Audinate has announced the newest member of the Dante product family: Ultimo, a fully-featured, ready-to-use Dante interface for networked audio products integrated into a single 13 x 13 mm chip.
By providing an integrated, cost-effective networked audio solution over a 100Mbps Ethernet interface, Ultimo extends the benefits of Dante networking to a wide new range of audio devices.
Dante is currently licensed by over 70 OEM manufacturers, and Dante networked devices are currently being designed into hundreds of AV OEM products.
Ultimo delivers a low-cost, small-footprint solution without sacrificing audio quality. As with Audinate’s other networked products, Ultimo uses high-quality, low-jitter clocks with ±μs time alignment between networked devices. It does not require specialized switches, and works with existing network infrastructure.
Ultimo includes well-established Dante features like automatic device discovery, plug-and-play networking, network-based firmware updates, and customization of device names and channel labels.
“The Ultimo integrated chip solution accelerates the migration from analog to digital signal distribution,” says Gary Southwell, Audinate vice president of product management. “Ultimo allows our OEMs to achieve their desired cost targets for networked low channel count endpoints for the first time. It is already a success, and is actively being designed into commercial products by many of the industry’s largest and most recognized AV OEMs.”
Applications targeted for Ultimo include powered loudspeakers, microphones, speakerphones, amplifiers, paging stations, personal monitoring systems, AV wall plates, recording interfaces, analog/digital break-in/break out, and musical instruments.