LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The 14th edition of the World Gymnaestrada drew close to 20,000 participants from 55 nations to the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise in mid-July. Martin Reich used a Studer Vista 5 SR console supplied by Skynight SA to mix the opening ceremonies and produce a feed for live television.
The Vista 5 SR console's Vistonics user interface gave Reich access to 208 input channels via 32 faders. Reich had planned the audio installation with Skynight and also manned the desk during the event with the help Riedel RockNet's digital audio network.
"We decided to use the Vista 5 SR with Rocknet because it provided the greatest amount of flexibility right through to the end of the event," Reich said. "One example is that after the opening ceremony some of the stages with live music were not used anymore. This system allowed us to simply remove the unused stageboxes without the need to reconfigure the network. Thanks to the good preparation and cooperation of all involved, the system was up and running within the shortest possible time, and it ran throughout the event without a glitch."
In total, more then 180 audio sources coming from four different stages around the stadium had to be transported to the FOH position. Cable runs were long, with the connection from the west stage to the east stage running 300 meters. The Rocknet system makes use of either Cat5 or optical fiber links, enabling heavy analog multicore cables to be eliminated from the system design, and sources were plugged into one of the 12 Rocknet stageboxes and converted to the digital domain directly at the place where they originated. Although this was the first large-scale event where three Rocknet rings were connected to a Studer Vista console, the collaboration between Studer and Riedel has been ongoing.
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