Experienced FOH sound engineer (and long-term Wigwam affiliate) Kevin Pruce, said that the returns system, designed to provide a flexible solution to the technical restrictions which many hire / production companies face with Cat 5 cable systems, was functioning without a hitch.
"I enjoy working with new systems and know that Wigwam would never put anything out until they are 100% sure that it works," said the sound engineer. "Chris [Hill, Wigwam Hire director] decided it was time to find a solution to the problem of having to supply various different types of cable runs from FOH to stage, (AES, analogue and data). This system overcomes that, by supplying a 'plug and play' solution. Allowing 24 AES and analogue channels (plus data) to be sent down the same fibre from the house to the stage racks, which are in turn linked via fibre, enables you to access any signal at any point."
He adds, "The great things about this system are the fact there is no latency and it's a redundant system: while AES provides the main signal path we know there is an automatic analogue back up."
The system was preconfigured as a 24/8 rack by Wigwam's digital specialist, Alex Hadjigeorgiou and the production's system tech Stefano Serpagli (with 24 analogue inputs, 24 AES inputs and three LAN inputs).
At the Stage - where Ant Carr is monitor engineer - the OptoRack provides 24 outputs of both AES and analogue as well as eight AES inputs and eight analogue inputs.
Kevin Pruce is running a 96-channel Avid Venue Profile 96ch Venue Profile with two stage racks. The FOH rack has HDX and FWx option cards, five mix engines and plug-ins are from the Waves Live and Access All Areas bundles.
"We said all along that the secret of a successful production is the equipment being invisible - never needing to touch it," says Hadjigeorgiou. "Because there were a lot of other requirements on this tour, with additions to and changes of equipment etc, this was important. With OptoRack Kevin is running the same set-up every day."
(Jim Evans)
