Audio over IP
An RJ45 says nothing about what runs through it: Dante, AES67, Art-Net or a plain control network all use the same socket. Technipatch keeps the signal type apart from the connector, and counts what does not show — channels, throughput, PoE budget.
The connector never says the protocol
A Dante port, an AES67 port and an Art-Net control port all wire up in RJ45 or etherCON — the same connector, ruggedised for the road. What tells them apart lives elsewhere, in the port’s signal type: that is what refuses a cable pulled from a Dante output into an Art-Net input, even though the plug seats just fine. The connector alone never says what runs through it — that is the model’s three-axis rule, and it is what stops a lighting node from landing on an audio switch by mistake.
Two cables, one redundancy
A redundant console outputs two Dante links, a primary and a secondary: two physically separate paths so a switch going down does not take the signal with it. Redundancy only holds if both paths stay separate all the way through — landing both on the same non-redundant switch closes the loop without a single line on screen showing it: each cable looks correct taken on its own.
What gets counted without showing
Every Dante or AES67 port declares what it actually carries: a number of channels, a throughput in megabits, and for a network-powered device, a draw in watts. Technipatch sums that draw on each switch and checks it against the PoE budget of its supply; a link runs at the speed of its slower end, gigabit on one side and a hundred megabits on the other. What the engine does not model: VLANs — a Dante port and an Art-Net port on the same physical switch are told apart only by signal type, never by segment membership.
Two warnings and one refusal, as the engine sees them
Here is a small rig built to trigger them, and what the engine says about it — the same function as the app’s Checks tab. A redundant console whose two Dante links both land on the same switch, a port capped at 100 Mb/s, and two stage boxes that together outrun that switch’s PoE budget.
- FOH console — Dante 1 (primary) and Dante 2 (secondary), both to Stage switch
- Stage switch — PoE budget 30 W, Port 1 capped at 100 Mb/s
- Stage box 1 — 20 W on its Dante port
- Stage box 2 — 20 W on its Dante port
Warning Throughput held on this link: 100 Mb/s, capped by Stage switch · Port 1. The link will run at this rate end to end; swap the slowest port if that’s not enough.
Warning The primary and secondary Dante of FOH console both reach Stage switch. Redundancy defeated: route the secondary to a different switch than the primary, or isolate the two on separate VLANs.
Refused Stage switch is asked for 40 W of PoE against a budget of 30 W. Spread these devices across another switch, or check this one’s real PoE budget.
Dante and AES67 are not the same signal
The two interoperate, but Technipatch does not treat them as one: linking a Dante port to an AES67 port raises a warning, not a refusal, naming what to check before you patch — AES67 mode has to be switched on at the Dante end. A Dante port into an Art-Net port, on the other hand, stays a flat refusal: nothing in the catalogue declares the two compatible, and nothing should.
The canvas is already open
Drop five devices, pull cables between their ports: the cable list, the patch sheet and the equipment list fill themselves in while you draw. No account, no card.