Selecting A Route
Residing in a secured steel rack in one of the corners of the arena’s main floor is a BSS Soundweb London BLU-800, which is the “brains” of the entire system. It offers configurable I/O, configurable signal processing, CobraNet audio and a high-bandwidth, fault-tolerant digital audio bus.
BLU-800 also offers an open architecture that is fully configurable through a (Harman) HiQnet London Architect interface that offers a palette of processing and logic objects in a “drag and drop” method of configuration, providing a simple and familiar design environment.
It supplies all system processing, routing and preset configurations, and in essence, everything routes in and out of the BLU-800 via its digital audio bus, and it is broken out in 8-channel blocks via the BLU BOB break out boxes.
The onboard BLU-Link network transport, which can carry 256 channels of fault-tolerant, low-latency audio at 48k Hz/24-bit, or 128 channels at 96 kHz/24-bit across a standard Cat-5e connection, is the primary feed to both the power amplifiers for both sound reinforcement systems, which are rackmounted at the catwalk level. (Note that the amplifiers for the subwoofers are mounted with BLU on the floor level.)
“BLU is the primary feed to the catwalk equipment, and it’s a very efficient, cost-effective way to route signal up there and back down to the floor as needed,” Johnson states.
“This allowed us, for example, to have the amplifiers for the subwoofers on the floor level, meaning that a really long cable run from the catwalks was not necessary.
“This is the first time we’ve deployed the BLU platform. It’s extraordinarily flexible, yet stable, and with BLU-Link, BSS has really kind of changed the game with respect to audio networking and transport. One other important thing to point out is that latency of this network is negligible, having no impact at all.”
Custom panels are mounted on wall surfaces on each side of the arena to provide plenty of I/O capability. Each panel includes four line-level inputs, CobraNet and EtherSound patching, and eight channels for production intercom. The north end panel also provides four output channels for subwoofers and front fill loudspeakers.
Another panel at the north end, also housed in a secured steel box, includes a BSS 9015 interface for the BLU-800, providing easy selection of the desired system preset mode. A keyswitch included in this panel allows for turning on/off the entire system, with all electronic components on LynTec power sequencers.