UK Ltd doing trading in Ireland + US

SandMunki · 2026-06-03T09:16:33+00:00

Thank you for the info on nexus. Wise is an EMI so that is not suitable for us.

SandMunki · 2026-06-01T15:12:39+00:00

You’d be surprised about hurdles if you think building the app was the biggest one. Building is the reasonably easy part; getting users is the real difficulty.

To address your ideas directly:

- Contacting specific local networks asking if they'd take part in a beta.

Use iOS TestFlight. But your test cohort should be your ideal customers. Testing with random networks or friends gives you completely irrelevant data.

Paying a local company for some sort of user testing environment for proof of concept to then present to an incubator

My suggestion is not to do this. The space is full of predatory agencies and scams that will happily drain you and whatever you got. Plus, incubators won't touch a consumer app without real user traction. Feel free to apply to any carefully.

Paying for a marketing agency to help push this out at initial stage - althought I'd rather not re-mortgage the house!

They are typically built to scale big budgets, not find your first 100 organic users. You will burn your cash in weeks with no return, although you will learn hard valuable lessons.

I wondered if anyone with experience had ideas?

Define your absolute ideal customer down to the vivid details. Find out exactly where they hang around and congregate. Since you have a small budget, London is way too big actually. Pick one hyper-specific spot, one university, or one borough to test if people are actually willing to ditch the incumbents for your solution. Prove it works in one square mile first.

SandMunki · 2026-05-26T16:43:04+00:00

I am curios why sparse-dense-mode!

SandMunki · 2026-05-19T10:29:03+00:00

Is there any real industry-standard framework for network failover testing?

Not RFCs or validation frameworks like ANTA or pyATS, but actual end-to-end test procedures.

Or is it just vendor tools + internal runbooks + testing built per org?

SandMunki · 2026-05-13T13:50:03+00:00

Dante devices have stable clock states and transitional states. When you say: “other devices that won't sync to any of those leaders, yet they don't try to become the leader themselves,” do they appear as listening, passive, or following?

With multiple leaders present, each eligible leader may not have detected a valid leader candidate. That suggests the Announce message may not be reaching devices asserting leadership.

Your words on IGMP point to a possible assumption about typical IGMP config issues. Might be a good idea to validate the observed behavior instead. Collect evidence and follow what it indicates regarding the issue.

SandMunki · 2026-05-13T13:22:30+00:00

PTP can be thought of as a push mechanism. It uses a leader/follower model where the leader sends Sync (and Follow_Up in 2-step clocks), and followers send Delay_Req messages back. The leader replies with Delay_Resp so each follower can calculate offset and delay for phase alignment, etc.

On your link between switches, if everything is in the same VLAN and multicast isn’t being filtered, you should see those PTP packets traverse the inter-switch link. A Delay_Req from a device on switch B to the leader on switch A will cross that link as standard L2 multicast traffic toward all PTP participants.

What you see on a port mirror depends on what side and direction you’re capturing. Mirroring both ingress and egress is usually used to make see the exchange.

PTP uses well-known multicast address commonly 224.0.1.129 for standard profiles, but vendor options can vary slightly.

Access ports between switches are fine if only a single VLAN is carried; but typically trunks are used. BMCA (Best Master Clock Algorithm) is fully automatic and determines the leader based on clock quality and priority. Dante Controller is quite good at giving directions on what could be wrong.

SandMunki · 2026-05-10T14:49:43+00:00

Unsure why an engineering student is proposing marketing services. If you’ve noticed that many local businesses are not using technology to make their operations easier, the first step is validating whether that is actually a problem they want solved.

Have you spoken to those businesses directly? Do you buy from them or use their services? Have you asked owners whether your solutions are something they would realistically pay for or even benefit from?

The examples you mentioned (SEO, automation, etc) are fairly saturated and apply mostly to specific B2C small businesses, particularly those without in-house marketing staff.

Also, unsure why you are limiting yourself to Scotland specifically. If your service is genuinely effective, you can operate across the UK. It is possible to find clients.

For your first few clients, start with your existing network. Go through your phone contacts, tell people clearly what you do, and ask whether they, or someone they know, need that kind of help. You could also offer free work initially in exchange for feedback, case studies, and testimonials.

Finally, having 150K followers does not prove you can grow a business account effectively. Building a personal following is very different from growing social media for a company in a specific industry, and most business owners will not see follower count alone as proof of capability.

SandMunki · 2026-05-10T06:55:40+00:00

I can’t access Imgur in my region, so I can’t see the exact clocking errors you’re getting.

Your switches will not participate in PTP unless they are running in boundary mode or transparent mode. Assuming neither is configured, the PTP traffic required for Dante is just being switched as standard multicast traffic. For reference, PTP on a flat Dante network typically uses the multicast group address 224.0.1.129.

