DiGiCo Quantum7 digital consoles were at the heart of the action at the opening and closing ceremonies for the recent 2022 Winter Olympics held at the 91,000-seat National Stadium in Beijing, China that incorporated elaborate lighting, stage and screen programming underpinned by a continuous flow of music, with a total of 18 audio scenes for the opening ceremony and 30 for the closing ceremony.
Director and producer Zhang Yimou, alongside chief sound designer He Biao, partnered to deliver the audio-visual presentation, the latter managing the entire process of the audio project, from writing the creative programming and sound system design, through to installation, fine tuning, rehearsal and the live events.
The audio design was devised with one working system and a secondary redundant system as a backup. Consequently, the system comprised two Quantum7 consoles with an accompanying pair of SD-Racks. Given the extent of the stadium site, a network of MADI routers was used for long-distance signal transmission and backup, with the entire system framework supported and operating on a bi-directional fiber-optic loop.
“The most important factor in the design brief was to provide complete control of the system and multiple backup options to cater for any system failures during the extensive live events, and the Quantum7 completely fulfilled that brief,” explains He Biao. “Its dual-engine architecture offers mirror functionality, providing a seamless backup between the two engines, and with a second, backup console installed, I could increase the system security. The fiber optic was established in loop and star system configuration so both consoles could share inputs from the racks, which means that in the event of a malfunction, if any part of the loop fails, all the main and backup audio sources are connected to the main and backup interface racks, and the system can continue to work safely and stably.”
At the request of the Olympic Broadcasting Service Company (OBS), the music for the events was formatted for 2.0 stereo and 5.1.4 multi-channel surround audio to help ensure smooth transmission for broadcast. Playback was provided by QLAB software, which, along with all the other audio sources involved in the events, was fed from the consoles and racks to MADI backup routers and, from there, transmitted to the OBS’s OB platform and the control room. To reduce latency, the control room used two sampling rate converters to obtain a stable clock synchronization signal.
“I’m pleased to report that both live events ran without incident, which is an amazing accomplishment given each event lasted several hours, with hundreds of people involved, and multiple scenes and AV spectacles to deliver. The Quantum7 consoles were the core of the audio system; powerful and versatile, simple and easy, safe and stable, they epitomize the ultimate mixer,” He Biao concludes.
