Portland, OR (October 28, 2021)—The Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University recently upgraded its department infrastructure, including a move from analog cabling to audio networking, using Audinate’s Dante.
The historic was founded in 1887 and currently occupies one of the oldest facilities on campus, a building constructed in 1889, so careful consideration was put into ensuring the update didn’t adversely affect the building. Prior to the update, the facility used copper wire and XLR cables running between rooms that were installed sometime in the 1950s; the old analog cabling and break-out panels had become outdated, noisy and inflexible.
“With a building like this, we can’t just knock big holes in the walls and run more and more copper,” said Kevin Muldoon, an instructor and the Sound Recording Engineer at Setnor. “We’re replacing all the many runs of copper and XLR with about 200 feet of fiber optic cable to navigate through all the twists and turns to get signals from the auditorium to my office.”
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Muldoon is also responsible for recording student performances for live streaming and archiving. With a Dante audio network connection in place, Muldoon and his team run all their microphone inputs through Dante-enabled Rupert Neve RMP-D8 eight-channel microphone preamps to the live board for mixing, recording, and live streaming.
XLR microphones in the auditorium connect to the RMP preamps, which convert the signals to the Dante network/fiber connection to an Avid MTRX audio interface in the studio, and then into Pro Tools for recording. A signal is also sent to back-up recorders via AES/EBU outputs. Soon, Muldoon plans to add a Dante network card to their Midas mixer, so the team will be able to work on projects concurrently, such as mixing for recording and live streaming performances simultaneously.
“Eventually, we want the Dante system to bring together our entire campus network, so we can connect to our off-site studio, as well as our separate jazz building and the Belfer Recording Studio, which is yet another separate building,” said Muldoon. “We want to get to a point where a complete Dante audio network will allow seamless integration between all of these locations.”
