The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) strives to establish Portugal as an international leader in science, technology and innovation. To ensure that scientific knowledge is used for the betterment of all, the foundation works with private and public sectors to fund scientific research in natural sciences, exact sciences, social sciences and humanities. To help achieve this goal, the Foundation's Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN) provides services to national academic and scientific communities, such as an internet network infrastructure that connects all Portuguese universities and scientific public research labs.
The unit recently updated their AV production studio using the Dante audio network platform from Audinate to create a high-definition, professional studio for audiovisual content production. The studio is complete with a large green screen, lighting, wireless microphones, video cameras, a teleprompter and monitors. This studio is more than equipped for producing professional-quality videos, audio recordings and virtual-scenario learning tools.
Foundation members use the space for a variety of activities, all designed to further scientific education in Portugal, such as creating AV content for e-learning, broadcasting live or recorded webinars, hosting photography sessions and product demonstrations and recording radio programs or podcasts.
To create such an advanced, high-definition room required advanced, high-definition equipment. Engineers from FCCN integrated Audinate’s Dante technology into the heart of the studio’s audio system, greatly improving workflow and connectivity.
Dante is the de facto standard digital media networking solution, using standard IP infrastructure to network devices and making interoperability easy and reliable. It distributes uncompressed, multi-channel digital media via standard Ethernet networks, with near-zero latency and perfect synchronization.
“The FCCN studio is a reference for all universities and investigation laboratories that work with audio and video,” said Cláudio Silva, Studio Manager, Unidade FCCN - Computação Científica Nacional. “Nowadays, IP and other network-based solutions are used everywhere. For audio, we are a step beyond the rest, and Dante enables that step.”
Silva’s search for a new audio solution led him to Dante due to its innate interoperability and flexibility, decrease in analog cables, vastly improved audio quality and the decrease in set up time for recording sessions. Silva was particularly drawn to Dante’s ability to decrease the problems accompanied by analog connections, such as noise and interferences. Since the switch from the previously utilized audio interface to Dante, the studio’s buzz and hum have reduced by 20 dB.
Additionally, studio users can bring in their own legacy equipment when working on projects. With a Dante system in place, Dante AVIO Adapters allow the studio’s PA system, conference system and studio users’ gear to quickly and easily integrate into the Dante network. The studio needed a way to manage the many audio routes the students required, which was enabled with Audinate’s Dante Via software, which delivers multi-channel routing of computer-based audio. Dante Via allows the studio to route many different channels of audio to different applications on a PC. The studio uses the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation alongside the Dante Via software for audio mixing, receiving and video conferencing.
“The FCCN studio is small, but the technology that we use is great and the work we develop is very important for educational purposes in Portugal,” said Silva. “The Dante products were very important in improving audio quality and the speed on the setup when starting a recording session. Since we ‘spoke Dante,’ all the work has been simplified and our problems solved. Long live Dante!”
For more information about how AV production groups around the world are using Dante to meet their networking needs, please visit www.audinate.com.
