menu > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services) to see that the Dante Control and Monitoring service (ConMon) is running. Restart this service if necessary.

MacOS

• If the machine has multiple network interfaces, disable any that aren’t required. You can also try setting the interface that Dante is using to the highest priority in the order. See macOS: Set Service Order

Network

• Ensure that the Multicast IP addresses specified within Ports & Multicast IP addresses are not being blocked by the network configuration.

Initial things to try:

• Check that the Dante Virtual Soundcard is turned on.
• Check that the network interface being used by Dante Virtual Soundcard is the correct one.
• Check the IP address settings of Dante Virtual Soundcard and ensure that the machine is in the same IP range as the Dante Controller.

macOS: If the machine has multiple network interfaces enabled, you may need to set the interface that Dante is using to the highest priority interface on the Mac. See the following tutorial for instructions macOS: Set Service Order

This means that the device has been enrolled into a DDM domain that it is no longer connected to and requires unenrolling. In order to unenroll the device, double click on the device in Dante Controller so that it brings up Device View and select Devices > Clear Domain Credentials.

‘Device is not enrolled’

Should you try to clear the Domain Credentials but be presented with a message that the device is not enrolled, use the Clear Config option under the Device Config tab within the Dante Controller and then reboot the device.

This message in Dante Controller when trying to make a subscription between devices suggests that no audio packets are being received by receiver. This could be caused by a few things such as:

• TX stops sending
• packets dropped in the network
• RX not receiving
• RX fails during processing

The most common cause of this issue when using software is a firewall or antivirus application on the machine. For Windows machines, Audinate have an example guide for configuring the built-in firewall at Windows Firewall Configuration

Another common possibility is that something within the network is preventing the correct propagation of traffic. Ensure that nothing within the network is blocking traffic as specified in Dante Ports

On Dante Controller, a red light in the Packet Errors column on the Network Status indicates that one or more media packets have been corrupted between the Dante-enabled device and the node on the other side of the Ethernet cable.

You can find the error counters by double-clicking on the device name and selecting the Status tab in the Device View window, the error count indicates the number of transmit/received Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) or packet errors detected since the device was last started. The situation is slightly different with DVS (Dante Virtual Soundcard), the error counters of DVS are dependent on the operating system’s network interface error counter.

Since DVS runs on a general-purpose computer without a dedicated network adapter for transporting Dante-only packages, the operating system’s error count value will summarize all network error traffic that has passed through the network adapter since the system or network adapter startup, with or without the running of DVS.

Depending on the operating system you are using, errors may include one or multiple of the following: packet corruption, checksum error, link connection failures, buffer overflows, etc.

An increase in the DVS error count is usually due to a faulty Ethernet cable or a problem with the network adapter.

Note: The Clear Counters button on Dante Controller is not available for DVS.

If you’re able to set the IP address of a Dante device to either static or DHCP, but nothing happens when selecting the Reboot function, within Dante Controller go to Device View > Devices > and use the Clear Domain Credentials option:

When observing discovery issues within the Dante Controller on Mac, this may be due to the Service Order of the Network Interface on the Mac. This issue can be resolved by setting the Ethernet interface that Dante is using to the highest priority. Follow the steps at https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp2711/mac

This issue is currently being looked into by our Development team.

If the issue persists, please contact the Support team at Support

Within the Dante Controller’s Clock Status tab, there are a number of different statuses that may appear. The below table lists the definition of their meanings.

If you’re seeing high latency that’s present on a Windows machine, there’s a third-party tool which can help to determine if there’s something on the machine itself that’s causing the issue. This can be downloaded from www.resplendence.com/latencymon

The tool will indicate specifically what on the system is causing the issue. Commonly seen causes are ‘ndis.sys’ for example.

A search for the issue online will bring up a list of possible solutions, such as ’ndis.sys latency’ brings up the Microsoft solution at ndis.sys latency

The tool can be used as a starting point to troubleshooting latency issues present in a network where there are Windows machines.

A computer firewall is a common component of the most popular operating systems that helps secure the computer by controlling incoming and outgoing network traffic.

In Windows Firewall, there is a default block action to deny all inbound connections, so it is necessary to create inbound allow rules. During the installation progress of Audinate software, firewall configuration for Windows Firewall and macOS built-in firewall is automatically handled. However, for some reason, you may want to manually create rules.

Configuring Windows Firewall

The built-in firewall in Windows 10/ 11 is Windows Defender Firewall. To open the firewall, press Winkey + R, type WF.msc, and select OK.

