BCE chooses Dante Domain Manager to serve its 400+ customers

Dante Domain Manager, developed by Audinate, will help television, radio, production, post-production and telecommunications service provider Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) take its Dante system to the next level.

BCE serves more than 400 customers in a variety of industries, including broadcasters, radio stations, film distributors, production companies, advertising companies, telecommunications operators and utilities. To cope with this workload, BCE has one of Europe’s largest telecommunications networks for the media market.

This network is supported by Audinate’s Dante system; in fact, BCE was one of the first broadcast centres in Europe to migrate its entire infrastructure to Dante in 2017. Now, with the construction of a new WAN audio distribution infrastructure, they needed a network management tool that would provide ease of use, expandability and security to their networks.

BCE’s technical team chose Dante Domain Manager (DDM), network management software that enables user authentication, role-based security and auditing capabilities for Dante networks. Pierre Fuchs, BCE manager, explains why: “In 2017 Dante allowed us to create a production network that was very reliable, flexible and easy to use. Now with Dante Domain Manager we can manage the system in a way that is secure and reliable. I look forward to seeing how else we will apply Dante in the future.”

Key areas of Dante Domain Manager at BCE

Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) has decided to rely on Dante Domain Manager to address some of its main challenges. First and foremost was network security, necessary to meet the requirements of uninterrupted broadcasting. With Dante Domain Manager, all control traffic is encrypted and devices are linked to a specific server instance, preventing hijacking or unauthorised use of the system. The main security vector is user authentication, which links all Dante control actions to specific users.

For BCE, it was also important that there was no central point of failure of the clock. To ensure this, Dante uses PTP (Precision Time Protocol, IEEE1588) to provide a synchronised clock throughout the network. Any Dante hardware device can act as a PTP Leader Clock via the high quality VCXO clock built into each, and Dante incorporates an automatic election scheme that ensures stable PTP functionality even if a Leader Clock device fails.

Similarly, BCE uses Dante Domain Manager as a network management console, securely connecting audio between each radio station. Instead of setting up single-use connections for each location, it now has a “solid, efficient” infrastructure that is both scalable and flexible enough to support any production.  BCE can independently control each network from one location by setting up multiple Dante Domains, or clusters. Network administrators and AV managers can view all system components and manage the entire AV network from one control panel.

A final key feature for Fuchs and his team is the Dante Domain Manager audit log. This development allows the team to track all activity over any period to quickly identify improper workflows, malfunctioning devices, and unwanted user actions. This instant information allows them to be aware of problems and fix them quickly.