Cranes Roost Park sits at the centre of Altamonte Town Centre, a 25-acre, 1.5-million-square-foot, master-planned development connected to a larger 1,400-acre business and residential district.
John Teer, president of Orlando-based Teer Engineering, commented on technical aspects of the cutting-edge fibre optic audio transport technology employed in the unique, high-tech park's amphitheatre, he says: "We deployed 80 audio channels of LightViper fibre optic electronics (64 sends and 16 returns). The underground Mil-spec tactical fibre cable run is a twelve strand bundle of single mode fibre for all audio, video and background music. We dedicated four strands to the LightViper system for the stage-to-FOH audio. We simply couldn't use traditional copper wiring for this project for a host of reasons, including the obvious safety issues in a multi-use public venue. Because the stage literally floats on a lake - and will be repositioned from time-to-time - we needed an extremely safe and ultra-reliable method for providing easy-to-use, plug 'n' play interconnections for outside rental or client A/V production companies; these are the primary users who will be utilising the Park's new technical facilities."
Teer added: "Naturally, the entire fibre optic audio system is impervious to lightning strikes, something we're famous for here in Central Florida! With the LightViper digital audio snake there is simply no noise whatsoever and absolutely no ground loops either; it performs flawlessly. We looked at other available audio fibre components, but the simplicity and reliability of the LightViper system won out. It's an elegantly straightforward design: a point-to-point, stage-to-control, professional digital audio system that doesn't rely on computer software control to do its thing. The 'Viper's' abilities to switch phantom power and gain at the stage box were also crucial features we needed that none of the other systems had.
"Because of the many outside vendors who will be using it, we truly had to make this entire audio system very user-friendly. When our client told us all technical systems not only had to be state-of-the-art, but plug 'n' play too, they meant it."
(Chris Henry)