Understanding inbound and outbound

When we take a Windows PC as a reference, inbound traffic means network traffic that comes into your PC’s network adapter, goes through the firewall (if allowed), and ends up being captured by programs running on your system. Outbound traffic means the traffic going out to the network from your computer.

For example, a simple Dante system contains two Dante-enabled devices, an AVIO adapter subscribed to a DVS running on a Windows 10 PC. When we take the Windows PC as referencing, the periodically time synchronization PTP packets sent from AVIO adapters are inbound traffic, while the audio flows from DVS to the AVIO adapter are outbound traffic.

Example: Add an inbound rule to allow PTP traffic

Dante devices are synchronized with one another over the network using the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP), with traffic on 224.0.1.129 – 224.0.1.132 ports 319/ 320. This example creates an inbound rule to allow PC to receive PTP traffic.

1. Right-click Inbound Rules on the Console Tree and select New Rule.
2. In the Inbound Rule Wizard that pops up, select Custom as the Rule Type, and then click Next.
3. Select All Programs as the Program and click Next.
4. PTP uses UDP as its transport protocol, so we select UDP as the Protocol type, reserve All Ports as Remote ports, select Specific Ports as the Local port, enter “319, 320” in the text field, and click Next.
5. Reserve Any IP address as the remote IP address, select These IP addresses as local IP addresses, and click Add.
   1. Select This IP address range in the pop-up IP Address window.
   2. Enter 224.0.1.129 in the From text field,
   3. And 224.0.1.132 in the To text field, click OK and then click Next in the previous window.
6. Select Allow the connection as Action, and click Next.
7. If you want this rule to apply to each location, select the checkbox for Domain, Private and Public, and click Next.
8. Specify the name for the rule, in this example, I use Allow_inbound_PTP_packets as the rule name and click Finish.

Picture: Step 4

Picture: Step 5

The Allow_inbound_PTP_packets rule is added to the Inbound Rules, and the PTP traffic on 224.0.1.129 – 224.0.1.132 ports 319/ 320 is allowed to come into the PC.

Please keep in mind that with Windows Defender Firewall, allow rules take precedence over the default block actions, and an explicit block rule takes precedence over conflicting allow rules. This means that the allow rule you just created takes over the default block action, but if you have another rule denying inbound traffic on 224.0.1.129 – 224.0.1.132 ports 319/ 320, the PTP traffic will be blocked even though the allow inbound rule is activated.

Example: add an outbound rule to block audio flows

Dante packages audio into flows to save on network overhead. Unicast audio flow uses UDP as its transport protocol on ports 14336-14591 and 34336-34600. If you want to receive Dante audio, but for some reason prevent Dante audio flows from going out of your computer, this example creates an outbound rule to block the outgoing Dante audio traffic.

1. Right-click Outbound Rules on the Console Tree and select New Rule.
2. In the new Outbound Rule Wizard that pops up, select Custom as Rule Type, and click Next.
3. Select All Programs as the Program and click Next.
4. Select UDP as Protocol type, reserve All Ports as Local port, select Specific Ports as the Remote ports, enter “14336-14591, 34336-34600” in the text field, and click Next.
5. Reserve Any IP address as both local and remote IP addresses and click Next.
6. Select Block the connection as Action and click Next.
7. If you want this rule to apply to each location, select the checkbox for Domain, Private and Public, and click Next.
8. Specify the name of the rule, in this example, I use Deny_outbound_audio_packets as the rule name and click Finish.

Picture: Step 4

Now the Deny_outbound_audio_packets rule is added to the Outbound Rules, audio traffic on ports 14336-14591 and 34336-34600 are denied going out of your computer, while the incoming audio traffic is unaffected.

Subscriptions to transmit channels on Dante devices with older firmware (version 4.2 or earlier) with ‘default’ (factory settings) channel names (e.g. ‘01’) may be maintained if the relevant transmit channel is subsequently renamed. However, subscriptions to transmit channels using custom channel names (e.g. ‘mic-1’) will fail if the channel is subsequently renamed.

In the case of transmit channels from Dante devices with newer firmware (version 4.3 or later), the subscription will always fail if the relevant transmit channel is renamed after making the subscription.

Note: In a DDM managed network, renaming a TX channel will promptly cause any subscribed RX channels to stop receiving audio and the subscription will fail. In an unmanaged network, subscription failure may be delayed until one of the devices is power cycled or otherwise loses network connectivity.

Dante Controller v4.5.0 was removed from availability on 12th April 2022 (6 days after release). A small number of customers with hardware devices with legacy (v3.6 or older) Dante firmware were encountering issues.

