HelpON Comms Bridge

Dante and desk wiring

Examples of how to connect ON Comms Bridge to a Dante network, to a desk through an audio interface, and to a venue’s own talkback. They are examples, not a recipe for one make of desk: your desk’s manual says where its aux sends and inputs are.

Takes about
5 minutes
You need
  • ON Comms Bridge connected on a computer that can see your venue’s audio
  • Someone who knows how the desk or the Dante network is routed

  1. Decide which way each line needs to go. Out to the venue puts the line on a desk input, and In from the venue brings a mix from the desk onto the line.

  2. On a Dante network, run Dante Virtual Soundcard on the computer, and route its channels to and from the desk’s Dante inputs and outputs in Dante Controller, as you would any Dante channel. On a Mac, ON Comms Bridge sees it as one device with all its channels; on Windows it should see the WDM side of Dante Virtual Soundcard, which has not been tried with the real thing yet, so look at what the Device menu lists before the show.

  3. With an audio interface instead, connect an output of the interface to a spare input on the desk, and an aux or group output on the desk to an input of the interface. Choose those output and input channels under the line in Admin.

  4. Give the desk a mix-minus return for the line. On the desk, make an aux or matrix that holds what the line should hear, and leave out the desk channel that carries the line’s own feed.

  5. With a venue’s own talkback system, use a spare audio input and output it keeps for outside connections, and send it the same kind of mix-minus. A partyline on that system that carries ON Comms’s own audio back, or a second ON Comms connection on the same partyline, makes a loop.

  6. Match the channels to the desk. A stereo desk input wants a pair Out, which plays the line on both channels; a mono one wants a single channel.

  7. For In, choose the single channel the desk’s mix is on. A pair mixes both channels at half each, so a signal on only one of them arrives about 6 dB quieter.

  8. Give every line its own channels, such as 1 + 2 for one line and 3 + 4 for another. Two lines on the same channel share that audio.

If it doesn’t work

  • The desk hears nothing from the line

    Look at the line’s Out level bar while someone talks. If it moves, the audio is leaving the Bridge: check the Dante routing or the interface’s output, the desk input, and the Out gain. If it does not, check that the line is carrying and that someone with talk on it is talking.

  • The line hears nothing from the desk

    Talk at the desk and watch the line’s In level bar. If it does not move, check the desk’s send, the routing and the channel chosen. If it moves but nobody hears it, raise the In gain: below about −50 dB the line stays closed.

  • There is a howl

    The desk is sending the line its own audio back. See Gains, and why mix-minus matters.

  • The desk’s input is overloaded

    Lower the Out gain in Admin. An input set to mic level needs a much quieter signal than one set to line level.

Stuck on a step?

Write to support@oncommstalkback.com with the page you are on and what your screen says. Or book a walkthrough, and we will go through it with you.