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OPTOCORE devices worked flawlessly - under harsh conditions like dust and heat....
The Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 were, in all aspects, very special games.
Greece was the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. In 2004 the Games came home and returned to the land of origin.
Chosen by the 106th IOC session in Lausanne, Athens was the venue from the August 13 to the August 29 2004 with
many records. The largest number of athletes ever (11099) took part in the Olympic Games and the most female
athletes ever were given host in Athens.
72000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium in Athens and 4 billion viewers worldwide, made it the world's biggest
media spectacle in history.
For this mega event OPTOCORE was chosen to deliver one of it's largest digital audio system in the world.
The system was distributed by the Australian company Group Technologies.
During the Opening and Closing ceremony with live performance of Icelandic singer Björk and hundreds of actors,
performers and athletes the OPTOCORE system transported the signals from all microphones to the FOH and back to
the amplifiers.
For both events - Opening and Closing ceremony - Scott Willsallen (SWA) specified the configuration consisted of:
10 DD32 (64 channels AES modules)
4 X6-16 IN (16 channel mic/line output modules)
9 X6-16 OUT (16 channel line output modules)
5 X6-8/8 (8 mic/line in- 8 line out)
Over 4 km of fibre optical cable
The system was configured in two rings: one on the roof and one in the field of play.
OPTOCORE proved that the system suits perfectly for high-profile events like the Games.
Even demanding circumstances like heat and dust couldn't touch the system which worked flawlessly.
"With a job this important you need to have a very stable system" says Scott Willsallen (SWA), "redundancy is
absolutely necessary, and OPTOCORE offers it on 3 levels." OPTOCORE runs redundant fibre optic rings,
auto switching redundant power supplies. Each unit is a clock master, which means if one ring of the
network fails it never affects another's unit sync. "Others aren't quite there yet, but OPTOCORE is.
OPTOCORE rocks!" says SWA.
Both ceremonies were produced by Norwest Production under their CEO Christopher Kennedy and contracted by
Jack Morton worldwide.
Norwest had also provided the sound reinforcement at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
This time the sound reinforcement was powered by 280 LAB.GRUPPEN fP6400 amplifiers and the system was based on
EAW's KF860 Virtual Line Array system supplemented by McCauley MLA3s for the upper decks.
Chris Kennedy engaged the services of leading audio engineers and technician like Australian sound engineer
Ian Coopper. He was the leading head for installing and patching OPTOCORE. Together with OPTOCORE's Marc Wesler,
they spent a lot of time in the small container room and had some good times besides all the work.
"It was great to look behind the curtains of this fantastic venue. Working with the mates like SWA, Coops,
Baldy and all the other people involved in the audio department. The team was just working perfect and this event
will stay in my mind forever." says Marc, development engineer.
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