With a long history of using Optocore systems in their digital desks, they contacted the German company's international sales manager Mike Case - and soon an Optocore DD32E/DD6NE network had been added to the LX4 Optical Digital Multicore (and FOH I/O) already in use.
Wigwam's digital specialist, Alex Hadjigeorgiou comments, "Huge distances weren't really an issue until the band started playing stadiums - prior to that everything was daisy chained via the FOH position. However, it quickly became obvious that in the big American arenas / stadia the distances would be too great to run the system in its existing format - hence the introduction of fibre."
But it was when production moved across the Atlantic to Wigwam Acoustics - and Rob Priddle joined system tech Tom Smith as stadium specialist and Wigwam crew chief - that things really took off.
Optocore's DD32E/DN6E was duly specified to take AES/EBU outputs from the FOH Dolby Lake processors, which were providing system EQ and zoning control, and distribute the signals over 120 metres to the processors optimising the d&b J series PA system at the stage end.
The DN6E's also facilitated Ethernet computer control, enabling all three processors on the network from the FOH position, as well as the d&b amplifier control network; additionally, the devices functioned as the word clock distribution system from FOH to stage.
Thus by the time the tour arrived at Wembley Stadium for the first of two consecutive concerts, Rob Priddle and FOH engineer Daniel Green (mixing from a Digidesign VENUE with full Pro Tools multitrack support) had an expanded site wide network.
Summing up, Alex Hadjigeorgiou, commented: "We had to find something that would allow us to run both the AES feeds and Lake network control across huge distances, and being able to use these transport devices between the Lake processors in the local racks at either end took the pressure off; it formed the entire infrastructure and the Optocore fibre-based system was the only one that would extend this far."
(Jim Evans)
