The Dolby Lake Processors were chosen in particular to support Britannia Row's current huge L-Acoustics V-Dosc and dV-Dosc loudspeaker system inventory, much of which is now being used on the Robbie Williams tour. Britannia Row tour sales manager Roly Oliver commented: "At Britannia Row, we service very high-profile clients with the latest technologies from only the best equipment manufacturers. We did extensive research and evaluation of processors in the market and found that the Dolby Lake Processor was themost future-proof processing technology available. Support from Dolby's live sound group and its UK distributor, Out Board, has also been outstanding."
Each Dolby Lake Processor unit on the Robbie Williams: Close Encounters tour is configured with four-in/twelve-out analog modules. The full stadium system complement for the Robbie Williams tour, specified by system engineer Sherif el Barbari, includes three units at each side of the stage, one at each of six possible delay tower locations, and a single eight-in/eight-out unit at front of house to collect the various mix and submix signals from the Digico consoles and distribute them throughout the system.
"The DLP system is the most advanced and the best sounding system I've ever came across, with the best user interface and the greatest potential for convenience in operator control facilities," said el Barbari.
Audio signals are fed from front of house as AES3 digital, with a redundant backup analog signal going to the stage and all the delay tower locations. The Dolby Lake Processor's auto-sense facility is set to instantly switch over to the analogue feed if it detects any loss of the AES3 audio feed.
Dolby Lake Controller software communicates to all the units via a dual-redundant wired Ethernet loop emanating from a network switch at front of house, with a rackmount PC serving as the primary Dolby Lake Controller master. For roaming wireless control, a tablet PC runs as a secondary Dolby Lake Controller and links to the network via multiple distributed wireless access points. Several remote access points are installed at various delay tower locations and bridged back to a master access point at front of house, which then ports into the network switch.
Also uppermost in the minds of Britannia Row's technical strategists has been the viability of the Dolby Lake Processors to match up to the production sound provider's other future technology investments and project diversity. Britannia Row services many arena and theatre tours plus a number of specialized stadium and festival events, but the company also needs the flexibility to manage the growing demands of major television events such as the MTV and BRIT awards shows, which it has been handling for several years.
Robbie Williams' front-of-house engineer, Dave Bracey, sums up the appeal of the Dolby Lake Processor even more succinctly: "It's the most amazing-sounding PA I've heard in my life."
(Lee Baldock)
