The Cirque du Soleil’s Viva Elvis production at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas required the largest Optocore single ring network yet to be implemented.
Chosen by Cirque’s sound designer Jonathan Deans, the system had earlier proven itself at a demonstration in New York by Optocore president Marc Brunke. Deans laid out the unique requirement for Viva Elvis, and Optocore accelerated development of the system to provide for multiple clients in a server-based topology. ‘We’re the first to use client-servers,’ Aaron Beck, Assistant Head of Audio for the production. ‘Up until now, Optocore was run from a single computer. We wanted multiple clients to be able to control any part of the network – we have two clients in the monitor room, one at the front of house, one in the equipment room, and another in the RF area.’
With 21 network devices on the ring out of a possible 24, the system has ample room for expansion. The 21 devices handle 504 audio inputs and 776 outputs, converted to 48kHz AES digital audio. A sub-system incorporates three on-stage guitarists, a vault of vintage guitars, a basement full of amplifiers and a forest of foot pedals that must be switched on the fly while the guitarists are busy with their choreography or riding up the 50-foot set. Midi triggers and a chain of 18 different Optocore network devices, Optocore A/D converters, mics and direct inputs (DIs) all interconnected with no buzz or hum, get the job done.
Integration of Optocore fibre-optic networks into live performance systems is assured by a very low overall latency of 41.6μs between any points in the synchronous network, regardless of complexity, allowing for use in stage and in-ear monitor applications.
In addition, Optocore’s ability to create 24 keystroke macros per client is heavily used. One macro was written to switch playback outputs from one Optocore DD2FE Madi I/O module to a second DD2FE, effectively becoming the redundant-switcher. The macro can also be triggered via Midi, if desired. ‘We’re using macros a lot in our backup scenarios. We route stem mixes from the FOH console to a Yamaha 02R next to our LCS monitor console. If the LCS were to crash, we can reroute the in-ear monitor signals to come from the 02R with a press of a macro. All band members would continue to get in-ear monitoring while we re-booted the monitor console,’ Beck says. The YS2 and YG2 expansion cards, made by Optocore for Yamaha digital consoles, allow for simple fibre connection of 32 I/O into a Yamaha 02R.
The crew has programmed more than 100 macros for use at various points during and between shows. Beck says he can easily reroute thousands of patch points in software into or out of any of the show’s five main and backup consoles without moving a single wire. ‘I wouldn’t want to do a show without Optocore now. Regarding cost, I’d say we’ve saved maybe 50 per cent, based mostly on the cost of labour in terminations per copper connection. In the RF room, for example, we handle the inputs from the mics and the outputs to the in-ear monitors – 40 Sennheiser 3732 receivers feed the wireless mic signals via AES digital audio directly into a single rack space Optocore DD32E.
‘So what would have totaled in excess of 100 copper lines is reduced to four pieces of fibre. The job of terminating more than 100 copper lines would have taken a couple of guys several days to complete, but with four fibre terminations, one technician can do it in less than an hour,’ he says.
‘On top of that, Optocore is flawless in performance. During the entire production process, I never had to troubleshoot a single ground problem,’ Beck adds. ‘From day one, the system has been completely silent. The first time the monitor mixer turned his speakers up, it was so quiet he didn’t even think they were on.’
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