Los Angeles, CA, May QQ, 2022 – The University of Lethbridge, in Alberta, Canada, has a well-developed music-production education curriculum. The school’s BMus-Digital Audio Arts program has between 200 and 250 students participating at any time, with over 65 of them taking the four-year Digital Audio Arts track. They learn in the school’s two well-equipped production studios, which are also linked to the 240-seat Recital Hall. This well-designed and well-equipped teaching and learning facility caught a snag when one of their existing multi-channel audio converters went down some months ago, and unfortunately it had been discontinued by its manufacturer. That led Chris Morris, Technical Specialist and coordinator for technical services for the school’s Faculty of Fine Arts, to embark on a process that eventually renovated the entire program’s I/O infrastructure, drawing from Focusrite’s RedNet range of Dante®-networked audio converters and interfaces. “The failure of that I/O converter in Studio One is what prompted what became a total infrastructure overhaul,” he says. “And we’re glad it did.”

Morris took the opportunity to research the market for AoIP-based interface solutions for the entire facility. He first decided to go with the Dante AoIP protocol. Although plans were already being made for an update, the early opportunity to upgrade the converters and bridge the primary studios, editing suites and recital hall together was welcome in order to implement AoIP on the existing network infrastructure, bridging digital gaps in a simple and affordable manner. “Dante is a clear frontrunner in the world of AoIP protocols,” Morris explains. “It’s easy to use, scalable and economical, and it has become the de facto standard by top audio manufacturers. These metrics are important when planning for equipment, infrastructure and operations to last 10-plus years.” Then, when choosing new I/O audio interfaces with Dante capabilities for Studio One, a lot of options were considered, but in an educational setting, Morris had some very specific criteria he had to assess. “I had the opportunity to test a lot of different converters from some great manufacturers, and they are all amazing in their own way,” he says. “But in a post-secondary environment, whatever we chose had to be rugged, scalable and budget-conscious. Focusrite RedNet products fit these requirements quite nicely. They checked the boxes in terms of budget, support, scalability and quality, and they consistently out-perform in A/B testing.”