Installing a Dante card to the Wing internal slot.

[MJKlein]

If by firmware alone we can upgrade our card ch count it will indeed be quite a discovery.

If that discovery is made and the board goes down suddenly, you'll know why.

[GaryH]

@MJKlein Yes, if I understand what you imply, I agree 100%. It would not be too long until that happens. For the VERY same reason I would suggest any of us flashing our cards make 100% sure we have copies of what files came originally on it stored safely. The current firmware files for the Wing are dated March 2021 if I recall correctly. I would not be surprised to find a new firmware down the road that will restrict its use (or try to) in some way. You have to figure without a doubt what goes on in here is being communicated to the powers that be somewhere, MT, Audinate or elsewhere. My feeling is still strongly: I paid a decent amount for my product, I should be able to use it (or abuse it) in any way I see fit. If I paid nearly $500 for X-Dante (I think I did way back then) and want to take the chance to brick it, that should be my choice alone....and if it works out, my good fortune. Someone who would rather have us believe there are really 2 different cards and have us buy the extra accordingly, might disagree.

[curtbl]

Well, haven't had time to flash the 8x8 yet, while not "certain" but my money says that it will flash to what firmware I want to add to it. That said, a card from an external card, let's say XDante, and flashed to Wing internal will undoubtedly work however returning it to the external card might be problematic depending on how the XDante card or other external card receives its firmware file.
All Brooklyn cards are created the same and the firmware license determines what the manuf. paid to Audinate to use a card in a certain channel count, so flashing the card with compatible, any channel count, firmware should make it operational on that platform.

The question that I have is each manufacture has a firmware files for their Brooklyn cards. And as stated if the device is only capable of 32 channels it would not matter if you had a card with 64 channels only 32 could be used. And as Gary and i learned the Brooklyn card removed from a Yamaha 64 did not work, so Yamaha's card is programed with certain features requiring their external card utilizes that for IP connections, do I think it could be re-flashed to work, yes, but returned to operational as a Yamaha, not so sure, as it would need to be on the external card and there is overall compatibility issues with Yamaha on the bigger Dante stage anyway.

I do wonder about the V4 vs V3 version, it appears that nothing has changed except newer faster chips.
Audinate sells Dev Kits, expensive!!, and licenses for each unit. I know on the Utimo chipset side of Audinate, we have speakers with these chips and some are 1 channel and others are 2 channel, updating the Utimo firmware made the single channel units dual channel..

I hope to get to the 8x8 soon but the Wing is presently in use in a A/B comparison with a Digico S31 and Drack. Wing on Dante through the Drack and then also directly to house DSP through the DL32 Left, Right, Center, Subs, Balcony .... 1st run the overall conclusions were the Wing through the DL outputs while using Dante inputs. The wing sounded much brighter and fuller .... actually hard to explain, but the system just seemed to open up and not feel as closed in as the S31 using the same DSP and speaker system. I have worked with alot of Digico's over time and as I told a friend at Digico, if the S31 was my first experience with Digico I would not bother.... The S31 is just a lack luster console in my humble opinion. A way for Digico to compete in the lower price market place.
Hope to get to the 8x8 soon! Are we having fun yet? !!

[GaryH]

@curtbl It will be interesting to see what happens with the 8 ch card for sure. I wish I still had one of my NY64's, I know much more about all of it now I did not realize then. I would have tried several things to communicate with the card had I realized then there were tools that existed. I then would have tried to flash it for sure. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Not that it would have worked anyway but I would have tried. I was lucky to not have lost a bunch of money on the several I had, just trying to locate a 3B. Sold them all at cost or in one case for a small profit. When I finally got a 3B version, I was convinced it would do the trick BUT it was exactly the same. Not recognized. I then gave up and bought a Kevic-the chameleon. Kevic today Wing tomorrow, X-Dante on Friday I would bet the NY64 could be flashed installed in the Yamaha TF series mixer with Dante Controller. I am interested in that mixer line but not enough to outlay the $ for both a mixer and the card. Certainly not just to flash a card. Their Dante stagebox counterpart (Tio 1608) should work with a Wing-Dante card and is reasonably priced, that I might try...but not this week Still waiting patiently for my Wing-Dante to arrive (2 days late, but who is counting)

[curtbl]

