Audinate has released its latest firmware update for the Dante PCIe soundcard. New features include audio signal presence indicators, latency statistics monitoring, and packet error detection. In addition, the PCIe soundcard expands its hardware support to include popular Thunderbolt expansion chassis (expanding Mac connectivity) and Microsoft Windows servers.

Magma, Sonnet Technologies, Other World Computing Thunderbolt Chassis

Audinate, inventor of the industry leading digital media networking solution Dante™, has released its latest firmware update for the Dante PCIe soundcard. Version 3.7.1 delivers a range of new features, including audio signal presence indicators, latency statistics monitoring and packet error detection. In addition, the Dante PCIe high performance soundcard may now be used with several popular Thunderbolt expansion chassis, to enable connection to computers such as Apple’s Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and Mac mini.  The Dante PCIe soundcard has been certified to run with Apple’s latest version MAC OS 10.10. The soundcard will now also run on Microsoft Windows servers.  Both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Window Server 2012 R2 are supported.

Thunderbolt expansion chassis support has been successfully validated against the following chassis:

• Sonnet Technologies’ entire family of Echo Express and rack mount expansion chassis
• Magma ExpressBox 1T 1 Slot Thunderbolt to PCIe Expansion Chassis
• Other World Computing (OWC) Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

The Dante PCIe Soundcard supports up to 128 channels of bi-directional audio with incredibly low latency. “Professionals migrating to Thunderbolt based workstations and workflows will now be able to utilize Dante PCIe soundcards.”  Said Tim Miller, President of Magma.  “Magma’s ExpressBox 1T offers a compact and portable solution for housing the Dante PCIe soundcard while offering Thunderbolt 2 speed.”

“Our customers have been anxiously waiting for the very popular Dante PCIe soundcard to become certified as compatible with our line of Echo Express Thunderbolt expansion chassis as well as xMac Mini and Pro Servers,” said Greg LaPorte, vice president of sales and marketing, Sonnet Technologies.

In keeping with Audinate’s commitment to meeting customer needs, the Dante PCIe soundcard has been enhanced to support the advanced Dante Controller feature set to monitor the status of the audio network.  This allows the Dante Controller to remotely detect audio signal presence on computers running the Dante PCIe soundcard, which can also report latency statistics and packet errors to the Dante Controller.

• For more information on the Dante PCIe soundcard: www.audinate.com/products/manufacturer-products/dante-pcie-card
• A list of our OEMs can be found at: www.audinate.com/products/dante-enabled
• Sonnet Tech Products – http://www.sonnettech.com/product/thunderbolt/index.html  
• Magma ExpressBox 1T – http://www.magma.com/expressbox-1t
• Other World Computing (OWC) Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis -https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/PCIe_Chassis/Mercury_Helios/