Dante helps streamline workflows at the University of Colorado Denver

Audinate has helped enable the University of Colorado, Denver to streamline audio production workflows, manage student projects, and advance the university’s curriculum thanks to a Dante audio network.

Dante and Dante Domain Manager have become integral technologies within the school’s Music & Entertainment Industry Studies department (MEIS), which offers a series of programs focused on contemporary music styles, commercial music business, and music production.

“We teach a variety of skills in our recording program designed to help students prepare for careers in the live and recorded music industry, as well as in film and television and sports media, so technology is crucial for us,” said Scott Burgess, the Manager of Recording Labs and Live Sound, and a lecturer for the department of MEIS. “We started using Dante in our department a few years ago to reduce setup times for events, but it’s such an important technology that achieving Dante Level-One certification is now part of our curriculum, and we’re looking to expand that.

“Our setup times are very limited, so anything we can do to save time is a big deal,” added Burgess. “So, I got a Dante card for our Soundcraft mixer and a license to Virtual Sound Card, we plug in one network cable, and we’re ready to record the event! That’s how we started.”

The MEIS production team realised quickly that Dante was a big step forward for their workflow, and they began to think of ways to incorporate more audio networking on campus, including using it to connect their six main studios, which are spread across two large buildings.

Over the next few semesters, as part of the expanding networked audio curriculum, the MEIS team has the goal of being able to produce a live concert in a venue anywhere on campus, and then record that band or event from several other rooms at the same time – each with different purposes in mind. The idea is for everyone to grab a mix and then upload them to the server so the teams can compare notes and see how everyone did.

“We’re still mulling over all the possibilities, but we’re in the middle of implementing a major rewrite to our curriculum, so it’s a perfect time for us to explore all the possibilities of the Dante network,” Burgess concluded. “Dante is part of our workflow and infrastructure now, and it’s an important part of our curriculum. I’ve had alums come back and say that that they are really glad we have a focus on networked audio because in the real world, they are up to their ears in Dante, making the experience here very valuable.”

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