Barco has partnered with Audinate to add Dante digital audio switching into Barco’s image processing portfolio. The collaboration has resulted in the launch of an audio option card for the PDS-4K, which makes it Barco’s first Dante-enabled presentation switcher.

The PDS-4K switchers offer 4K processing and switching in small to mid-sized event settings, boardrooms, auditoriums and other corporate environments. The PDS-4K Dante-enabling audio option card allows users to manage both video and digital audio from source to output through the same device.

Audinate’s Dante distributes uncompressed multichannel digital media and enables digital audio distribution via standard Ethernet networks. Barco says the Dante-enabled PDS-4K audio and video presentation switcher reduces the complexity of the setup, replacing the multiple analog or multicore cables and eliminating the need for extra audio switching equipment.

The PDS option card has access to all outputs on the multi-audio channels and each output allows for its own independent audio-over-IP switching. Users can run different audio variations for the online streams or push translated audio to a breakout room. The audio option card functionality also manages audio and video sync automatically by default. It can also give operators the ability to manually change the delay of the audio output to match the latency of the display and keep audio and video synchronized.