A UniFi Church Production Network, With Dante on Its Own VLAN

Uncategorized Sep 30, 2026

Our band mixes their own in-ears from their phones, using an app called Mixing Station. There were times someone would hit connect and nothing would happen. They'd hit it again. Sometimes it took three tries.

Third time's the charm is not a great monitor strategy. We had enough little network problems like that to make a change.

What our production network ran on before

Our production network ran on basic unmanaged switches, the plug-it-in-and-forget-it kind. One set handled our computers and gear. A second set handled Dante, which carries our tracks and keys over the network.

The UniFi gear we use now

At the start of 2026, I rebuilt the network with UniFi gear from Ubiquiti:

A Dream Machine as the gateway.
A main switch.
Smaller switches in the sound booth and on stage.

UniFi network map of our church production network

I can see the whole network now. UniFi shows a map of every switch, every device, and what's happening on every port. Before, that map lived in my head, which isn't the most reliable hard drive in the building.

Giving Dante its own VLAN

I also gave Dante its own lane on the same cables. That's called a VLAN.

Dante can get finicky when it shares a network, so everything else, from the switcher to the stream encoder, runs in the other lane.

Setting up networks and VLANs in UniFi is fairly simple. I did call a friend who works in IT a couple of times to sort out some kinks.

What changed on Sunday

Now the in-ear mixes connect right away. So do the iPads running MultiTracks and our chord charts. It's fast, and it's been so much more reliable than those old switches.

I should have made this change sooner. A network isn't the fun thing to spend money on. When I'm deciding what to buy for our booth, I keep asking one question: will it make Sunday more consistent and give me fewer weird problems to chase? The UniFi network did.

Common questions

Why does Dante need its own VLAN?

Dante can get finicky when it shares a network. We gave it its own lane on the same cables, and everything else, from the switcher to the stream encoder, runs in the other lane.

What UniFi gear does a church production network need?

Ours uses a UniFi Dream Machine as the gateway, a main switch, and smaller switches in the sound booth and on stage.

Why does Mixing Station take several tries to connect?

For us, it happened on a network of basic unmanaged switches. After we rebuilt it with UniFi and put Dante on its own VLAN, our in-ear mixes connect right away.

Is UniFi hard to set up for a church?

Setting up networks and VLANs in UniFi is fairly simple. I called a friend who works in IT a couple of times to sort out some kinks.

Church Media Training