Connection Questions

[BrianParticipant]

My church is potentially upgrading it’s facilities and I’ll have an opportunity to upgrade the system from an Avantis (FOH and broadcast) + X32 Rack (for monitors) to a DLive (FOH and Monitors) and Avantis (broadcast). We have a GX4816 currently connected to the Avantis and use Dante to connect the X32 Rack.

I am interested in getting a DM0 and will continue to use the GX4816 for I/O. I know that I will need a DLive Giga-ace I/O card to connect the GX4816 to the DLive system. My question is can I use the same Giga-ace card to connect to the Avantis as well. The card has two connections, but I know that some connection types (like to another DLive system) require an entire card, even if you only use one physical connection.

If it does require a 2nd Giga-ace card, I’ll probably forgo it and get a second Dante card and connect the Avantis via Dante. Any “gotcha’s” with that plan? I think gain settings would be the major difference (I’m thinking connection via Giga-ace would give me full preamp control while a connection via Dante would only give me trim control???). Anything else I’m missing?

Thanks for the information!

[JgriftParticipant]

You do need a GigaAce card for each desk. And one for the GX rack. A&H outlines this a bit in the Understanding Multi-Surface doc.

I think the major advantage to GigaAce would be to keep the system at 96k. Obviously you can do this via Dante but many devices are still limited to 48k on the network. This may not matter but if keeping the sample rate at 96k is important to you GigaAce makes it a bit easier. I also think GigaAce is just a bit more straightforward. Dante is super reliable when setup properly but GigaAce is kind of idiot proof.

And with 1.9 you can at least do gain sharing if you want. I don’t usually see any issue with one desk having preamp control and all other desks on trim. Really depends on application I guess.

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

Just to clarify, there is no Gain Sharing between a dLive and an Avantis. gigaACE and Dante will give you the same result here as far as gains are concerned.

Jgrift makes some good points about sample rate and ease of use, and yes, you will need a dedicated gigaACE card for the GX4816. Link B on a gigaACE card is solely for redundancy. On the Avantis however you can use the built-in SLink contrary to what Jgrift suggests.

[tvwonderParticipant]

I would think the availability (or lack thereof) of Dante devices would make gigaACE a no-brainer if you’re wanting to do anything this year.

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