Managing your Dante devices brings the benefits common to modern IT management platforms to your Dante network.
Comparing Dante Director and Dante Domain Manager. Benefits include:
- Organizing complex networks into manageable groups
- Dashboard overview for network monitoring
- Robust event logging for device and network diagnosis
- User authentication preventing unwanted network modification
What are Unmanaged and Managed networks?
As your Dante network grows, it can become increasingly complex, and benefit from better organization, security, oversight and management.
In default Dante networks, control is configured using Dante Controller, and can be managed by anyone connecting to the network. By managing your Dante devices with Dante Domain Manager or Dante Director, all control data is handled through the management software, and signal data continues to flow directly between devices as it does with unmanaged networks.
Dante Management Software Comparison
To select the most appropriate solution for your needs, two questions are most important:
Can your Dante network access the internet?
Internet access is required for Dante Director. Certain extremely sensitive networks, such as government, military, etc. can never access the internet. In these cases, your option for network management is best suited to an on-premise server, Dante Domain Manager.
How many Dante devices do you expect your network to include?
For networks of 20-100 devices, you can safely select either solution. Once your network grows larger, for optimal usability we typically recommend selecting Dante Domain Manager that can scale to support thousands of devices.
Other feature differences should of course be taken into consideration as they apply to your specific needs. For these, refer to the chart below.
| Dante Director | Dante Domain Manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Internet required | Yes, continued access required | For license activation only |
| Deployment options | SaaS, cloud-based service | On-premise or Self cloud-hosted |
| Number of devices | Recommended for
20-100 devices
Scales as your network grows |
100 (Gold)
250 (Platinum) Scalable with add-ons to support thousands of devices |
| Number sites / domains | As required | 20 (Gold) 50 (Platinum) + available add-ons |
| Remote management over the internet | ||
| Offline device access | ||
| User access control | Simplified
Roles admin, site restricted |
Advanced
Roles site control, domain control, media control, read only |
| Event log | ||
| API access and control (GraphQL) | ||
| Clock settings | Basic | Advanced / Zones |
| Shared Audio | ||
| Cross-subnet/VLAN routing | ||
| AES67, SMPTE2110 support |
