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Fiber Conversion and WDM Gear Helps the GRAMMY Awards Deliver a Flawless Live Event & TV Broadcast
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Fiber Conversion and WDM Gear Helps the GRAMMY Awards Deliver a Flawless Live Event & TV Broadcast
Supporting thousands of unique Audio Inputs for speakers and dozens of performers presented challenges to three companies delivering live mix and broadcast for the GRAMMYs.
Synopsis
Broadcast professionals supporting the GRAMMY Awards had a daunting task. Providing thousands of unique audio inputs, together with multiple feeds for speaker, live-music, broadcast and recording mixing was a challenge. Running traditional MADI cables between speaker consoles, live music mixing gear and broadcast feeds was not really an option.
The Picture
MADI feeds from multiple Mic Pre Racks were able to be combined into a single fiber run out to the MADI router in the Music Mix Truck. In previous years, this had to be accomplished using separate TAC-4 runs for each rack. MADI feeds for the broadcast were then sent to the Denali Summit truck using TKIT-MADI units.
The Success
FiberPlex products provided the multiplexing and conversion possible to run multiple MADI streams to and from the stage and music trucks and from the music trucks to the broadcast truck for delivering the live feed to CBS for broadcast.
Distribution was done in two steps, the first between the stage microphone preamps and the music trucks and another between the music trucks and the production truck.
For the first step, M3 used FiberPlex WDM-16 active wavelength division multiplexers to transport and multiplex feeds from its MADI stage racks in the Staples Center onto one singlemode TAC-12 fiber optic strand to its Eclipse and Horizon music trucks.
Then, to make the hop from the two music trucks to the Denali Summit truck, M3 used FiberPlex FOI-6010 workboxes to pass MADI channels between the two locations.
For the handling the MADI feeds from stage racks, M3 was able to multiplex the signals through the WDM-16 instead of running independent TAC-4 multimode fiber to each rack, as had been done in previous years. M3 converged signals from five racks into a WDM-16 at the preamp position, with de-multiplexing of the signals done in the music truck feeding a MADI router. This was done on a duplex pair of singlemode fiber optics provided by M3.
The Story
ATK Audiotek, a production sound company, handled the live mixing inside the Staples Center for the GRAMMYs. Music Mix Mobile (M3) was responsible for mixing the live music from the stage and delivering it to a Denali Summit, NEP Broadcasting Truck located outside the venue. They all had to work together to prepare and deliver a live-feed for CBS to broadcast on TV.
The set-up required that multiple MADI cable runs, supporting audio streams, but run to and from the stage and music trucks and from the music trucks back to the Broadcast Trucks.
Supporting thousands of unique audio inputs for each speaker and performer the team of Pro-AV and Broadcast professionals supporting the event had a daunting task. Running traditional MADI cables between these three critical locations to interconnect the feeds would require tons of cable. They had to find a better way for MADI to MADI connectivity.
After conducting some research, the team decided FiberPlex was a great option. FiberPlex products provided the multiplexing and conversion possible to run multiple MADI streams to and from the stage and music trucks and from the music trucks to the Denali Summit, NEP Broadcasting's broadcast truck for delivering the live feed to CBS for broadcast.
The FiberPlex brand was even given screen credits as one of the new technologies that stood out for the event.