The architecture question leads now. Whether the install is a single-room PAT theater or an eight-zone hillside, this tool walks you to the recommendation a Dante-certified rep would give — and tells you why.
The old model treated Dante as a multi-zone audio answer — useful when you had six or more zones and a hillside lot, overkill for anything smaller.
That model is broken. Single-room premium ecosystems — PAT, Theory, Hyperion Axis, Bijou, Trinnov, AudioControl's pro line — are now built around Dante. The gear assumes it. Going analog into that stack means an extra A/D-D/A stage and giving up the diagnostics the manufacturer designed in.
The tool above asks the architecture question first. If the answer is Dante-native, the recommendation short-circuits to Spec Dante regardless of zone count. If the architecture is conventional, the tool weighs zone count, phasing likelihood, distance, and network-team capability before landing on the call.
Single-room premium. Channel count is the signal. A 9.2.6 immersive theater is one zone with seventeen channels — Dante was made for this.
Distributed audio. Zone count, distance, phasing. Hillside lots, detached structures, and "what if we add the pool house" all push the same direction.
The five questions are the same ones a Dante-trained AVPro Global rep would walk through on a pre-sale call. The tool runs the conversation when you can't.
If the tool lands on Spec Dante and your team hasn't deployed this exact stack before, the right next move is a five-minute call. Network architecture, switch sizing, channel licensing — better caught before cable goes in the wall.