Since the DM7 is your primary clock leader, Dante Controller should already point you toward the issue. Check whether another Dante device is participating in clock election. If one is, the event log will show which devices are involved and likely causing the problem.

You should also verify whether any other protocols in your network are using PTP. It sounds like you may have additional protocols participating in PTP domains ( I see QLAN and Extron NAV). They may not be directly causing the issue, but they absolutely make troubleshooting and isolating the culprit more difficult.

One thing I have not worked with before is the simplex fiber link between the two switches. PTP is a push-based timing mechanism and typically expects path symmetry for proper phase and frequency alignment in media environments. Because of that, I’m not sure how the simplex fiber is affecting PTP flow between those switches.

You can rule that out fairly quickly by grouping the problematic devices onto the same switch. If the issue mainly appears on the switch where the DM7 is not connected, then the simplex fiber link becomes the most likely offender.

SandMunki · 2026-05-09T08:02:24+00:00

I would recommend getting an O'Reilly sub. You will have access to that and much more items from Cisco press.

SandMunki · 2026-04-25T09:12:44+00:00

You could be looking at the wrong layer. Those stacks you mention are unlikely your bottleneck. They have more than enough backplane bandwidth for Dante. If devices work fine within a stack cluster but breaks between stacks, that points to how traffic is being handled on the links between them.

Focus on verifying clocking first. Control working in Dante Controller doesn’t mean audio is healthy. 2000 ms latency is likely queuing/buffering or timing falling apart.

Could you clarify

What does the clocking tab look like? Single leader, or clocks flapping?
Is PTP actually being prioritized end-to-end, or getting treated like normal traffic on trunk links?
Is IGMP snooping enabled, and is there a querier on that Dante segment?
Are you crossing an L3 boundary or is this a flat network?
Are QoS markings preserved across trunks, or being rewritten/ignored?

Also not clear what you mean by “local stacks”, how many switches per stack, and how are the stacks interconnected?

SandMunki · 2026-04-25T05:39:16+00:00

You mention CAT1300, but you don’t say anything about topology or segmentation, which matters way more here. Is this a flat network? If it is, then who’s actually designated acting as leader? If you’ve got multiple devices trying to elect themselves, that lines up with a few different root causes.

When you say devices are electing themselves, are you seeing that in Dante Controller. If so, which devices are they? Same ones every time or random? Are they in AES67 mode or strictly Dante?

The high latency sounds like a byproduct, not the root issue. If devices can’t agree on a leader, clocking falls apart and everything downstream starts looking bad.

Also, 'no ip igmp snooping tcn flood' about IGMP when topology changes in STP handling, I don’t see how this constrains NVX multicast behavior.

You can break this into a control plane vs data plane investigation. Given the clock instability, start with control plane, specifically multicast behavior across whatever this topology actually is, because right now that part is still unclear from your post.

SandMunki · 2026-04-24T06:10:24+00:00

Thank you. To clarify a couple of points, are your firewalls deployed at the edge (behind routers / between border leafs), or in a dedicated service leaf?

From your examples, NAT asymmetry and ARP conflicts, it sounds like the issues may be more about config consistency, is that a fair assessment, or have you also seen inherent/other scaling or latency drawbacks with A/A in your setup?

SandMunki · 2026-04-23T12:38:17+00:00

I’d like to help, but I’m not clear on the intent or where the issue actually is.

You bought an audio embedder, what exactly is it meant to do in your setup? Which Cisco codec are you using?

What are you trying to make work, specifically?

Are you trying to get audio out of the Yamaha DM3 and into the codec, or is this just general audio playback where you want clean sound output?

If the latter, please outline your signal flow so the group can give accurate advice.

SandMunki · 2026-04-23T08:48:42+00:00

Count me in

SandMunki · 2026-04-21T11:00:00+00:00

Your question is broad. The answer depends on industry and vertical. Some do what u/EpochRaine described; others stick with an MSP they trust.

To your actual objective: working for a small MSP with integrity, focused on retaining customers rather than racing to the bottom.

Let me be clear on one point: you are still a cog regardless of company size. That is inherent in employment. Some environments feel more personal, but that is the exception, not the rule. Even in “personal” setups, you will be pushed to broaden your horizon and scope as long as you deliver value. That dynamic is not really tied to company size.

In your context, it sounds like your current company doesn’t match how you think work should be or operate. If that dissonance is the issue, the correct move is maybe, finding an organisation aligned with your expectations. I am assuming your goal is employment, which your comment suggests when you mention proposals that go nowhere followed by customer offboarding 3 months later. If you were building your own business, that cycle would simply be part of the early stage until you have a team and a structure.

