My Flex 6600 is located remote from my shack, but on the same LAN. Like others, I found the latency added by my Windows PC, when using Smart SDR as the Audio sources and Microphone source, to be troublesome.
As we know, if you can install your speakers and microphone directly into the Flex Radio, there is no latency......but I could not do that.
I found a solution for LAN application. Dante AVIO Audio analog to Digital adapters:
They come in a variety of connections and have settings for balanced line-level and Mic Level analog inputs.
Using the free "Dante Controller" application, for Mac or Windows, you can make any number of connections between Dante "receivers" and "transmitters". Here is a screenshot of mine. You can see I am connecting both Flex Radio balance inputs, MIC and BAL, to my MacBookPro. Also, I am taking both audio output channels from the Flex-powered speaker output, to my MacBookPro.
All of the audio in and out channels show up in the audio settings of both the Mac and Windows audio settings.
The latency from the analog adapters is less than 1ms. Computers are less the 10ms. here is a screenshot of the device control panel:
I have noticed, the actual latency, for my LAN, has consistently been less than 1ms. Here is a screenshot of a time-based trend chart of latency, for the Flex Audio connection to my MacBookPro, all well less than 1ms.
Pros:
- low latency
- easy to configure and very flexible
- allows sharing of audio sources and receivers among all your devices and applications
- software virtual Dante connections available, at a lower cost per audio channel
- integrates directly into popular Digital Audio, DAW, solutions.
Cons:
- cost $$
- requires hardwired ethernet with POE
- Can work across a WAN, but needs a very expensive GPS-based solution, to time synchronize all the devices.
Alan. WA9WUD