Dante issue on a MBP

[Alex Hawthorn]

Hi all,

In a less-than-ideal scenario, I've got a show running in Brooklyn on a Macbook Pro, using a USB-to-Gigabit-Ethernet adaptor to connect to a Dante network consisting of a Yamaha TF-3 and a TIO rack.  Also on the network is the ETC Ion LX board and a Mac pro for video.  QLab is firing OSC at them for cueing.  The network backbone is a gigabit switch with a Netgear Wifi router attached (acting, unfortunately, as the DHCP server.  Less than ideal.)  But there's so little occuring on the network that I feel like it *should* all be fine.

Only since I've flown back to LA is the show having problems - QLab essentially "loses" the Dante interface for a second, bunch of red X's, then re-connects and settles down.  But, everything stops when that happens and the show is a 45-min fully-timed out sequence, so it sucks to jump back into.

Two questions:

- Is there anyway for QLab to Pause All instead of a full stop when it loses a device?  I don't think there is, but have to ask.

- I can't be on-site, but I'm trying to think of some simple fixes.  Possibly moving to a Mac Mini with a built-in gigabit port, if it's a wonky adaptor.  Adding a second USB adaptor as the OSC connection?

If anyone else has had this sort of intermittent (but seemingly happening more often) issue with Dante, please let me know what you figured out!

Thanks all,

Alex

[Drew Schmidt]

Break the problems down - isolate ...

Try disconnecting the ION from the network, play some audio for a long time and see if there are any drops.

Try grabbing any other DHCP router you can find (have someone grab one from home) and create a dedicated network for just audio.

Try lower the number of audio channels being transmitted (are you sending / receiving more channels than you need?)

You could always use two Ethernet adapters, one decidated for lighting / OSC and one dedicated for audio. Dante has to be wired, but OSC works over WiFi as well (although I wouldn't use that method for show conditions, just for testing isolation). 

[Charles Pilzer (Gmail)]

On Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 2:38:28 PM UTC-5 alex.h...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I've got a show running in Brooklyn on a Macbook Pro, using a USB-to-Gigabit-Ethernet adaptor to connect to a Dante network consisting of a Yamaha TF-3 and a TIO rack.  Also on the network is the ETC Ion LX board and a Mac pro for video.  QLab is firing OSC at them for cueing.  The network backbone is a gigabit switch with a Netgear Wifi router attached (acting, unfortunately, as the DHCP server.  Less than ideal.) 

USB->Gigabit Ethernet are less than optimal. Notorious for occasional dropout. (like you are experiencing). Particularly if you are sending audio over the connection. 

Much better to use an Apple manufactured Tbolt->ethernet adapter or ANY tbolt->ethernet adapter using the Realtek chip set. If the MacBook Pro is the one with Tbolt 3, you also need a tbolt 3->tbolt 2 adapter. Gaff the two adapters to each other.

If that is not possible, see if there is a specific driver for the adapter rather than relying on the generic USB driver.

Charlie Pilzer

Tonal Park

charli...@gmail.com

[Alex Hawthorn]

Interesting, I’ve not heard that before. We’d been on a Thunderbolt 2 adaptor before but swapped to USB for a more physically rugged connector (I bumped the computer once when it had the Tbolt adaptor and it dropped the connection.) We swapped computers tonight which necessitated a swap to a USB-C hub, and had a clean show. Fingers crossed that was the issue.

Thanks!

A

[Sam Kusnetz]

Is there anyway for QLab to Pause All instead of a full stop when it loses a device?  I don't think there is, but have to ask.

There is not. Audio and Video cues in QLab require access to whatever output hardware they use, so when that access is lost, there’s sort of no way to maintain a useful state of the cue.

I encourage you to use the two-network approach, and I also encourage you to not use DHCP at all. Use static IP addresses for the control network, and allow the Dante network to use self-assigned link-local addresses. Dante is designed to work well in a link-local environment and it really does work well. Using DHCP or static IPs on a Dante network has never solved anything for me, and in fact has sometimes made things worse.

Best

Sam,

––
Sam Kusnetz [he/him/his] (what is this?)
Figure 53
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