Modern live productions, broadcast environments, and large-scale AV installations require unprecedented channel counts and flexible network routing. To meet these demands, engineers frequently face the hurdle of connecting massive volumes of audio sources across multiple positions, rooms, and consoles while keeping latency low and reliability high. While the Avid VENUE | S6L platform natively supported protocols like AVB, Milan, and MADI, bridging directly into high-density Dante audio-over-IP (AoIP) networks often required external interfaces or complex configuration workarounds.

To solve this, Avid introduced the Dante HD Option Card for the VENUE | S6L platform, bringing the industry's most widely adopted AoIP protocol directly into its unified ecosystem. Operating at 96 kHz, each card provides 128 channels of bi-directional Dante connectivity. For massive productions running E6LX engines, users can install up to two cards to achieve a massive 256×256 channel footprint.

Because the card installs directly into the engine, routing and patching are managed natively through the VENUE software without the need for external converters. It features a dedicated BNC word clock interface to ensure stable synchronization within mixed-clock networks and mission-critical broadcast domains. This allows integration professionals and touring engineers to effortlessly bridge Dante with existing AVB or Milan networks, streamline multi-console festival environments, and scale their systems for high-channel-count distributed audio setups.

 

Key specifications at a glance:

• Channel count: 128×128 channels per card at 96 kHz, 24-bit PCM.

• System capacity: Supports up to 2 cards (256 channels) on E6LX engines; 1 card (128 channels) on E6L engines.

• Hardware ports: Dual RJ45 Ethernet ports (supporting Switched and Redundancy modes) and one BNC Word Clock output.

• Software requirement: Compatible with engines running VENUE 8.1 or higher software.

By incorporating native, high-density Dante connectivity alongside VENUE's renowned stability and Avid True Gain technology, the S6L platform offers a highly flexible, future-proof path for managing high-resolution audio across virtually any networked venue or tour infrastructure.