@curtbl It will be interesting to see what happens with the 8 ch card for sure. I wish I still had one of my NY64's, I know much more about all of it now I did not realize then. I would have tried several things to communicate with the card had I realized then there were tools that existed. I then would have tried to flash it for sure. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Not that it would have worked anyway but I would have tried. I was lucky to not have lost a bunch of money on the several I had, just trying to locate a 3B. Sold them all at cost or in one case for a small profit. When I finally got a 3B version, I was convinced it would do the trick BUT it was exactly the same. Not recognized. I then gave up and bought a Kevic-the chameleon. Kevic today Wing tomorrow, X-Dante on Friday I would bet the NY64 could be flashed installed in the Yamaha TF series mixer with Dante Controller. I am interested in that mixer line but not enough to outlay the $ for both a mixer and the card. Certainly not just to flash a card. Their Dante stagebox counterpart (Tio 1608) should work with a Wing-Dante card and is reasonably priced, that I might try...but not this week Still waiting patiently for my Wing-Dante to arrive (2 days late, but who is counting)

So I have a QL5 and TIO stage box installed at a local performance theater, like it but has issues with other Dante products and if I remember it has the Ultimo chipset internal to both units. I do hate the fact that it has 32 inputs local and we aren't using any of them as we use the TIO. One of the Wings big selling points for me was I'm not paying for local preamps I will never use!
Also a TF with a NY64 card in another location and it seems to work ok for connections to the larger network, I must say I'm disappointed in the TF as much as I'm disappointed in the Digico S31 series. The TF is a pain to get around the menus and in some ways the Digico is too, plus the TF physical build is questionable, as there are already a few broken faders. The Digico as well, as digital knobs fail and if you are not careful when opening the case you will crack the screens, I've been lucky as my friend at Digico warned me, otherwise I probably would be replacing the screens too.
Back to the QL5. It is pretty straight forward and I like it alot. Price wise none of them hold a candle to the Wing, however I also wonder if the wing could hold up to the riggers of the road.... Part of the reason I bought the road case I did.

[GaryH]

@curtbl So you could try flashing an NY64 while inside the TF then. I would be curious to see what happens doing it that way. At this point with a Kevic it is not needed so no sense taking any chances, however if it worked the NY64 card price wise is still the cheapest 64 card out there. And there were a lot for sale before I started buying them up. Do you like the Tio preamp sound? I have regularly used an LS9-32 for many years in a venue I work at and always thought those sounded quite good. I don't see MT ever offering a Dante enabled stagebox which to me makes so much sense in a Dante system. I know that TF series is lower end for Yamaha but they always seem to make great stuff. There support is also great. Good to hear a review of the mixer. I have had 2 big issues with my Wing which makes me worry their build also is not the greatest. Fingers crossed. Have you ever used just the TIO and the Wing together? I would love to hear what you thought of that combo.

[curtbl]

@curtbl So you could try flashing an NY64 while inside the TF then. I would be curious to see what happens doing it that way. At this point with a Kevic it is not needed so no sense taking any chances, however if it worked the NY64 card price wise is still the cheapest 64 card out there. And there were a lot for sale before I started buying them up. Do you like the Tio preamp sound? I have regularly used an LS9-32 for many years in a venue I work at and always thought those sounded quite good. I don't see MT ever offering a Dante enabled stagebox which to me makes so much sense in a Dante system. I know that TF series is lower end for Yamaha but they always seem to make great stuff. There support is also great. Good to hear a review of the mixer. I have had 2 big issues with my Wing which makes me worry their build also is not the greatest. Fingers crossed. Have you ever used just the TIO and the Wing together? I would love to hear what you thought of that combo.

The sound both in and out of the TIO seems just fine..... and I have never had issues with it and the QL5. Also never tried it with the Wing to see difference between it and the DL. I probably can do that, although hadn't thought of it as the TIO is in a different location. I will give it a try, need to find a yamaha tio app to control the preamps. As I mentioned I'm not impressed with the Wing and DRack combo the DL beats it hands down in my humble opinion so will be interesting test.


There was another forum where someone asked about the TF as an option and pretty much everyone trashed the TF, even I was surprised as the overall negative response including a yamaha dealer.

[GaryH]

@curtbl That’s great, look forward to what you find!

[GaryH]

I just learned of another Dante card that has been verified to work in the Wing AND accepts the official MT Wing internal firmware file. The Avid 64 ch module for Pro Tools. It is just great IMO to see another product that can be used here, I also suspect there may well be more options out there!. (not the Yamaha NY64 though-at least not without some major tom foolery) This person also did a great step by step write up which was shared with me via PM in another forum and that he may post up here in the future. It is about $75 more than the Wing-Dante BUT if one is tired of waiting, well, there you go. The slow boat from China is still chugging away I guess regarding MY Wing-Dante...just went back to mid July expectation from mid June....glad I already have something that works! Anyway:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... te-module- 64-channel-ip

[pmaillot]

So, it sounds like all Dante Brooklyn II module marked BNII-01-064 would work/accept the Wing fw file.

Good news overall.

-Patrick