Today, 27th April 2022, we have released Dante Controller v4.5.1, which contains a fix for this bug.

As of 12th April 2022, we recommended that customers whose system contains devices with legacy firmware downgrade to Dante Controller v4.4.2.

Our recommendation is that all customers now upgrade to v4.5.1.

If you have any queries, please contact Support.

The following table is a generic guide aiming to summarise the PTP capabilities of Audinate’s End User and OEM products.

Support for features like AES67 or SMPTE 2110 have to be enabled at the firmware level by the manufacturer. Please consult their documentation.

Yes. Windows 11 is supported with Dante Virtual Soundcard v4.2 and higher. Windows 11 support for Dante Controller was introduced in DC v4.5.1.  The DC user guide can be downloaded from here

For devices that have been enrolled into a DDM domain but can no longer access the DDM instance, the Dante Controller provides a tool to clear the Domain credentials which is considered a ‘lonely reset’.

A Dante device is deemed lonely if it can no longer see the DDM (if enrolled) and cannot see other devices (not receiving PTP traffic).

There may be occasions where multiple Dante devices require a lonely reset. For example, if the DDM instance has become inaccessible due to a forgotten password and Recovery Code, the hardware/virtual environment DDM is running on has failed or a failure of the DDM instance itself.

Lonely resetting each device could be time consuming in larger Dante environments when each device has to be reset individually. This article offers a way of lonely resetting all devices without the need to isolate the device, by blocking communication between devices using ACLs on a switch.

In this example, we are using a single Cisco SG300 and configuring this using a computer running Windows 10.

Note. Switch configuration varies across switches from different vendors. Refer to the user manual for your switch for the equivalent instructions for your specific switch model.

Process

·       Creating a port based VLAN

·       Configuring and attaching an ACL to the VLAN

·       Lonely Resetting Devices in the Dante Controller

1.      Creating a port based VLAN

Connecting to the switch

To access the switch web interface set your computer’s IP address within the same range as the switch. The default IP address for an SG300 is 192.168.1.254, so set the machine to 192.168.1.X with the subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

Creating a VLAN

Open a web browser and type in the IP address of the switch. You will be asked to enter in the username: cisco, and the password: cisco.

Navigate to VLAN Management > VLAN Settings. VLAN 1 exists by default. We’re going to create a new VLAN by selecting Add and then entering in the VLAN ID and the VLAN name. In this example we have called it VLAN 2 and given it the name ‘Lonely Reset’:

Changing the Port Mode

We want to change the mode that our ports are running in. By default, the ports on this switch are set as ‘Trunk’ ports. A trunk port is used carry traffic from multiple VLAN’s between switches, which isn’t necessary for our configuration. The ports connecting the Dante devices should be set as ‘Access’ ports, so that these ports will transport traffic on  the specified VLAN.

To change the port mode, go to Interface Settings and select the port to change, choose Edit which will open a tab where you can select the Access port option. Then Apply this setting for each port. In the example below we have set ports 2 – 10 as Access ports and left port 1 as a Trunk port:

Note. You can also copy the settings from one port to multiple by using the Copy Settings option.

Assigning Ports to VLAN’s

The last stage is to assign the ports connecting our computer and devices to the Lonely Reset VLAN. Go to the Port VLAN Membership tab, select the port that is going to be assigned to VLAN 2 and then select Join VLAN. Here we want to move the port from VLAN 1 first and then move it to VLAN 2. Set tagging to Untagged. After configuration the port should be assigned to Administrative VLAN 2UP:

2.      Configuring and attaching an ACL to the VLAN

The next step is to create an ACL. ACLs are rules used to filter network traffic. Navigate to Access Control > IPv4-Based ACL and select Add. Add an ACL called Lonely Reset.

Then navigate to IPv4-Based ACE and select Add. Enter the settings as show below:

Binding the ACL to the VLAN

To bind the ACL to the VLAN, navigate to ACL Binding (VLAN) and enter the settings as shown in the image.

To initiate the lonely reset process, you need to disconnect and reconnect the network interface on each Dante Device. If the devices are not accessible, you can also achieve this by toggling the network port attached to this device via the switches web interface. To toggle a network port:

Go to Port Management > Port Settings, select the port that the Dante Device is connected to and click edit. Then toggle the port Down > Apply, then Up > Apply:

3.      Lonely Resetting Devices in Dante Controller

Devices that have previously been enrolled in a domain that can no longer see the DDM will appear in the Dante Controller in grey. You may need to use the Show Hidden Devices option found under the View tab.

