Part of the Shibuya Station complex, the Tokyu Theatre Orb is the latest purpose-built musical theatre to open in Japan. While Shibuya is the heart of Tokyo’s busy shopping district, Hikarie itself is regarded as a new cultural hub.
Situated between the 11th and 16th floors of the new US$1.27bn 34-storey Shibuya Hikarie glass tower in Tokyo, the theatre’s first production was West Side Story. Central to its success was the Optocore fibre signal distribution backbone feeding the Meyer Sound speaker system.
This ambitious project was floated by owners, the Tokyu Corporation back in 2008, and ATL became involved after Yamaha Sound Systems Inc (Yamaha SS), the biggest sound system construction company for theatres and auditoria in Japan, specified an Optocore solution in their proposal. According to Tetsushi Hirai of Yamaha SS, the client had specifically requested the optical-fibre backbone in view of the long distance transmission of dialogue and music between the 1972-seat auditorium, stage and mixing control room as well as the data transmission between floors – including the Hikarie Hall A & B on the ninth floor.
With the Optocore susyem provided by Acoustic Technical Laboratory Inc (ATL), Yamaha SS constructed the digital architecture around nine DD32R-FX primary interfaces connected to nine X6R-TP-16LO and nine X6R-TP-16MI converters – initially linked via AES D-Sub 25, although this will transfer in due course to Optocore’s SANE (Synchronous Audio Network plus Ethernet) protocol. The Optocore system derives its clock signal from a Rosendahl Nanoclocks master clock generator.
Feeding a Meyer Sound M’elodie line array system (with 600-HP subs) at front of house, the Optocore system can be divided into three smaller systems – the first is mounted in device racks in the control room; the second is mounted in a rack on the stage; and the third is mounted in a mobile rack that can be freely moved within the hall, allowing it to be connected to various optical connector panels, while the hall itself contains a network of optical fibres that are patched for use over the 256-channel matrix.
The signal I/O for the control room and the stage systems are connected to an XLR patch panel, and connections are made depending on the requirements of the event being staged. Within the control room, some of the signals are generally patched to a Yamaha PM5D or DM2000 console via AES, while the mobile rack is used in combination with the DD32R-FX and the converter unit, wherever it is needed.
Tokyu Theatre Orb Technical Director Yasuhito Terada confirms that, in addition to the permanently installed system, the theatre is looking to set up a temporary independent system that can be used either for stage I/O, or to connect between FOH and the stage monitors.
Meanwhile, the Optocore digital signal flow will continue to provide the new theatre with an elegant and flexible solution.
More: www.optocore.com
More: www.meyersound.com
More: www.rosendahl-studiotechnik.de
