Application Notes: Dante in Corporate AV Installations
Boardrooms, conference rooms, campuses, lobbies — real-world deployment scenarios Corporate AV is among the most practical deployment target for…
Configuring Your Network Switch for Dante
Required switch settings for all KanexPro AUD-DTE- Dante products
Dante requires a managed Ethernet switch with specific configuration to operate reliably. An unmanaged switch will not handle Dante multicast traffic and may cause audio dropouts, discovery failures, or no-audio conditions.
⚠ ImportantAn unmanaged switch is not suitable for any Dante installation. Always use a managed switch with the settings below.
Required Switch Settings
REQUIRED1. IGMP SnoopingControls multicast traffic handling. Without it, Dante multicast floods all ports causing audio failures.
- Enable IGMP snooping on the Dante VLAN
- Enable IGMP Querier if no multicast router is present
- Set IGMP version to v2 or v3
Dante audio packets must be prioritized to prevent latency spikes and dropouts.
- Mark Dante traffic with DSCP EF (Expedited Forwarding, value 46)
- Configure switch to honor DSCP markings in the highest-priority queue
STP convergence causes audio glitches. Enable PortFast on all Dante device ports, BPDU Guard on those ports, and never PortFast on uplinks.
REQUIRED4. Flow Control — DisableIEEE 802.3x pause frames cause latency spikes. Disable flow control on all Dante ports.
NOT REQUIRED5. Jumbo Frames (MTU 9000)Standard Dante does not require jumbo frames — 1500-byte MTU is correct. Note: AV over IP (JPEG2000/SDVoE) on the same switch does require MTU 9000 on those ports.
Recommended: Dedicated Dante VLAN
ℹ Best PracticeIsolating Dante on a dedicated VLAN prevents corporate broadcast traffic from competing with audio multicast, allows clean QoS policies, and lets IT monitor the Dante network independently. Use e.g. VLAN 100 for all Dante device ports.
