AUDIO over IP - REDNET 3 & 16 Review. AES67 Sets A New Standard for Computer Audio

[wushuliu]

Okay, here is the scoop:
 
FOR REDNET 3 USERS ONLY
 
On the focusrite download section after you've registered there is a specific file 'RedNet 3.4 to 3.7 Firmware Update - Rednet 1-5 Only'
 

Important information: RedNet 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 devices which are currently running Dante software version 3.4.x are not discovered in RedNet Control 1.8 or 1.9. These devices must be updated to Dante software version 3.7 first. 

 

Your devices will be running Dante software 3.4.x if you have not updated beyond RedNet Control 1.4 (released Q1 2015), or if you have recently purchased devices. To verify this, open Dante Controller, double click on a device to open device view, then select “Status”. In the Dante Information box there will be a number beside “Software Version”. If this reads 3.4.x you will need to proceed with the update procedure below.

This file needs to be downloaded along with the Update Manager software and the instructions followed to upgrade and flash firmware.
 
I missed this file beforehand because I was too focused on all the other software and instructions to figure out.
 
The virtual panel is now visible.
 
After a few minutes I am now prompted to upload new firmware a second time...
 
Second firmware upgrade complete.
 
Thank the good lord and his merry band of pranksters.

 

[jabbr]

Okay, here is the scoop:

FOR REDNET 3 USERS ONLY

On the focusrite download section after you've registered there is a specific file 'RedNet 3.4 to 3.7 Firmware Update - Rednet 1-5 Only'

This file needs to be downloaded along with the Update Manager software and the instructions followed to upgrade and flash firmware.

I missed this file beforehand because I was too focused on all the other software and instructions to figure out.

The virtual panel is now visible.

After a few minutes I am now prompted to upload new firmware a second time...

Second firmware upgrade complete.

Thank the good lord and his merry band of pranksters.

Good to hear you cracked it, and now enjoy!!

 

[kazsud]

I have to current mbp that is w/o ethernet. Would I just need the thunderbolt to ethernet adapter to get the most out of the rednet 3?

 

[mourip]

I you are connecting the laptop directly to the 

  I have to current mbp that is w/o ethernet. Would I just need the thunderbolt to ethernet adapter to get the most out of the rednet 3?

 
Yes. You would need it to get anything at all out of it. The connection between the Dante Virtual Soundcard and the Rednet device needs to be wired.

 

[wushuliu]

Good to hear you cracked it, and now enjoy!!

Lol. Not quite yet. Now my question is do I need to do any kind of routing using the Dante Controller?
 

 

[prot]

I also saw some strange latency peaks (up to 14-15 msec).
I solved them by changing properties of my network adapter:

Advanced:
- Energy Efficient Ethernet : off
- Flow Control : disabled

Power Management:
- Allow Computer to turn off this device to save power: unchecked

Now it is rock solid at avarage 849 usec and peak 911 usec
And this is with library scans running in the background.

That's still quite a lot of latency. And most probably it has nothing to do with the library updates. Latency is a pretty complex matter and the CPU and/or CPU activity don't matter much .. if at all.
It's mostly a matter of MB build, bios, drivers, OS/settings. And if you have a winpc latencymon can help you identify the real cause(s)

 

[mourip]

Hi mourip

I'm very much interested in your experiences and esp. where you think you might be sacrificing sound quality with this solution.

I also work in IT albeit in consultancy and design of large scale financial applications.
At home I run my LAN over 3 Cisco managed switches and find the instructions by Audinate up till now quite clear and with some knowledge about how their concepts works, still manageable at home.

I'm very interested in your experiences with multiple devices, as I can see this AOIP developing further in my home as well, to multiple devices in different rooms/floors.

See please, do make your write-up.

Cheers

 
This is just an update. I had some success today and was able to get audio from a single PC to both D16's across a challenging LAN setup which included two MOCA adapters that may even be going through my FIOS router. The way I have it setup I get the same signal to both D16's at the same time. No need to toggle who is the "master".
 
The key was that I needed to have two ethernet ports coming from my server and one needed to be configured as on a different subnet. It took me a couple of hours and a mixture of network understanding and guesswork to get it to work. For now I just have a USB3 Gigabit ethernet dongle handling the Dante route but will have an Intel PCIe card coming tomorrow.
 
