Initially announced at last year’s Pro Light & Sound, the partnership between Soundcraft, Studer and Optocore is bearing rich fruit as the companies develop further features for the interface between Soundcraft and Studer consoles and the Optocore fibre network. Last year, Optocore and Soundcraft Studer co-developed the DD2FE network MADI interface that allowed Studer Vista and Soundcraft Vi Series consoles to transmit up to 128 input and 128 output channels of audio over an Optocore network.
The teams have now announced that using the Optocore DD2FE, Soundcraft Vi Series consoles and Studer Vista consoles are now able to remotely control the microphone preamplifiers in the Optocore LX4AP stagebox, which features 48 mic inputs. This has been enabled through Optocore’s integration of the Studer D21m I/O system control protocol into their topology. Vi Series and Vista consoles can already remotely control the preamps in their own stageboxes over the network, allowing multiple consoles and stageboxes to be interconnected with full redundancy.
The ability to remotely control stagebox gains over the Optocore fibre network is a major advantage for users, giving that extra degree of flexibility and gain control over the relevant parts of an installed system, particularly in Theatres.