NetAudio — unofficial Dante Controller alternative

NetAudio is an unofficial Dante Controller alternative for discovering, routing, configuring, and monitoring Dante network audio devices. The project provides open-source command-line tools, a web interface, a persistent daemon, and a protocol library for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

NetAudio is a native Dante Controller alternative for iOS and iPadOS, available now for iPhone and iPad through TestFlight. The app communicates directly with Dante devices for live discovery, audio subscription routing, device and channel configuration, live device metering, clock and status monitoring, and diagnostics. Local direct-device control runs on the phone or tablet without a separate computer, remote desktop session, or NetAudio daemon. The app also supports Dante Domain Manager (DDM) networks and connections to a NetAudio daemon.

Website and iOS app · Install the CLI and web interface · Quick start

Interfaces and architecture

NetAudio serves both interactive device control and software automation. A shared Rust protocol core implements Dante packet encoding and parsing for the Python application and native iOS client.

The CLI and daemon run on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Automated checks cover all three platforms, including native libraries and installed Python packages.

Capabilities

• Discovery and routing: discover Dante devices and their receive/transmit channels, inspect subscription status, and add or remove audio subscriptions.
• Device configuration: device and channel names, sample rate, encoding, latency, analog gain, device locking, preferred clock leader, AES67 settings, and primary/secondary network configuration on supported devices.
• Audio flows: inspect receive and transmit flows, plan and manage supported native Dante multicast transmit flows, discover advertised AES67 audio streams, and subscribe compatible receivers to them.
• Device metering and monitoring: live signal levels, clock status, interface statistics and errors, device diagnostics, monitoring issues, and event history through the CLI, API, and browser.
• Dante Domain Manager: discover managed inventory and control supported settings on DDM-enrolled devices using configured credentials and operation permissions.
• Presets and automation: save and apply device/routing presets, map device identities, inspect application results, and consume structured output from scripts and other control systems.

Device capabilities and the selected control transport determine which operations are available.

Installation

iOS and iPadOS (iPhone and iPad)

Install the native NetAudio iOS/iPadOS app through TestFlight. See netaudio.app for app information and support.

Linux, macOS, and Windows

Install the CLI, daemon, and web interface from PyPI:

uv tool install netaudio

Or with pip:

pip install netaudio

Arch Linux

Install the netaudio AUR package.

Containers

The daemon, web interface and MCP server also run as a container image, s00pcan/netaudio, for Linux hosts on the Dante network. Dante discovery, heartbeats and metering need the host's network, so the container shares it instead of getting its own. Docker Desktop on macOS and Windows runs containers inside a virtual machine that cannot see Dante traffic.

With Docker:

docker run -d --name netaudio --network host --init --restart unless-stopped \
  -v netaudio:/var/lib/netaudio s00pcan/netaudio
docker exec netaudio netaudio device list

From a checkout of this repository, docker compose -f containers/compose.yaml up -d does the same. Settings, the TLS identity, presets and MCP sign-ins are kept in the netaudio volume. Pass the options below with -e, or set them in containers/.env for Compose. The latest tag is the newest release, and edge is built from every change to master. To update, run docker pull s00pcan/netaudio, then remove and run the container again; with Compose, pull and then up -d.

To build the image yourself, use docker compose -f containers/compose.yaml -f containers/compose.build.yaml up -d --build. One machine builds both architectures without emulation: docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 --file containers/Dockerfile .

With systemd-nspawn (systemd 260 or newer), the same image runs without Docker. Save these settings as /etc/systemd/nspawn/netaudio.nspawn; they are also in containers/netaudio.nspawn:

[Exec]
Boot=no
KillSignal=TERM
Parameters=/usr/local/bin/netaudio daemon run
User=netaudio
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/netaudio
Environment=HOME=/var/lib/netaudio
Environment=NETAUDIO_CONFIG=/var/lib/netaudio/config.toml
Environment=PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
Environment=NOTIFY_SOCKET=
PrivateUsers=no
RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_INET AF_INET6 AF_UNIX AF_NETLINK

[Files]
Bind=/var/lib/netaudio

[Network]
Private=no
VirtualEthernet=no

Then name the container after this host, so the certificate, Bonjour name and MCP address use the host's name, pull the image, and start it now and at boot:

sudo sed -i "/^\[Exec\]/a Hostname=$(hostnamectl hostname)" /etc/systemd/nspawn/netaudio.nspawn
sudo importctl pull-oci --class=machine docker.io/s00pcan/netaudio:latest netaudio
sudo install -d -o 10001 -g 10001 -m 0750 /var/lib/netaudio
sudo machinectl enable --now netaudio
journalctl -u systemd-nspawn@netaudio -f

To update, stop the container, pull again with --force, and start it:

sudo machinectl stop netaudio
sudo importctl pull-oci --force --class=machine docker.io/s00pcan/netaudio:latest netaudio
sudo machinectl start netaudio

Settings and state live in /var/lib/netaudio on the host, including config.toml; add Environment= lines for the options below. To run CLI commands inside the container, save this as /usr/local/bin/netaudio and use sudo netaudio device list:

#!/bin/sh
exec nsenter --target "$(machinectl show netaudio --property=Leader --value)" --all \
  --setuid 10001 --setgid 10001 \
  env HOME=/var/lib/netaudio NETAUDIO_CONFIG=/var/lib/netaudio/config.toml netaudio "$@"

Container options, as environment variables:

The host firewall must allow the HTTPS port from clients, and UDP from the Dante network for discovery, heartbeats and metering.

