Optocore managed more than a thousand networked audio signals at the Tokyo 2020 ceremonies

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies Hosted Largest Deployment of Audio Network Devices Optocore to date.

This is stated by the director of special projects of Norway, Andrew Marsh, whose company has a long history of creating vast digital broadcast networks for the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, built around Optocore devices. As he states: “The system we provided to our client, Hibino Corporation, comprised just under 1,000 audio signals carried on each primary and backup network.”

Norwest duplicated the system 21 nodes to provide full redundancy. HP switches in RSTP were responsible for controlling the entire audio system in multiple field locations and control rooms. The design of the network was carried out between Marsh himself and John Watterson, senior systems engineer at Norwest, leading a combined team.

The company producing all the ceremonies was Dentsu Live, who worked directly for the local organizing committee.

Optocore devices used

Norway, which has a large inventory of Optocore devices, had to expand its portfolio to cope with production. Among the 50 interfaces Optocore deployed, a series of devices were used M12-BNC. "These act as the primary MADI devices where signals are routed in and out of the network that interfaces us with repeater devices or other providers. With the addition of some custom firmware and macros, we were able to switch between the primary and backup devices seamlessly," explains Marsh.

Converters were also purchased X6R-TP y X6R-FX and Optocore cabling was added D-SUB, which was shown to be a "necessity with our stock of X6R-TP and DD32-R devices where an AES breakout is required. As for the output, this wiring will also power our Lake processors", as Marsh continues.

Additionally, a selection of consoles DiGiCo They were deployed at both the FOH and monitor locations, feeding a Ramsa PA. The consoles were connected to the network via MADI, and I/O control and programming was done entirely in the audio patch using Optocore software.