I expect you’re reading because your school (or healthcare facility) uses Dante AV-over-IP!  

Your network runs smoothly… until someone switches on an AV system. Then the bell rings late, the assembly audio cuts out, and a presentation in the hall starts playing with the speaker’s lips slightly out of sync. Suddenly, the IT team is troubleshooting something that seemed fine yesterday.

In many schools, the finger swiftly points to Dante AV-over-IP, but Dante itself is rarely the true problem. The issue usually lies in how school networks were set up before AV workloads became part of everyday operations.

To understand why these issues occur, it helps to look at what Dante actually does and what it expects from the network beneath it.

Dante has become the standard for networked AV

Dante has become one of the most widely used technologies for distributing audio and video over IP networks. As one of our customers’ support team members succinctly put it, “Dante’s just kind of become the standard for AV-related stuff.” In many environments, it fulfils a role that no other technology currently does.

The reason is that Dante transmits uncompressed audio, and occasionally video, over standard Ethernet networks. According to Audinate’s network guidance, the platform operates on common IT standards and can run alongside regular data traffic using standard switches and cabling. That flexibility explains why Dante appears in so many school environments today.

However, bell systems, announcements, assembly halls, and classroom AV used to run on dedicated cabling and amplifiers. Now, with Dante, they operate across the same network infrastructure that supports Wi-Fi, learning platforms, and cloud applications. Everything is now part of the everyday network workload.

Why Dante can be hard on school networks

Dante performs well when the network meets clearly defined requirements. Problems arise when those requirements conflict with the network's original design, especially when it comes to timing.

Dante relies on very precise synchronisation between devices, so the system must accurately track when packets are sent and received to keep all devices in sync. That synchronisation is important because humans notice even tiny errors between sound and image. If you’re watching TV and the audio is slightly delayed, you’ll notice it very quickly when it's out of sync, even if it’s only by milliseconds.

Dante maintains this timing using Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which enables devices across the network to stay synchronised. For that to work properly, the network must deliver packets quickly and reliably, with minimal delay or jitter. In practice, that means the network needs to manage real-time traffic far more carefully than standard business data.

The real problem is when AV gets added to the network later

The main cause of many Dante issues is more about planning than technology. Most school networks were built for standard tasks such as internet access, learning systems, and administrative applications. AV requirements usually come up when schools realise their dedicated AV wiring and amplifiers are ageing, or new buildings include them as part of the build-out. The thinking shifts toward using the existing network rather than running additional cabling, and it makes sense. Schools already have network infrastructure across their buildings, so AV teams naturally want to use it.

However, these networks were never designed with AV in mind, and IT teams often struggle to integrate AV systems into infrastructure that was never built to support them. When that happens, performance issues begin to emerge as AV introduces very different technical demands.

Three network challenges Dante introduces

When Dante systems struggle, the cause usually falls into three areas: Synchronisation, bandwidth, and multicast traffic.

Precision Timing and Synchronisation

As we mentioned, Dante devices must stay tightly synchronised so that audio and video arrive at exactly the right moment. To achieve this, devices exchange timing information using Precision Time Protocol (PTP). Each switch in the network may contribute timing data that allows receiving devices to determine how long packets took to arrive.

That information helps devices stay aligned with other speakers, microphones, or video displays in the same system. However, without precise timing, the system quickly falls out of sync. Even minor delays can cause the familiar “lip-sync” effect where audio and video drift apart.

Two primary approaches can be used to meet this timing requirement.

The first option is to deploy network switches that directly support PTP. These switches participate in the synchronisation process and help maintain accurate timing throughout the network. However, these switches can often be too expensive for schools.

The second approach involves reconfiguring the network to minimise delay. For example, ensuring that traffic paths are limited to a maximum of two switch hops between sender and receiver. Fewer hops mean less delay and more predictable timing.

Bandwidth and Network Congestion

Dante also introduces substantial bandwidth requirements. Audio streams might seem small individually, but they add up quickly. A four-channel audio stream can require roughly 1.5 to 6 Mbps, depending on the setup. Video traffic further increases the load to around 48 Mbps for a single 4K video stream before audio is added.

If the network already carries heavy traffic, these additional flows can cause congestion. And real-time traffic, such as audio and video, tends to suffer first when bandwidth becomes limited.

Multicast Traffic

The third aspect relates to multicast networking. Dante audio generally uses unicast traffic but can switch to multicast when a single source needs to reach multiple receivers. Video streams often rely on multicast for transmitting to several endpoints. Multicast traffic requires careful setup; otherwise, it can spread unnecessarily across switches. Network features like IGMP help control how multicast traffic moves through the infrastructure.

Why Zoom works, but Dante doesn’t

One common source of confusion comes from comparing Dante with tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. While both involve audio and video traffic, they behave very differently on the network.

Platforms such as Zoom compress their traffic heavily and send it through cloud infrastructure. Dante, by contrast, distributes uncompressed media across the local network, which changes how the network handles the data.

A compressed video call can tolerate occasional delays or packet loss because buffering smooths the experience. Dante systems rely on consistent timing and minimal delay instead, so a network that supports video conferencing perfectly can still struggle with AV-over-IP systems.

Designing networks that support AV

The good news is that resolving Dante issues is generally straightforward once the underlying network design is understood, and the first step is recognising that AV is no longer a niche requirement.

From there, IT teams can examine several areas:

  • Does the network infrastructure support accurate timing?
  • Can bandwidth capacity match the number of audio and video streams?
  • Is multicast traffic configured and controlled correctly?
  • Are there unnecessary delays being introduced along the network path between devices?

Although there are no simple “buy this and solve the problem” solutions (unless you’re talking about building a new network from scratch), working systematically with a partner like MatrixCNI is straightforward. We can assist you in exploring each of the above areas and determining a path forward that aligns with your technology and budget requirements.