Optocore has played a vital role in the audio upgrade of Teatr Rozrywki, in the Silesian city of Chorzów, Poland.
Specialising mainly in staging popular musical productions, last year it undertook a full theatre renovation, and at the end of 2012 completed the modernisation of its audio infrastructure. Commencing with the small 100-capacity auditorium it then extended the refurbishment to the main 577-seat space.
The main challenge facing one of Poland’s leading design consultants, Piotr Kozlowski, and Wojciech Grzadziel from integrators, Pracownia Akustyczna, was to provide independent gain control from the FOH and monitor positions. Pracownia Akustyczna (www.akustyczna.pl) has been responsible for all acoustical and electro-acoustical modernisation undertaken at the venue in the last few years.
“We have been using digital audio networks in our designs for almost ten years,” Kozlowski said. “Many systems today use much more digital kit than analogue, so it is natural to want to use some kind of digital cable to glue all this signal jungle together.”
The solution was found in an Optocore X6R-DualMic topology — and thus the consultants based their system design on three X6R-FX-DualMic and nine X6R-TP-DualMic, creating 96 mic connections with independent gain control for every single channel. In addition, two X6R-TP-16LO interfaces were deployed as returns devices from the consoles — with all X6R units located in the stage rack.
For the FOH position the theatre commissioned two Yamaha M7CL-48 desks, which are equipped with Optocore YG2 and YS2 I/O cards. These allow direct connection of Yamaha consoles to the Optocore network (the same card combination is used with the M7CL-48 down at the stage end).
As a result, all three Yamaha consoles are able to control the Optocore preamps via the German manufacturer’s Yamaha Emulation Mode. The two FOH consoles control the primary channels 1-96, while the monitor console operates selected secondary channels 1-48 or 49-96 — giving the respective sound engineers the unique ability to control the gain independently.
The third section of the system is installed in the amp room, where two Yamaha DME64N processors, fitted with YG2 cards, provide feeds to the L’Acoustics amplifiers, with a further Optocore DD2FR-FX MADI interface enabling the MADI connections.
Lukasz Tobola, technical director of Polish distributor, M.Ostrowski Sp.j., who supplied all the Optocore equipment, stated: “Optocore is one of our leading brands and well known in Poland.” He also confirmed that this is the biggest Optocore system installed in the country to date.
“It is a perfect solution for any system — whether large or small — as this flexible, scalable and elegant solution fits almost any application. The core requirement here was to switch to the digital domain, offering the same or better functionality than a traditional analogue theatre system, with a mic splitter.
“Optocore was the only solution that offered independent gain control of the real analogue preamps, without any digital tricks. The DualMic device is simply brilliant and will certainly become our best-seller in the Polish market.”
