SQ with synced to Dante I/O card and DX168 on stage

[JarnoParticipant]

Hi!

This is kind of silly question, but just want to make sure that system works like I think it will. Can I sync my A&H SQ6 to Dante I/O card and use two DX168 stageboxes in cascade mode connected to SQ6 S-link port. Dante card would be slave. I did not find anything from reference guide and Slink connection brochure what would say it would not work, but also nothing that stated that that´s how it works.

[BrianParticipant]

The Dante card is effectively independent of the SLink port. You will not have any problems connecting I/O to both ports/devices at the same time. You will find all I/O sources (local, Slink, Dante, etc) in the routing tab of the console and all sources should be available to route to all destinations.

[JarnoParticipant]

Thank you for answering. That was what I thought, but nice to know that. Because I´m connecting to venues Dante system and have to be slave to their PTP master, so that is only way to go there.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

@jarno

Bonus fun facts which you may never need 🙂

• The DX units, as with all A&H protocol expanders (i.e. other than DT boxes), will automatically clock to the mixer they are connected to.
• You can set the SQ to clock to internal (default), SLink (for connection to other A&H systems) or I/O Port (Dante/Waves/MADI/SLink). If no clock is detected, the SQ will show a sync error and fall back to internal clock until a clock is detected.
• The SQ will always run at 96kHz internally, even if clocking to a Qu or Dante/Waves/MADI which are running at 48kHz.
• You should only ever have one clock source, everything else should be sync’d to or towards that source.

With your setup where the Dante card is following a leader elsewhere on the Dante network, the ‘clocking path’ would be
Dante Leader > SQ Dante Card (external sync OFF, preferred leader OFF) > SQ (clock to I/O Port) > SLink port > DX168#1 > DX168#2

Cheers,
Keith.

[MarcParticipant]

I have an SQ5 with DX168 via SLink. Have just added the Dante 32×32 network card, and everything is talking. Only issue is Pro Tools isn’t allowing me to open a 96k session – only 48k, with Dante as the playback engine. Not sure if this is a PT issue, or have I missed something in the SQ-Dante setup? Is it a clock Slave/Master thing?

My main use for the system is to run the SQ5 as a stage monitor board for my band. So I want to be sure I can send the Dante “mic split” to FOH at 96K. The ProTools thing is effectively a dry run. Like I say, it may just be a ProTools thing, but I wonder if I’m missing something.

[BrianParticipant]

Is the Pro Tools computer the only other Dante device currently? I ask because in order for Dante to pass audio between devices, all the devices must be running the same clock speed. (The SQ Dante card will handle any clock conversion which allows it to connect to a 48k Dante network even when the console itself is going to run at 96k). If there are other Dante devices connected, and one of those devices only clocks at 48k, then the entire Dante network needs to run at 48k.

The Dante clock settings for hardware devices (like the SQ Dante card) can be found in Dante Controller. It may be that this setting is currently set to 48k and could be changed to 96k which would allow Pro Tools to also be clocked to 96k.

[Author]

Posts