WUPPERTAL, Germany — Rental company Lleyendecker expanded its stock of equipment with Riedel RockNet, and Lleyendecker quickly put the equipment to use for the Bread & Butter fashion exhibition in Berlin, for concerts such as the T-Mobile Street Gigs, and for other concerts and events. Lleyendecker added 17 RN.302.LO line out and 12 RN.302.MI microphone/line input interfaces, plus three pairs of RN.351.FI and RN.352.FO fiber converters, six RN.362.IR repeaters and four RN.314.MY expansion cards for digital Yamaha consoles.
The Bread & Butter fashion exhibition was the first use of the new RockNet gear. It was held at the site of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin. The gig required that Lleyendecker integrate three DJs at different locations, two mixing consoles, and speakers in two hangars and on the airfield. One of the requirements was that the output from any DJ be quickly routed to any location on the exhibition grounds.
Approximately 2 miles (3 kilometers) of CAT-7 and 4 x 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) of fiber links bridged the distance between the speakers, the consoles and the DJs. Two additional repeaters were used for the long distance link.
The repeaters expanded the range of copper links by 500 feet (150 meters). RockNet line in and line out modules provided connections for the amp towns, the DJs and additional speakers.
RockNet’s routing allowed the DJs to patch to any speaker location. Two RN.341.MY expansion cards integrated two digital Yamaha 01V mixing consoles into the audio network. A total of eleven Yamaha mixing console were used in that setup.
“For the installation at Bread & Butter we wanted to have the possibility of routing single channels within the RockNet network,” said Oliver Tschotow from Lleyendecker. “Riedel provided us with a beta version of firmware that included this feature. It worked flawlessly, just like any regular firmware for RockNet.”
The firmware version 1.4 is now available as a free update for all RockNet users. It offers single channel routing. In previous versions, routing was only possible in “quads” — groups of four channels. Lleyendecker used 98 channels for the PA system.
RockNet’s redundant ring topology gave Lleyendecker enhanced stability and secured the audio network against single points of failure. To maximize its reliability, the installation’s setup was completely redundant.
In addition, fire and emergency announcements were implemented via the RockNet installation. In case of an emergency, the music would have been automatically muted and the announcement would have been broadcast throughout the event or in selected areas.
“We are really happy with our decision to choose Riedel,” said Tschotow. “The flexibility and the ease of use are major advantages, especially with big installations. In the past, installations demanded a lot of cabling; RockNet changed this. RockNet’s network structure is a major advantage, especially for events like Bread & Butter, where RockNet modules are set up in groups of two or three and spread out over a large area. Moreover, the pristine digital audio quality is another point where RockNet truly shines,” Tschotow added.
For more information, please visit www.riedel.net.
