Kuwait - Optocore network units played a key role in Kuwait's 50th Constitution Day celebration which took place recently along nearly 5km of beach in the heart of Kuwait City. The final act of the show lasted almost an hour, with a total of 77,282 fireworks, which broke the Guinness World Record for the largest fireworks display ever.
French-based rental company, Gilles Bouvard Events and Entertainment (GB4D) was contracted by the Kuwaiti government to deliver the audio and lighting system as well as video transport for one of the largest shows ever staged in the Middle East. The biggest challenge facing GB4D was the coverage distance along the beach and the associated problems posed by a sand and water environment.
Since production had stipulated that sound and light needed to be delivered to any point along the beach, the obvious solution was to use an Optocore redundant fibre based ring topology - a solution which Gilles Bouvard has been adopting successfully for the past two years. This provided not only sound to each of 52 Line Array towers along the 5km stretch, but also control of amplifiers and DMX lighting commands.
The Optocore system was also in use out at sea. Here GB4D designed a second ring system to provide audio and Ethernet transport to the five cube-shape platforms (24m x 24m x 24m) which were each equipped with lights to create a great visual effect. And the only way to reach these cubes with control signals was by using Optocore fibre. In addition there were seven pontoons spaced 250m from each other - all set at a distance of 400m from shore to sea.
A further challenge for GB4D was to provide video transport to the multiple screens - with two independent SDI channels transported along the beach. With 30 years' experience in the sound and lighting business, Gilles Bouvard found that Optocore's sister company, BroaMan, offered a perfect solution for his project - with a ring topology that would distribute two channels to all remote locations.
As a result Bouvard needed only a 4-core fibre between each location, which saved not only the cost of classic copper cabling, but also assuring the best quality of sound, control and video.
The two Optocore rings ran on different protocols. The first, small ring was based on the 2.14 protocol, since GB4D used older equipment, DD6NEs and a YG2 card. This was used to provide LAN connections to all five platforms on the sea as well as audio signals to the Yamaha 01V96 console which was placed on the fifth platform. One DD32R-FX was installed in the FOH position and provided a connection to the second, larger ring. Elsewhere, DD2FR-FX and DD4MR-FX provided spare fibre MADI and BNC MADI links to the cubes.
The larger Optocore system was installed on the beach. The main requirement for Optocore was to distribute audio signals to the L-Acoustics loudspeakers from FOH as well as DMX for the lighting and Ethernet to control L- Acoustics amplifiers. Loudspeakers were installed in the delay towers 100m apart to cover the whole area with sound, while Optocore X6R-FX-8MI/8LO units were installed in every third tower - 20 in total - covering the whole distance.
The FOH engineer had complete control over the Optocore patching and every input from the console could be sent to any loudspeaker. Multiple signals were provided from two FOH consoles - the main mix from a Midas Pro6 and additional multiple aux outputs from a Soundcraft Vi6 (one aux per each delay group). Each console was integrated into the Optocore network with a DD2FR-FX. The ring was also equipped with an DD32R-FX unit, which provided AES connection to the smaller Optocore ring.
GB4D took full advantage of the Optocore 2.21 protocol. The big ring provided not only around 500 audio inputs, but doubled as a transport platform for all control protocols - DMX and Ethernet-based loudspeaker management system. Each tower was equipped with steerable lighting, controlled from a FOH light console (with Optocore providing DMX transport through RS485/422 ports on each unit). To monitor and control powered loudspeakers, GB4D used the Ethernet switch which is built into the Optocore platform, thereby reducing the cable count to a minimum with just one fibre between each location.
A BroaMan video and data distribution system was also adopted and GB4D purchased 4-core fibre cables for the show, which allowed the BroaMan and Optocore rings to share the same cable infrastructure. Although the two systems worked independently, the cabling cost was highly reduced.
Speaking of his network design, Bouvard said, "I like technological challenges and could see the BroaMan and Optocore combination as a real solution for network management of audio, data for light, video and remote control of amplifiers. We were price efficient cable-wise, packing the whole system in just four fibre strands between locations."
This had been the biggest project ever undertaken by GB4D. Having the new Optocore 2.21 protocol, with 768 audio tracks on a 2 Gb backbone, he said, could easily allow reconfiguration to accommodate any changes. "This was highly significant when managing a 5km site."
Summing up, he said, "With no network there is no show. You can deploy all the speakers or projectors in the world, but without control and signal, nothing happens. With Optocore / BroaMan I knew in advance what result I would get. The result was stunning and everyone deserves congratulations - particularly Maciek [Janisewski, Optocore support engineer]. It was great to know that when a light designer pressed a button nearly 5km away the projector would turn on without latency.
"In fact the client representing the government of Kuwait and Minister of Communication congratulated us at the end for the quality of the show."