It sounds great but I want to try it for a while before I rush out and claim victory. On another note I had my Mutec USB out of the circuit for a couple of days and now I realize that it really does contribute to the great results.

 

[johnjen]

 

  There is also the Danté controller s/w as well.
This was how the help desk guy 'fixed' my firmware issue.
 
JJ

Hmm, I could not find an "Upgrade Firmware" option in Dante Controller, but only in RedNet Controller and this offline "Dante Firmware Update Manager".
Nice to know of this feature. But the Dante Controller from WUSHULIU does see the RN3, so he should be able to run a firmware updater then?!
snip

Using the Danté controller s/w is a manual operation, as such there is no ""Upgrade Firmware" option" to choose.
 
Yes, since the Danté s/w does see the device,  it can perform the upgrade…
At least that is how the Focusrite tech help guy solved my problem.
 
JJ

 

[mourip]

  Lol. Not quite yet. Now my question is do I need to do any kind of routing using the Dante Controller?
 

 
Yes. You need to click the box at the intersection of your "Desktop" transmitter where you have DVS installed and the line of your RN3 receiver. Two boxes. One for each channel.
 

 

[wushuliu]

   
Yes. You need to click the box at the intersection of your "Desktop" transmitter where you have DVS installed and the line of your RN3 receiver. Two boxes. One for each channel.
 

 
Great. Thank you.

 

[RKML0007]

Tried out new latency settings:

DVS - 4msec
D16 - 150usec

Really opened everything up and sounding even better! Thanks to JJ passing on the info, I'll be trying out FMC isolation shortly.

One thing I noticed though, my Primary Tx/Rx rate dropped to 4Mbps last night. I restarted both the laptop and D16 several times. The first two days running, I was seeing 9Mbps. Any ideas if this is normal?

I tried both through a switch and direct connect with same outcome.

Edit: lost my 150usec on the D16 after clearing the config and can't seem to restore it.

 

[jabbr]

...

Edit: lost my 150usec on the D16 after clearing the config and can't seem to restore it.

 
I never had it in the first place.
If you can find a way to get it available again, could you please share?
 
Cheers

 

[jabbr]

That's still quite a lot of latency. And most probably it has nothing to do with the library updates. Latency is a pretty complex matter and the CPU and/or CPU activity don't matter much .. if at all.
It's mostly a matter of MB build, bios, drivers, OS/settings. And if you have a winpc latencymon can help you identify the real cause(s)

 
I'm not sure if you are aware or not, but the latency shown in Dante Latency Monitor is the latency of the full pathway from Virtual Soundcard to receiving Dante device.
This includes the complete network routing, which runs over a switch in my case.
 
The latency monitor you mention (and the one from resplendence.com is better because it is up-to-date with the latest OS-versions) only measures the latency inside the computer.
This internal latency measures much smaller, around 3-4 usec on avarage with peaks of around 14 usec.
 
cheers

 

[prot]

I'm not sure if you are aware or not, but the latency shown in Dante Latency Monitor is the latency of the full pathway from Virtual Soundcard to receiving Dante device.
This includes the complete network routing, which runs over a switch in my case.

The latency monitor you mention (and the one from resplendence.com is better because it is up-to-date with the latest OS-versions) only measures the latency inside the computer.
This internal latency measures much smaller, around 3-4 usec on avarage with peaks of around 14 usec.

cheers

Latencymon==respledence.

Dont know what the Dante monitor measures, maybe it also includes the eth2aes conversion time. Hopefully dante/rednet can clarify exactly what that tool measures and what are good/acceptable results.

In any case, your numbers are Huge. In a small house network the ethernet latencies (e.g. measured with 'ping') should be around 10-20ms max. Even wireless should be under 100ms.

 

[jabbr]

Latencymon==respledence.

Dont know what the Dante monitor measures, maybe it also includes the eth2aes conversion time. Hopefully dante/rednet can clarify exactly what that tool measures and what are good/acceptable results.

In any case, your numbers are Huge. In a small house network the ethernet latencies (e.g. measured with 'ping') should be around 10-20ms max. Even wireless should be under 100ms.

 
 
I think you misread the measurement diagram: we are talking microseconds here, not miliseconds. So Latency between my two Dante Devices is 849 microseconds (or 0.849 miliseconds).
So the latency is extremely low and is far below the minimum setting for the DVS that Dante allows for, which is 4 miliseconds.