Compact FOH solution with Q225 and Festival Box
31-10-2023DiGiCo Quantum 225 and Optocore Festival box at the heart of compact all-in-one live sound system built by Amptec
When Ghent-based live sound engineer Karel Marynissen of Klaar Voor Opname decided that the time had come to replace his trusty SD8-24, he turned to Amptec to discuss his requirements. The result is a beautifully engineered, compact solution for live sound engineering that can easily be handled by a single person based around a DiGiCo Quantum 225 digital console and a Festival Box transport platform for multiple audio signal formats from Optocore.
Amptec’s David Liebens takes up the story: “Karel is a ‘one man PA company’ touring theatres throughout BeNeLux. He was looking for the highest possible quality, and as a long-term SD user, he was particularly charmed by the Quantum features of the Q225, so we started with that as the basis of our system and went from there. The aim was to reduce the size of the set so that one man can load in and out and transport it with a small van. The Q225 was a logical choice thanks to its small footprint and Quantum features. The real challenge was the multi-cabling – how to reduce the number and size of the different signal lines.”
“The Q225 was a logical choice thanks to its small footprint and Quantum features.”
The solution was the Festival Box from Optocore – two, in fact: one in the custom-built flightcase for the Q225 and the other in the custom flightcase for the SD rack which also houses the UPS and Waves server. “The Festival Boxes have enabled us to drastically reduce the amount of cabling in Karel’s setup,” remarks Liebens. “A single ruggedized fibre connection between the two racks carries six MADI lines (3in/3out) and three 1G network lines, all patchable via the custom panels from Amptec Connx according to the requirements of the production.”
“The Festival Boxes have enabled us to drastically reduce the amount of cabling in Karel’s setup.”
Karel Marynissen loves his new setup. “It saves me a huge amount of time during setup and teardown and I have the flexibility to adjust the setup according to the needs of the day thanks to the patching capabilities,” he says. “Having a computer and screen integrated into the mixer’s flightcase is also great as it means I no longer need to build and dismantle it separately. Amptec have done a fabulous job integrating everything I need into custom flightcases with custom patchbays. I love it!”
https://www.optocore.com