If the device doesn’t appear in the Dante Controller, unplug the device for a few seconds and plug it back in (Alternatively toggle the network port).

If the switch has been successfully configured all devices in the Lonely Reset VLAN should appear as PTP Leader in the Dante Controller.

We can now use the Clear Domain Credentials feature through Dante Controller to unenroll each device by going to Device View > Device > Clear Domain Credentials:

Note. If clearing the credentials has been successful, you will see this message.

Once all devices have been reset, they will appear in Blue in the Dante Controller. This means that they are no longer enrolled in a domain.

You can now disable the ACL on the switch and return to your normal network configuration.

Note: if you do not complete this within 15 minutes the following error may appear. Restart the devices (Or toggle the ports) and try again.

Not hearing audio when the subscription status within the Dante Controller is successful can be caused by several factors. The Dante Controller offers a way of checking that audio is being sent and received from the transmitter to the receiver.

Transmit Tab

Within the Dante Controller, double click on the Transmitting device so that it brings up Device View and navigate to the Transmit tab. Within this tab, when the transmitter is playing audio there should be a green speaker symbol which indicates the presence of audio. This means that the transmitting device is correctly configured and sending audio to the receiver:

If the speaker symbol is grey whilst audio is playing, this suggests that the transmitting device may not be configured correctly to send audio, is muted, or sending audio at a level less than  -61dbFS.

Receive Tab

If there is a green speaker on the Transmit tab but there is still no audio, navigate to the Receive tab for the receiving device. Here you should see a green speaker symbol whilst audio is playing which indicates the presence of audio:

A green speaker means that audio is being successfully received at the receiving device and audio should be present.

If the speaker symbol is grey, this suggests the receiving device is not correctly configured. In this case, please refer to the user manual of that product.

Further troubleshooting:

Dante software (DVS or Dante Via):

• Check the audio software is unmuted.
• Check the audio software you’re using is configured to use the Dante software as the audio device within the applications audio settings.
• Check the machine running the Dante software is set to use the software as the default audio device for both Input and Output within the operating systems sound settings, (not applicable to ASIO mode).

Dante enabled device:

• Check the Dante enabled device is unmuted.
• Check the internal routing of the Dante enabled device and ensure it’s configured to use Dante, (if applicable).
• Check the settings on the device.
• Refer to the product manual to check the configuration of the hardware.

This is because the devices have been configured with different sample rate pull-up/down settings, which means they are operating on different clock domains. Devices on different clock domains cannot be subscribed to each other.

More info

Dante Controller is software created by Audinate that allows you to control, route and monitor Dante devices on a local area network. It is supported on both Windows and Mac OS X computers, providing robust performance and a simple, intuitive interface.

This is because the device has been configured with sample rate pull-up/down, and so is operating on a dedicated clock domain. To check if a device has been configured with sample rate pull-up/down, open the Device View for the device, and select the Device Config tab. The sample rate pull-up/down setting is shown in the Sample Rate section.

More info

Please refer to the Dante Controller User Guide.

Dante Controller is free of charge and is available for download to registered users from the Audinate website.

Dante Controller incorporates support for device identification. Double click any device in the Network View to open the Device View, the click on the “Identify” button. This will cause LEDs on the device to flash (note that not all Dante devices support this feature).

More info

Yes, although we recommend using the Lake Controller to configure audio routing in Lab.gruppen or Dolby equipment.

In addition to audio routing the Dante Controller allows you to:

• Configure device parameters such as device name, receive latency and sample rate and clocking parameters.
• View network and device information such as link speeds, status and utilization; clock status and firmware version.
• Be notified when significant changes happen on the network such as a change of Leader Clock.

For more information, see the Dante Controller User Guide.

If you try to give two Dante devices the same name, a conflict will be detected and one of the devices will be automatically renamed in order to preserve unique names. For example, if you call two Dante devices “Fred”, one of them will retain the name “Fred” and the other will rename itself as “Fred(2)”.

More info

Yes! Dante Controller offers a Device Lock mechanism to prevent some subscription and device changes on supported device. For more information, see Device Lock

Audio routing is label-based. In other words routes are defined using device and channel names, not the underlying device addresses or channel IDs. This means that if a Dante device fails and is swapped out for another piece of equipment with identical labels, audio routes will be automatically re-established.

More info

No. With Dante you may route signals on an individual basis from device to device.

More info

Audio routes are most frequently configured using the Dante Controller software, running on any Windows or Mac OSX computer that is attached to the Dante network.

