DVS stands for Dante Virtual Soundcard. Once installed it simulates up to 8 Audio Devices (16 Channels) in Windows as WDM Driver. Those Channels can be transferred seperatly via LAN (Ethernet) to any compatible receiver, which is most likely a professional Hardware Audio Mixer. The advantage is, that you can send audio from both PLAYDECK Playlist to the mixer.
This is the product page:
https://www.audinate.com/products/software/dante-virtual-soundcard
Once you installed DVS on the PLAYDECK machine, select WDM as Audio Interface and START:
You can now select the 8 Dante Audio Devices in PLAYDECK. Each representing a Stereo Pair:
As optional step you could set the Audio Device Properties to the same Audio Format, that you are using in PLAYDECK. The Default in PLAYDECK is: 48000 Hz, 2 Ch, 32-bit. This will avoid transcoding of the audio stream and result in higher quality audio:
If you work with Multichannel Audio, you have to mix down your Channels. See this article for how to work with multichannel audio.
Troubleshooting / Dante Leader Clock
If you dry test Dante in PLAYDECK (without any actual network receiver), you will notice that the Clip is not playing. This is because PLAYDECK waits for the Dante Clock Signal to query the next video/audio frame. Without any Dante Clock in the network, the next frame will not be processed in PLAYDECK. This is a Dante Feature to ensure, that video and audio always stay sync in case of network lagging; and to syncronize all Dante enabled devices in the network.
By default the selection of the Leader Clock takes place automatically, with no need to manually assign. You might need to consult your audio mixer manual on how to active clocking. See this Video from Dante on clocking.
If you want or need to manually assign a Leader Clock; or if you are in a test environment with no audio hardware; or your audio hardware does not support clocking:
In this case you have to install Dante Via on a second Windows machine in the same network. Dante Via is able to function as Leader Clock in your network. It cant run on the same machine as PLAYDECK and DVS. Once installed, it will automatically designate itself as the Leader Clock and connect to the DVS by itself without further user intervention.
It is recommended tho, to install Dante Controller on the PLAYDECK machine to make 100% sure, that everything is working as expected. It is simply a controlling and reporting tool:
If everything is setup correctly, you will see a GREEN LIGHT in the bottom right corner, indicating that your DVS is Clock-enabled and ready to use in PLAYDECK.
Once you see this GREEN LIGHT, PLAYDECK will now play all Clips correctly.