Meeting this audio challenge at the recent Classic Incantations concerts - presented by the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg across five Indian cities - were Sound.Com.
The Orchestra, conducted by Matt Dunkley, performed original scores and film music written by the Indian maestro - accompanied by the choir and soloists from his own KM Music Conservatory in Chennai.
Once again the sound crew relied on their Optocore network to transmit pristine signals. Sound.Com's Sunil Karanjikar and Joel Dcruz toured the country with FOH mixing engineer Holger Schwark (on a DiGiCo SD10), playing back to back shows, while Sound.Com's MD, Warren Dsouza acted as stand-in systems engineer for the Delhi and Kolkata leg of the tour.
The Optocore solution was used where the Input sources from the stage exceeded the 48 Mic pre amps available as standard on a Digi Rack. The additional 14 channels were picked up by an Optocore X6R-FX 16MI and transported to the SD10, interfaced coaxially to Optocore by means of a DD4MR-FX.
The DD4MR-FX and a DD2FR-FX also simplified a relatively tough job of multi-tracking each concert on two computers (one used as backup), confirmed Sound.Com head of engineering, Sunil Karanjikar. Both computers used RME MADIface interface units to the multi-track and all inputs on the SD10 were MADI mirrored on the Optocore DD4MR-FX and DD2FR-FX to implement this solution. "This facility allowed us to multi-track a full 56ch system using just one fibre and one coax pair each for the two redundant systems," stated Sunil.
The Bangalore show, where production fielded four main hangs of JBL VerTec, 36 delay clusters of paired VRX932LA boxes and a final row of SRX712M boxes, proved particularly challenging. "This was something of an audio milestone in India - and the fact that it was successfully executed was down to the Optocore node racks and Harman HiQnet System Architect, which managed the Crown I-Tech HD12000 power amplifiers," said Warren Dsouza.
In Bangalore, the Optocore DD4MR-FX also collected outputs from the SD10 to be routed to four OptoRacks, with each OptoRack consisting of a DD32R-FX and a X6R-FX 16MI. AES outs from the DD32R-FX fed the Crown ITech HD amplifiers, which were driving the PA and delay clusters, while the LAN and SANE ports were used to transport Ethernet data from the master computer to the Crown ITech HD racks, allowing for full system control (including delay and EQ) for each cluster.
Sunil Karanjikar concluded, "The Symphony tour was personally very gratifying as we exploited technology to its maximum potential. This was especially true of the Optocore fibre optics, Cat 5, AES and analogue, which handled all the audio transport, and the combination of optical and electrical MADI for the multitrack recording and replay. This was all due to the solid platforms Optocore and RME provided us with."
(Jim Evans)