From source

A source checkout requires Python 3.10 or newer, uv, and a Rust toolchain:

uv sync
uv run netaudio --help

Quick start

Start the daemon and open the web interface:

netaudio daemon start
netaudio daemon web --open

Use netaudio --help for the command list and netaudio COMMAND --help for individual commands. From a source checkout, use uv run netaudio.

For example, inspect a device by name and request JSON output:

netaudio -n avio-usb-1 device show
netaudio --json -n avio-usb-1 device show

Use your device's name in place of avio-usb-1. Put device filters before the command: -n matches names (including quoted patterns such as 'avio-*'), -s matches server names, -m matches MAC addresses, and --host selects an IP address.

Commands that change a device send the change and return. Add --verify before the command to wait until a fresh readback confirms it.

Channels and routing

Channels use tx:NUMBER or rx:NUMBER; a channel name can replace the number. For example, rename input 1 and connect output 1 of stagebox to it:

netaudio -n avio-usb-1 channel name rx:1 vocal-in
netaudio subscription add --tx tx:1@stagebox --rx rx:1@avio-usb-1

Remove that subscription with:

netaudio subscription remove --rx rx:1@avio-usb-1

Presets

Save selected devices, then preview the saved settings before applying them:

netaudio -n 'avio-*' preset save stage
netaudio preset show stage
netaudio preset load stage

preset show reads current device state but makes no changes. Presets are XML files in presets/ beside the configuration file; use preset list to see them, or supply an explicit .xml path. Saving over an existing file requires --force.

Configuration and troubleshooting

The daemon serves HTTPS on port 4781 with a self-signed certificate that it creates and renews automatically. Plain HTTP on port 4780 stays available on loopback for the local CLI and browser. netaudio daemon web lists the addresses.

To use your own certificate or other ports, add these settings to the configuration file shown by netaudio config path and restart the daemon:

[daemon]
tls_certificate = "/path/to/certificate.pem"
tls_key = "/path/to/private-key.pem"
tls_port = 4781
port = 4780

To serve plain HTTP on the network instead, set no_ssl = true under [daemon].

The daemon can publish device state to Redis for other programs. Install netaudio[redis] and name the server; without a [redis] section the daemon does not use Redis:

[redis]
host = "localhost"
port = 6379

The daemon follows this computer's JACK and PulseAudio audio only when host_audio = true is set under [daemon] and JACK or PulseAudio is installed.

netaudio config path shows which configuration file is used. For a DDM network, netaudio ddm login --default guides you through connecting to a server and choosing a domain.

Use netaudio daemon status to check the daemon and netaudio daemon logs -f to follow its logs. Logs default to warnings and errors. To run in the foreground with detailed logging, stop the background daemon first:

netaudio daemon stop
netaudio --log-level DEBUG daemon run

The browser's Events page keeps recent events and issues in memory. Restarting the daemon clears them. Use netaudio events export --file events.json to save the current event history before restarting.

Development

The project develops an independent implementation and understanding of Dante control protocols. Protocol work is recorded in reviewed source, focused tests, and evidence records identifying observed behavior and remaining unknowns. Research tooling is separate from normal application use.

Run the shared local/CI checks for the current host, using installed dependencies:

make check-local

This incrementally builds the Rust core, selects that library for Python tests, and checks the native ABI, generated interfaces, formatting, lint, types, Rust tests, Python tests, and web unit tests. The run has a five-minute total limit. Its printed report path contains results, per-check logs, source identity, and the tested library digest. Failed checks stop the run; timeouts are incomplete.

Run only source-quality/native checks or select another check group:

make quality
.venv/bin/python scripts/check_project.py --scope python --offline
.venv/bin/python scripts/check_project.py --scope webapp --offline

The manually dispatched CI workflow uses the same check commands. Browser tests and installed-wheel/platform matrices are separate, explicitly selected checks.

make audit checks uv.lock and the Rust core's Cargo.lock for known vulnerabilities, and make audit-fix upgrades the affected packages and audits again. The daily security workflow runs the same audit on master and the latest release, and rebuilds the published container images when their Python base image is updated.

Project background

NetAudio is an independent interoperability project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Audinate.

The project grew out of packet capture replay and modification experiments first written up in a Gearspace discussion.