How To Use TASCAM Sonicview Recording and Live Mixing Console with Dante

Dante Networking. What is it? Why do so many audio people talk about it? Is it important for my church set up?

BY ANDREW GOULSON

These are potentially questions you have asked yourself when learning more about sound systems and where the future of soundboards, wireless microphones, and even speakers are going. It can seem overwhelming to someone new to networking audio, but I’m here to help sort out a few questions about it.

DANTE stands for Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet. It’s a network protocol designed by a company out of Australia called Audinate and has quickly become an industry standard in professional audio. If you are a church, music venue, school, corporate business, or any place uses audio regularly, getting your facility on a DANTE network is a really great idea!

Unlike the pure analog days where everything had to be routed over large heavy copper cabling that terminates either with XLR, ? in, or d-sub (to name a few) and oftentimes a patch bay was involved in order to get everything routed in and out of a console properly. With a DANTE network everything can be connected over CAT5e, or CAT6 (commonly known as ethernet cables).

This means that instead of running a giant copper snake (as stated in my last paragraph) from the stage to front of house, all you would need is a single CAT5e cable in order to run up to 512 bi-directional channels of digital audio (it is recommended to run a second CAT5e cable as a backup, but not needed).

This is a huge benefit versus analog audio. You can now have the sound board front of house connected to stage boxes (such as TASCAM SB-16D) over CAT5e cable and have the ability to route all channels to and from each other over that one cable… AMAZING!!!

Additional Dante-compatible soundboards, speakers, wireless microphones, computers, audio interfaces, etc., connected to the DANTE network can easily be configured to send/receive audio through an app called DANTE controller.

The reason why I laid this groundwork for understanding a DANTE system is because the TASCAM Sonicview Recording and Live Mixing Console has a built-in DANTE connection (primary and secondary) of 64x64 (64 audio channels in and 64 audio channels out). The TASCAM Sonicview has built-in DANTE connections which is a cost saver and headache saver (with most other consoles Dante is an option and costs anywhere from $400 to $1,200 extra). The Sonicview could be your church’s main console for front of house with 44 input channels (40 mono and 2 stereo) and have up to four SB-16D stage boxes on your stage which will allow you to reach your maximum console input limit.

Another great option I am seeing is houses of worship are using a TASCAM Sonicview as their online streaming mixing console. Rather than taking a stereo signal directly out of the soundboard Sonicview will allow you to create a separate mix to stream via USB to a computer or streaming service.

The Sonicview also has a wide range of dB with it’s digital trim. If the Sonicview was connected to a DANTE network and used as the mixer for online broadcast, the digital trim allows -50dB and +20dB of digital gain, meaning you could set the gain from the front of house console if you want and have a wide range of dB control with the TASCAM sonicview. Sonicview also has very robust set of effects built into the console for reverb, delay, chorus, and other effects that work great for dialing in a mix for online (I personally have had people using the Sonicview tell me how easy it is to find a reverb they like).

I highly recommend churches to consider the TASCAM Sonicview as their console choice if they are wanting to upgrade their online streaming from just an aux send of their front of house console to a fully produced separate mix from the front of house mix.

In addition to streaming with the TASCAM sonicview, a church could also multitrack record their service with the built in 32 track recorder, through the 32 in/32 out usb audio interface built into the Sonicview, or you guessed it… OVER DANTE! You can connect a computer to a DANTE network and use your favorite digital audio workstation software (DAW) for recording. The Sonicview internal 32-track multitrack recorder can then be used for checking the audio system with no-one present using the Soundcheck function of the Sonicview 32 track recorder and player.

There are wireless microphones that are DANTE compatible that make the need for running a separate XLR channel from the wireless unit to the soundboard unnecessary. You just need to daisy chain all the wireless units base units together via ethernet and then connect them into your dante network. They will then show up in DANTE controller.

I hate to sound cliche but DANTE networking really has changed the game for audio engineers in churches, corporate events, music venues and the like. Give it a try yourself and feel free to contact me if you have any questions! Have a happy Sunday!

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Andrew Goulson is the House of Worship Channel Manager for TASCAM US. He has worked professionally as a lead audio engineer for 8+ years and has experience in houses of worship, music venues, recording studios, and field recording. He can be reached at [email protected]