Optocore & Broaman network for Moscow stadium
- Details
At the end of 2015, a new tender document was drawn up on behalf of the principals, The Big Sport Arena Luzhniki, for the 81,000 seat stadium, with the technological requirements detailed by Moscow integration specialists S-Pro Systems, together with the German company Broadcast Solution.
Selected by the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup bid as the venue for the Final, the Stadium will also be used as a heritage venue after the Championship.
At the heart of the new network broadcast transmission are some 57 Optocore and BroaMan fibre interfaces, designed in a fibre ‘star’ out of the ring topology, and supplied by Moscow-based distributor Audio Solutions. After the bid was accepted they became involved in the project as an S-Pro partner, with responsibility for equipment supply and warranty service management of the whole system.
They were able to demonstrate the advantages of producing a site-wide multi-node fibre transmission system and broadcast/multi-format links to the OB vans.
According to Igor Kovalev, who manages Audio Solutions’ pro audio department, “Optocore and BroaMan create a perfect synergy, providing an extremely robust optical network system for audio transport and auto routing functionality.
“Optocore I/O modules also have a wide working temperature range, which was one of the important criteria for choosing equipment for this project.”
The team responsible for the audio design comprised Andrey Matveev (S-Pro), Evgeniy Stepanenko (Broadcast Solution), Pavel Pyshkin (S-Pro) and Ivan Khizhnyak (S-Pro). S-Pro’s project managers were Sergey Manserov and Grigory Yurov.
The Optocore system was designed around two main nodes: Stadium patch panel room in OB Van area for multi-signal conversion to MADI, and media control room, with a Yamaha 02R96 digital console equipped with an Optocore Y3R-TP Yamaha card - enabling it to work with Optocore’s proprietary SANE protocol.
Igor Kovalev said the system had needed to meet a number of objectives: To uplink the environmental bowl sound (the stadium crowd noise), with the Optocore modules bundled in the technical racks positioned around the playing field perimeter; to integrate with the intercom systems of the technical personnel (achieved by using Optocore’s dedicated V3R-FX-INTERCOM); to integrate with the stadium’s sound reinforcement system; to integrate with the stadium’s patch panel room; to integrate with the stadium’s media room, which comprises all the multi-media signals, and finally to integrate with the commentator’s communication system.
To expedite broadcast requirements Audio Solutions turned to Optocore’s associate company BroaMan, which in turn harnesses the power of Optocore. Two of the new Route66 AutoRouters are stacked, with each fiber node connected independently through the Route66. “The combination of redundancy and ability to close the Optocore loop automatically when active devices are added or disconnected, are the main advantages of the BroaMan Route66 AutoRouters,” states Kovalev.
(Jim Evans)
