Cisco, NVX and Dante

How to optimize your Cisco CBS350 series switches to work seamless with Crestron NVX and Dante. Before we dive into the configuration part, we will first understand what each system do and the technology underneath.

Crestron NVX is an AV-over-IP solution that enables the transmission of high-quality audio and video signals over standard IP networks, utilizing industry-standard network switches. It leverages the flexibility and scalability of IP technology to distribute audiovisual content with low latency and high fidelity across large-scale installations, such as corporate campuses and entertainment venues.

Dante, on the other hand, is an audio networking technology that enables the seamless transmission of high-quality audio signals over standard IP networks, offering interoperability and ease of integration with various audio devices and systems. Together, Crestron NVX and Dante provide a comprehensive solution for AV distribution, allowing for efficient, reliable, and flexible audiovisual communication systems.

Configuration:

Before we begin make sure that you have everything up to date, on the same firmware and connected together, as we will go through very detailed manual configuration it can easily become overwhelming and the slightest misconfiguration can flood your network making it unusable very quickly. We covered in detail on how to calculate NVX streams and other checks in choosing the right switch article.

Quick Check List:

Cisco CBS running the latest version?
Running the latest version will ensure that the latest features, bugs and issues have been ironed out or added. This will remove any doubts that your configuration is accurate and it's not an underlying bug that is causing your streams not to work.

Creston NVX and Dante on separate vlans?
It's recommended to split these into separate vlans / networks, if they're not, the configuration below will need to be adjusted to cater for these 2 services running on the same vlan / network.

Enough bandwidth between switches?
Make sure that you have enough bandwidth between switches as otherwise the links will choke and no traffic can be passed between them, every NVX encoder will be sending close to 1Gbps of multicast. Therefore as a rule of thumb calculate that if you gave 8 encoders you will need a minimum of 10Gbps link, if you have 15 encoders you would need 20Gbps links and so on.

Step by Step guide to have a basic config for NVX & Dante on Cisco Switches:
We have helped AV Engineers, Integrators and IT customers build these networks for years, sometimes the standard config is not the resolution due to other network factors. If the standard config didn't work, get in touch with us to see how we can help you resolve the issues.

1. Check your network settings, if your network doesn't use the typical 192.168.1.x subnet or a DHCP server (which automatically assigns IP addresses), you'll have to set your switch's IP address manually. This ensures it communicates properly with your devices. Find the switch management interface, go to IP Configuration > IPv4 Interface. Click "+" Enter an IP address that belongs to the same subnet as your other network devices. Also, make sure you set the correct subnet mask.

   

   
   

2. Port Management > Green Ethernet > Properties: Disable Energy Detect Mode and 802.3 Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) option, now move to Green Ethernet > Port Settings and disable it for every port.

   

   
   

   

   
   
   

3. Advanced Configuration Mode: from the top right from the top right of your screen.

   

   
   

4. Multicast > Properties: Enable Bridge Milticast Filtering Status and select MAC Group Address (For NVX) and IP Group Address (For Dante), if you're using 1 network for both, use MAC Group Address as default.

   

   
   

5. Multicast > IPv4 Multicast > IGMP Snooping: Enable IGMP Snooping and enable IGMP Querier Status. Apply settings.

   

   
   

6. Multicast > IPv4 Multicast Configuration > IGMP Snooping: Under each VLAN you created Enable the following

   • IGMP Snooping

   • MRouter Ports Auto Learn

   • Immediate Leave

   • IGMP Querier Status

   • IGMPP Querier Election

   • IGMP Querier Version
     (v2 or v3 depending on your Audio / Video device requirements)

   • Querier Source IP Address - Auto
     NB: The switch with the lowest IP number will be auto elected, if you would like to manually assign a switch to be the querier switch to "User Defined"
     

     

   
   

7. Multicast > IPv4 Multicast Configuration > IGMP VLAN Settings: Click on each VLAN and set Router IGMP Version to v2 or v3 as per previous configuration, change query interval to 30, 60 or leave as default on 125 (fine tune to your requirements)

   

   
   

8. Multicast > Multicast Router Port: Set all ports to None, this will allow the switch to auto-learn which one is the multicast router port.

   

   
   

9. Multicast > Forward All: Set all ports to None, this will prevent the switch from flooding all ports.

   

   
   

10. Multicast > Unregistered Multicast: This will be the most important part of the configuration. If you do not have a flooding issue go ahead and set everything to Forwarding, if you start seeing network issues, disconnections or high latency. Change all Crestron NVX or similar technology to Filtering. Go to step 14 to manage unregistered traffic in more detail.

    

    
    —— Note we haven't saved the configuration yet, this is on purpose so if we have any issues we can reboot and revert back to a working switch state, apply does not permanently save the configuration ——
    

11. Quality of Service > QoS Properties: Set QoS Mode to Basic and Apply.
    
    

    

    
    
    

12. Quality of Service > QoS Basic Mode > Global Settings: Set Trust Mode to DSCP and Apply.

    

    
    

13. Quality of Service > DSCP to Queue: Change all table to 1 except "34 (AF41) as 5", "46 (EF) as 7" and "56 (CS7) as 8"

    
    

14. Repeat the steps from 1 - 13: For all the switches on the network, it's important to have all switches on the same firmware version, it is not recommended to mix different brands or models to deploy a successful network deployment.
    
    —— Advanced Mode, proceed with caution. With the above configuration, multicast should be working fine, if you still have issues, it's likely a hardware or design limitations, should you wish to proceed, be careful and note all changes as these manual configurations can be disruptive and difficult to trace back ——
    
    

15. Multicast > IP Multicast Group Addresses: Add the following addresses

    • 224.0.0.230 - For PTP, Control and Monitoring

    • 224.0.0.231 - For PTP, Control and Monitoring

    • 224.0.0.232 - For PTP, Control and Monitoring

    • 224.0.0.233 - For PTP, Control and Monitoring

    • 224.0.0.251 - For mDNS
      

16. Click on each new address and click Details (do it 1 by 1) Assign Static to every port where you have Audio devices such as Dante, do not assign to NVX ports. Repeat this step for all the switches where you have Audio devices connected.

—— Test your work ——

1. If you're testing NVX you can view the streams between encoders and decoders, to analyze the traffic you can go to Status and Statistics > Port Utilization If you can see the stream, than everything is working fine, if the stream isn't coming in, you might have flooding, review the settings from 1 - 14 again and make sure the port is set to Filtering on multicast.
   

2. If you're testing Dante you will be expecting Dante Controller to see all the devices on the network, if your PC / Laptop is not seeing them go to Multicast > Unregistered Multicast and set the port to Forwarding
   
   

3. If you're still experiencing issues even after setting the above, it is time to get some expert advise to look into the issue, if you don't have anyone in your piers, feel free to get in touch with us through live chat or through the contact page and select Support.

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