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Device Limits

Control Devices – Composer Limits

The maximum number of control devices in a Site file is 256. This includes DSPs, Touchscreens, W series, Control Servers, and xControls. The limit is based on the maximum number of units Composer can communicate with at once. If this limit is exceeded, some will not locate correctly so Composer will not go online. This limit does not include Dante-only devices that are located through a DSP. See the section below for limits on these devices.

Dante Devices - Discovery Limits

A DSP can discover 256 Dante devices on the network. This means that Composer can locate up to 256 Dante devices on the network. These can be any combination of 1st or 3rd party Dante devices. While there are lower limits described elsewhere in this section that will further limit the number of devices that can be present in a Site file, if this limit is exceeded, not all of the Site file devices may be discovered properly even if they are on the network, and Composer may not be able to locate all the devices and/or push the Site to the system.

Adding another DSP to the same network does not double this limit as each DSP will locate the same 256 units. However, if the DSPs are on separate networks (e.g. unique IP address range), then each DSP will be able to locate a unique set of 256 units.

Dante Devices – Dante Audio Routing Limits

The maximum number of Dante devices that can be routed to by one Brooklyn-based DSP is 128. But in practice, this limit is rarely met as there are other limits that are reached first. The maximum number of Dante Channels (64 in each direction) and/or Dante Flows (32 in each direction) supported by one DSP will usually limit the number of devices that can be used.

The maximum number of Dante devices that can be routed to by one Server D100 is 256. In practice, this limit may not be met as there are other limits that are reached first. The maximum number of Dante Channels (256 in each direction for a base unit or 384 for an upgraded unit) and/or Dante Flows (128 in each direction for a base unit or 192 for an upgraded unit) supported by one DSP will usually limit the number of devices that can be used.

AES-67 - Routing Limits

Only Brooklyn-based DSPs (e.g. Radius NX, Prism and Edge) and DEP-based DSPs (e.g. Server D100) can route AES-67 audio. Dante and AES-67 sources can be routed to a DSP network input independently. All network inputs to the DSP can be Dante, AES-67, or a combination.

All DSP network outputs can be made AES-67 compatible. This produces both an available Dante unicast or multicast output as configured and an AES-67 multicast output. AES-67 network output is by definition multicast. Dante-only devices such as xIO and 3rd party-Dante devices will always connect to the Dante output, not the AES-67 output. These devices will be told to subscribe to the Dante output when pushing a site file if they are so configured in the site file. 3rd party AES-67 devices will not be told to subscribe to DSP network outputs ever. The designer must program those devices to receive AES-67 compatible output from the DSP.

There is no known limit on how many xIO, 3rd-party Dante, or AES67 devices may receive DSP network output channels. AES-67, being always multicast, can conceivably transmit to an unlimited number of devices. Dante unicast outputs will attempt to connect to as many subscribers as requested, but may switch to multicast automatically, if needed, to maintain connections due to bandwidth limits.

Dante Devices – Intelligent Module Limits

The CPU/Memory resources used by Intelligent Modules will also limit the real-world number of devices that can be used, but there are some hard limits that must be considered too.

  • The maximum number of 512 Intelligent Modules per DSP may theoretically come into play, but other practical limits will almost always be reached first.

  • A maximum of 63 UDP ports on the Dante network can be used by Intelligent Modules on each DSP; all xIO Intelligent Modules utilize UDP over Dante for metering, so this will limit the total number of xIO Intelligent Modules or custom Intelligent Modules that can use this capability.

Additionally, for xIO Devices, Intelligent Module requirements for CPU processing limit is different for Radius NX class DSPs and Edge/Prism class DSPs.

  • Server D100 devices can support a very large number of Intelligent Modules communicating with IO devices and has no hard limit. It is very likely that the Dante and Control device limits mentioned above will be hit first.

  • Radius NX devices can support about 30 Intelligent Modules communicating with xIO Devices.

  • Alternately, Edge/Prism Class DSPs, which have an older CPU and less Memory, can support about 20 Intelligent Modules communicating with xIO Devices.

This is a rough estimate because the available processing is also affected by other things the Site might be doing (e.g. running Control Screens, recording/playback, etc.). In practice, this means that if you want to run more than 20 or 30 xIO devices in a single Site with Radius NX or Edge/Prism class units, you will need to divide them between multiple DSPs.

Special Cases

Visionary Solutions, Powersoft, and Shure products are handled differently and have separate limits. They are part of the Dante limit for locating but also have different limits for control. One DSP is elected to run control for Visionary Solutions, Powersoft, and Shure devices independently.

  • A combined total of 4 Shure devices per DSP can be placed from the toolkit in Site view and pushed online.

  • A combined total of 10 Powersoft devices can be placed from the toolkit in Site view and pushed online regardless of how many DSPs exist in the Site.

  • When using the Integrated Visionary Solutions Wall Wizard, 16 Visionary Solutions devices per DSP can be placed from the toolkit and pushed online. If not using the Integrated Wall Wizard, the generic Dante Devices limits described above apply.

all specifications subject to change