Danmon Undertakes Studio Expansion Project

Danmon Norway has carried out an installation project at Biovisjon, one of Norway's one-stop 'open platform' television production facilities. The work comes after it was announced that Optocore had sold the first of its new M8 and M12 MADI bridges to Biovisjon.

The installation was undertaken at the company's studios in Nydalen – giving them a MADI routing I/O (of around 700 x 500 channels) – as part of an upgrade to continue servicing broadcasters including Norwegian TV channel NRK, TV2 and TV Norge, as well as companies requiring content for TV, video, Web, IP-TV or other media.

Initially, the upgrade was to have been built around multiple DD2FR-FX and DD4MR-FX MADI devices, but the release of Optocore's M-series provided another option. "It was a perfect opportunity for them to look at a more powerful option," explained Danmon Key Account Manager, Jens Vik. "It was an easy decision to make... not only would it be more cost-effective but it gave the system much more in the way of I/O."

With four MADI ports, Optocore M8's offers 4 x dual BNC or 4 x duplex fibre, 2 SANE ports (which support MADI over Cat5) and 2 Optocore hi-speed fibre uplinks while the M12 has 8 x MADI ports (providing 8 x dual BNC or 8 x duplex fibre). These can function as stand-alone routers or be integrated with any Optocore interface.

The new routing matrix has helped expedite Biovisjon's expansion of their live studio capabilities from a single small studio to a second larger one, including a second control room. "Both studios needed control capabilities from either room," Jens Vik continued. "To give them as much flexibility as possible between their new Studer Vista 1 desk and the old Yamaha DM1000, it made perfect sense to install Optocore – not only to make cabling as easy as possible, but also because the Optocore X6R mic pre-amps can be controlled by both mixers."

The Bivisjon topography comprises an M8-OPT, 1 x M12-OPT/BNC standalone switches, offering single-channel routing and bridging. While the M12 in the central machine room connects the Yamaha console to Optocore's Cat5 SANE protocol via the Y3R-TP card, the M8-OPT in the audio control room is used for the Vista 1 interface. For future productions where a PA-mixer is required, the system is ready for expansion into DiGiCo as well. The user can specify which console controls which preamps offline and between productions, with reconfig carried out if the productions change.

An X6R-TP-8MI/8LO is also connected by Cat5 SANE to the M12, providing 8/8 analog connectivity in one studio, while a 32/32 Stagebox in the second studio consists of an X6R-FX-16MI, and X6R-TP-16LO. "We use Neutrik opticalCon quad to feed the box," said Jens Vik. "In this way we have a redundant ring going both ways through the stagebox, which is future proofed for further expansion."

The M12 additionally interfaces with other broadcast equipment such as embedders and de-embedders and audio I/O to Clear-Com intercom system.

www.optocore.com

(JP/LM)