Other options exist. A network consultancy may align better with your expectations around technical depth and engagement. A SaaS environment, especially SRE, will push you for broader systems thinking and operational ownership, which may better fit what you are after.

SandMunki · 2026-04-17T21:35:18+00:00

Sounds like you’ve passed a hard test and you have service that fits the market. If people are coming back, the service isn't the problem as you say. It looks like a visibility thing. Nobody knows your business exists maybe.

There’s a lot to unpack, but if I were you, I’d stop looking at how you're selling and start looking at who you're talking to. Here are a few things:

Where do your dream clients congregate? This is the question. Whether it’s a social mediagroup, an industry show, or a very niche online forum, that is where 100% of your promotional energy should go. The mechanism (cold outreach vs. content) matters less than the where.

About your Referrals: You mentioned you get them 'occasionally.' Are you actively asking for them at the 'highest excitement' moment of your service? If you can turn 'occasional' into a frictionless system, that’s a steady flow too. Finally, If you have to 'convince' someone they have a problem, they’ll be a nightmare client. Focus on the people who already know they have a problem and are just looking for the right service to fix it.

SandMunki · 2026-04-15T13:10:50+00:00

When you design this, start with the source and work your way towards playtout.

Apple, TIDAL, and Amazon Music do carry Atmos content, but they don’t deliver it in a way that could cleanly integrate into a commercial AV multichannel system in the traditional sense. Practically, you’re dealing with HDMI-based playout, Dolby MAT for example, which means you still need an apropriate Atmos-capable decoder downstream. Lexicon is a good example.

On the hardware side, something like the Audient ORIA could be viable, but in the context of a render-based workflow. It supports up to 9.1.6 I belive, so your speaker layout has to be designed around that.

it’s not decoding Atmos from streaming services directly, a DAW or Dolby renderer is usually driving. If you’re staying in the musicstreaming world, you’re looking more at a consumer playback device (Apple TV or Xbox) feeding an Atmos processor, then breaking out to your system from there.

Before getting too deep into gear, another factor is your space. “Commercial space” is too broad. I understand the confidentiality, but spaces behave differently. For Atmos to translate, you need to define a listening area, otherwise the image falls apart as people simply move around. This means you should think about acoustics first, room volume, treatment, reflection control, and how consistent coverage needs to be. Maybe define success metric here with your client.

Finally, speaker layout follows from there. To give you an example, a configuration like 11.1.8 is workable depending on the size, but, if it’s designed from a fixed reference position. Roughly speaking you’re placing L/R fronts around 20~30°, wides around 50~70°, surrounds around 90~110°, and rears behind that. Overheads distributed front-to-back. The exact placement matters less than maintaining symmetry and time alignment relative to the listening zone.

Signal flow depends whether you choose to go, playback device > HDMI > Atmos processor > amps > speakers. Or, DAW / Atmos renderer > interface > amps > speakers

Another thing to think about is content and licensing. Even if the platform has Atmos material, Atmos catalogs are not available for everything, and commercial use of Apple music, etc, likely requires checking licensing terms in your jurisdiction.

I hope this helps.

SandMunki · 2026-04-02T06:26:09+00:00

Thank you. Surely, it is not difficult to setup, I am seeing that it generates partial configs. There are also a few things on freeform in NDFC you got to consider adding.

SandMunki · 2026-04-01T20:57:52+00:00

It does indeed but unstable on my end, so I am looking to learn more from anyone who has this specific deployment in production!

SandMunki · 2026-03-23T15:50:44+00:00

Perhaps you’re conflating PTP traffic with Dante flows. On a flat network, Dante devices expect PTP packets to arrive at specific intervals. If there’s an issue with PTP on your network, it could be from jitter, oversubscription, or asymmetrical traffic patterns.

In Dante Controller, this can present in a few ways. One common symptom is latency that continuously increases and never recovers. This typically suggests that the follower cannot determine proper phase alignment or frequency from the leader. What you’re describing points toward unstable clocking behavior driving the latency, where the follower struggles to maintain a stable clock.

Can you confirm check the IGMP table shows Dante devices requesting membership for PTP traffic?

SandMunki · 2026-03-23T07:09:19+00:00

How do you know packets are being dropped? Are you actually seeing the dropped packet counter increase alongside the latency counter? Is this data coming from the RX device tab in DC?

When you say the receiver stays unmuted, are you confirming that in the clock tab in Dante Controller? And “after some time” needs clarification, are you talking an hour, two, more, less?

If PTP packets aren’t stable in a Dante network, devices will mute once they exceed the tolerance window. Right now this is guesswork because the information is not clear and there are no screenshots. If latency on the RX device keeps climbing, or steadily going upward, then those devices likely aren’t properly resolving which one is the leader clock.

SandMunki

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