The nerve centre for all television operations and the world's news agencies during the World Cup, the IBC was set up at the MTN Expo Centre.
Gearhouse Broadcast's head of sound, Ryan Campbell, configured a system for the Sports Programming Network based around Optocore converters. Analogue feeds were distributed to the Yamaha M7CL desk, fitted with Optocore YG and YS cards in the audio control room, with fibre distribution between the voice over booth and master control room - via a series of DD32E network devices and Optocore X6 I/O interfaces.
Says Ryan Campbell, "The Optocore rig utilised here was integral to making full use of the incoming embedded VANDA (vision and audio) circuits, containing discrete 5.1 stems across three AES pairs.
"Providing the perfect interface, we could pull and push AES between our De-Embedders/Embedders, DTS Encoders and Decoders seamlessly - although one tip is to ensure that all de-embedders are fed DARS (digital audio reference signals) in the same length cables, as this can make a difference."
Broadcast centres, such as that in Johannesburg, historically have many analogue four-wire circuits requiring integration to both the audio mixer and communications system. "But the analogue I/O handled all of this - pre the audio mixer, freeing up valuable ports," he explained.
"We assigned a free Optocore analogue output to feed a speaker - and this allowed us to monitor any signal on the system from the PC controller position."
(Jim Evans)
