Among the various AoIP formats, Dante (Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet), developed by Audinate, has emerged as a leading solution for professionals seeking low-latency, high-quality, and scalable audio networking. Dante is widely adopted due to its ease of use, reliability, and compatibility with a broad range of devices. The ability to integrate audio from HDMI and SDI signals into Dante networks has opened up new possibilities for digital cinema, production, post-production, broadcast, live sound, recording, corporate AV, and many other industries. Dante’s prevalence in the professional audio and broadcast industry can be attributed to its user-friendly interface, robust performance, and the support of numerous manufacturers, including mixers, speakers, amplifiers, and converters.

However, while Dante remains the most popular AoIP format, AES67 and Milan are also critical players in the AoIP ecosystem.

AES67 has emerged as a universal interoperability standard, allowing different AoIP formats—including Dante, Ravenna, and Livewire—to communicate seamlessly with one another. This is particularly valuable in environments where multiple AoIP solutions coexist, offering flexibility and cross-compatibility across different networked audio systems.

Milan (Media-integrated Local Area Network) is an extension of the AVB (Audio Video Bridging) standard, has been gaining traction, particularly in live sound and installed AV applications. Milan ensures deterministic, low-latency, and highly synchronized audio transport, making it a preferred choice for live performance venues, stadiums, and concert halls. Unlike other AoIP solutions, Milan requires AVB-compliant network switches, ensuring guaranteed bandwidth and precise timing without relying on standard IP networking protocols.

By leveraging Dante, AES67, and Milan, professionals can build robust, flexible, and future-proof audio networks that meet a variety of use cases, from broadcast and live sound to corporate and installed AV applications.

Dante, AES67, And Milan: A Powerful Combination For Seamless Audio Integration

Dante: The Most Widely Used AoIP Solution

Dante operates as an uncompressed digital audio format, running over standard IP networks. It is designed to handle high-performance audio with low latency and minimal jitter. One of the standout features of Dante is its automatic discovery of connected devices. The Dante Controller software allows users to route audio with a simple drag-and-drop interface, making system configuration seamless. A single network cable can carry hundreds of channels of audio, dramatically reducing the need for traditional analog cabling.

AES67: Bridging The Gap Between Different AoIP Systems

AES67 enhances Dante’s functionality by enabling cross-compatibility with other AoIP ecosystems, ensuring flexible configurations for broadcast and professional audio applications. This is crucial for broadcasters, recording studios, and corporate AV installations, where different AoIP protocols need to interact seamlessly. AES67 allows Dante devices to communicate with Ravenna, Livewire, and WheatNet-IP, making it the ideal solution for multi-vendor AoIP networks.

Milan: The Future Of AVB-Based AoIP For Live Sound

Milan builds upon AVB standards to ensure guaranteed network performance for critical live applications. Unlike Dante and AES67, which run on standard network infrastructure, Milan devices require AVB-certified switches to ensure time-sensitive, synchronized, and deterministic audio transmission. This makes Milan ideal for concert venues, theme parks, and large-scale events where audio dropouts and timing issues are unacceptable.

With the availability of Dante, AES67, and Milan, professionals now have the flexibility to choose the best AoIP format for their needs, whether for broadcast, live sound, post-production, or AV installations.

How To Get Audio Out Of HDMI Signals? To Decode Or To Extract?

HDMI has become the standard for transmitting high-definition video and audio signals. It carries both video and audio over a single cable, which simplifies system setups and improves signal integrity. HDMI uses digital data packets embedded within the video stream to transmit audio, enabling it to carry multiple channels of audio, from stereo to multi-channel surround sound formats.

HDMI supports up to 8 channels of uncompressed PCM audio, ensuring pristine sound quality for both music and film audio. It also transmits encoded bitstreams such as Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio, which require decoding. Furthermore, object-based audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X provide immersive, spatial sound experiences that are essential in cinema and home theater setups.

To integrate HDMI audio into an AoIP workflow, professionals can use an HDMI to AoIP decoder or an HDMI AoIP extractor, which converts HDMI audio into Dante, AES67, or Milan-compatible streams. This ensures that high-quality, immersive sound can be seamlessly distributed over IP networks to its final destination.

Audio Over IP In Broadcast Environments

For broadcast and production environments, SDI remains an essential format for high-bandwidth video transport. However, as the industry shifts towards AoIP solutions like Dante, AES67, and Milan, integrating audio seamlessly into SDI-based workflows has become crucial.

SDI-to-Dante converters that support 12G SDI have become critical in modern AoIP workflows for television, film, and live productions. These converters enable the embedding and de-embedding of up to 16 channels of Dante audio within an SDI stream. By supporting high bandwidth 12G SDI signals, these converters ensure compatibility with modern broadcast infrastructures, allowing broadcasters to take advantage of both traditional SDI video transport and modern AoIP audio distribution.

With the growing trend toward IP-based systems, combining SDI with Dante, AES67, or Milan allows broadcasters to future-proof their workflows and increase operational efficiency.

The Analog Connection For Dante, AES67, And Milan Networks

While AoIP is undoubtedly the future of audio networking, many legacy systems still rely on analog audio connections. Converting Dante, AES67, or Milan audio to analog remains a common requirement, particularly in broadcast, live sound, recording studios, and installed AV systems.

By offering conversion from AoIP to analog, companies can integrate Dante, AES67, or Milan networks into existing analog systems without requiring a complete infrastructure overhaul.

Embracing The Future Of Audio Over IP

The integration of HDMI and SDI with Dante, AES67, and Milan audio networks is transforming how AV professionals manage and distribute sound.

As Audio over IP continues to gain traction, adopting Dante, AES67, and Milan-enabled devices ensures future-proof systems with seamless interoperability and high-performance audio transport. By leveraging the strengths of all three AoIP standards, professionals can build highly adaptable and efficient audio networks, unlocking new possibilities for sound distribution in professional environments.

With the right tools, unleashing the power of AoIP is now easier than ever.