To route signals, Dante Controller presents a grid-style view of devices. Transmitting channels are shown on the upper horizontal axis, while receiving channels are shown on the left hand vertical axis. Clicking at the intersection of a desired transmitter/receiver pair creates a connection instantly, and is indicated by a green checkmark.

Audio may also be routed via licensed third-party configuration software available from suppliers of some Dante-enabled equipment. An example of such a third-party application is the Lake Controller from Lab.gruppen, which can be used to configure Lab.gruppen PLM Amplifiers as well as Dolby Lake Processors.

More info

In Dante Controller, double-click the device you wish to label. This opens a Device View. Click in the text areas for the Receive and Transmit tabs and you can freely type labels for each channel.

More info

With human-readable, editable labels.

Channels within the device have easy to read, editable labels that are visible in Dante Controller. By default, channels are usually labeled with numbers, but users are free to create labels that reflect channel content using Dante Controller. Again, device and channel label names are retained, even as the devices are power-cycled.

More info

With human-readable, editable labels.

Each Dante-enabled device has a label that identifies it on the network. Names are initially preset by the manufacturer, but may be easily renamed by the user via Dante Controller. Device and channel label names are retained, even as the devices are power-cycled.

More info

Upon connection to the network, Dante devices discover one another within just a few seconds. You can watch the devices appear in Dante Controller as they come online.

More info

This is because you have Active Clock Status Monitoring switched on, and Dante Controller has identified that the device is showing signs of significant instability. This means that the device is at risk of losing sync with the Leader Clock, at which point it will be automatically muted.

To toggle Clock Health Monitoring on and off, click the Clock Status Monitoring button on the main toolbar:

Usually this is the result of a network configuration or hardware issue that is causing inconsistent packet timing. For example:

• Energy Efficient Ethernet (‘Green Ethernet’) functionality is active on a switch.
  EEE is a power-management system for Ethernet switches, and can easily interfere with clock synchronisation. Audinate recommends that you avoid unmanaged switches with EEE functionality, and fully disable EEE on any managed switches.
• There is a 100 Mb switch or link where a Gigabit connection is required.
  If your devices require Gigabit connections, make sure there are no 100 Mb links or switches in the chain. Audinate recommends always using Gigabit switches for network backbones.
• One or more of your switches are incorrectly configured, or are not suitable for Dante networking.
  Ensure that you are using switches that support QoS, and Dante traffic is properly prioritised.
• Network stress from other sources.
  If you are running traffic from other sources across the network, it may be causing bandwidth issues that are interfering with Dante packet timing.
• Excessive multicast traffic.
  Using multicast flows where they are not actually necessary can overload a network, particularly if there are any 100 Mb switches or links present. Consider switching some subscriptions to unicast to take the pressure off the slower nodes in your network. The Dante multicast audio bandwidth for the network is displayed in the Dante Controller menu bar.

As a rule of thumb, total bandwidth utilisation (including multicast and unicast) on any given link should not exceed 70% of the supported bandwidth for that link. Utilisation above 70% of supported bandwidth can adversely impact clock synchronization (especially if there is also non-Dante traffic on the network).

It is also recommended (for this particular issue, and in general) that you ensure all your Dante devices are using the latest firmware, and that you are using the latest version of Dante Controller.

Dante devices discover one another on the network automatically. Each Dante device discovers the input and output audio channels, sample rates and bit depths of others on the network. Dante devices assign themselves IP addresses that are guaranteed to be unique and not conflict with other devices on the network. When connected to a managed IT network, Dante devices obtain IP addresses and network configuration from the DHCP server in the same way that office PCs and printers do.

More info

• Check that the network cable is plugged in and that the activity lights are flashing rapidly.

• Check that the correct network interface is selected. The network interface can be changed via the ‘interface selection’ button in the toolbar of Dante Controller.

• Check that your network interface has the correct IP address and is set to acquire an IP address automatically. You can see the IP address in Dante Controller, while other settings are in your operating system preferences.

• If there are two different wired network interfaces on your computer, make certain that they are assigned to different subnets. Alternatively, you may disable the unused network interface.

Another possibility is that software on your computer is blocking network access to Dante applications. 

• Try disabling any antivirus software you may be using. It may be blocking ports used by Dante Controller. If this helps, add Dante Controller and Dante Virtual Soundcard to a list of trusted applications for your particular antivirus product.

• Try disabling any installed network firewalls. Please see the Dante Controller user guide for details of how to safely configure a firewall for Dante use in a deployed network.