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Topic: Adding a Dante card to a Nion6

Greetings

I currently have a nion6 that I've kept at 1.7.2 just for the sake of this experiment.

I've acquired a dante card from a cab4n unit, and would like to use one in my nion6 that had a cobranet card in it.  I did make the swap physically, and although it seems to be working in the software, I cannot get any audio through the dante network.

The dante card I've installed is a:
DLM-1-8503    DLM-HU-032FP 
Both numbers showing on the circuit board for reference. I'm hoping this card will work in the nion with some minor change needed that I don't know about.

I have a basic benchtop setup currently with my nion6 with dante card, a known good switch, and a different cab4n dante unit with 4-4 output cards.
Dante controller sees both and everything appears set up right, but it's not passing audio to the cab4dan. Nware sees the cab4 and shows the link connected green.

both dante cards in this network are model DLM dante firmware version 3.4.3.2 and hardware version 2.3.9 according to dante controller.

My intent is to use the nion6 with dante as my central processor at the school district I work at to monitor audio paths at various paging cabinets with dual input modules located at each sound closet.
Admittedly, I realize there's easier ways to do this, but I'm using what I have available, and 30 years of install experience. There's 7 schools in the district all connected via fiber and my own network infrastructure.

Thank you for any and all answers!



Nion 6 version:

bios    Mar 31 2015 11:07:10
board    D
cm1    3.4.3
cpu    405GP (200MHz, rev 1.69 (pvr 4011 0145))
dsp0    silicon: 2 processor: 10
dsp1    silicon: 2 processor: 10
dsp2    silicon: 2 processor: 10
dsp3    silicon: 2 processor: 10
dsp4    silicon: 2 processor: 10
dsp5    silicon: 2 processor: 10
firmware    release_1.7.2
fpga    $Revision:: 4718 $ $Date:: 2006-04-18 18:09:02 +0100 (Tue, 18#$
kernel    Linux version 2.4.17_mvl21-walnut (build@ey-nion-bld01) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release/MontaVista)) #1 Tue Mar 31 10:58:00 BST 2015
firmware_compatibility    release 1.2.x - interop 001

Last edited by phantomaudio72 (2026-01-13 19:01:29)

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Re: Adding a Dante card to a Nion6

guess this isn't monitored anymore... it's a shame as I still prefer the nion product to any other.

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Re: Adding a Dante card to a Nion6

Sorry, but the CAB 4n use a special DLM firmware that you can't change because it is programmed for 16x16 channels and not the NION's 32x32.

And before your ask, we can't legally change the firmware/software either, as it would create a conflict with our contract with Audinate.

BTW, are you already passing Dante from school to school through routers, because you would need Dante Domain Manager to do that, which is quite expensive and something the DLM module can't do.

Let us know,

Fergy

Make it intuitive, never leave them guessing.

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Re: Adding a Dante card to a Nion6

Thank you for the reply!
Ah that makes sense. Ok. I had a feeling that I was reaching for the stars, but that confirms it. And I did notice that it was 16x16 which didn't process in my head until you said this.

I actually am running my own isolated network away from the school network. There is unused single mode fiber to each building, so I have a pair for each location. My topology is only switching. The paging system is an IP based system, but they use proprietary protocol and I can't strip the streams out easily.

If I can sell the school on this concept, ultimately there is budget allotment for me to do it. Now I understand more of what I need to do.

Thank you again for the reply!