Sennheiser has released a Dante card for its EM 9046 receiver, enabling the Digital 9000 wireless microphone system to be integrated into Dante audio-over-IP networks. This is accompanied by associated v3.0.3 Digital 9000 firmware, and Wireless Systems Manager 4.2 with optimised monitoring.

The EM 9046 DAN extension card is inserted into the expansion slot of the EM 9046 eight-channel receiver. Internally, the card features 16 audio inputs to send the digital audio and command signals over the Dante network. Connection is via two Gbit RJ45 sockets that serve to either establish two redundant network circuits or daisychain the signals. The card works with sampling rates of 44.1/48/88.2 and 96kHz at a resolution of 24 bits.

New v3.0.3 firmware for the Digital 9000 system updates the receiver’s clock menu to include a MAN (multichannel audio network) option, enabling the receiver to synchronise to the word clock of the Dante network.

The new firmware also includes the refinements made by Sennheiser to address the conditions experienced during the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. The event took place in a super-reflective venue with a near all-metal construction but the capabilities of the Digital 9000 system were enhanced still further to be able to detect and cope with this extremely reflective environment. In addition to this advance, v3.0.3 also ensures improved network capability with managed enterprise environments.

Additional benefits of the new firmware version include the monitoring of up to four daisy-chained receivers via any of the receivers’ monitoring outputs and the automatic assignment of frequencies after a scan. Engineers are now also able to scan just a 24MHz portion of the spectrum instead of the entire booster range of 168MHz. This increases speed in critical frequency situations.