Full Sail University has been using a Dante network infrastructure across its Florida campus since 2016 – initially in its Full Sail Live 1 facility, home to the school’s Show Production Bachelor of Science degree programme, and subsequently more widely. When the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, Full Sail’s implementation of its Focusrite RedNet Dante network offered students and staff a route to remote learning and other operations.
In the years since 2016, Full Sail has continued to expand its RedNet network throughout the campus, including to Full Sail Live, the university’s live performance venue; Full Sail University Orlando Health Fortress, home to Armada, the university’s collegiate level eSports team; and to the soundstage facilities dedicated to the Full Sail University’s Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting Bachelor of Science Degree Program.
Full Sail Live 1 presently houses a variety of show production-related rooms where students learn about sound reinforcement, lighting, live video and multimedia, and concert touring systems. Focusrite gear installed for the Full Sail Live 1 network included RedNet MP8R eight-channel mic pre and A/D converters, RedNet D64R 64-channel Madi bridges, RedNet HD32R 32-channel HD Dante network bridges and RedNet 2 16-Channel AD/DA interfaces. The intent was to create a future-proof network infrastructure for audio and video at the university.
‘RedNet is one of the cornerstones in technology that we use here,’ says Vince Lepore, Full Sail University Director of Event Technical Operations. ‘We found that when the pandemic hit, we had a lot of capabilities that we hadn’t even tapped into yet in the network that allowed us to continue operating.
‘It especially facilitated remote operations, including things like remote intercoms, which we use a number of RedNet D64R units for. This was valuable to us for both education and show and event production, because over the year-and-a-half or so of Covid, almost every activity now has some combination of production personnel and talent working remotely. The RedNet infrastructure we installed, and continue to expand, served us incredibly well.’
Upwards of 5,000 students and 2,000 staff transitioned to remote status in less than a week in March 2020, allowing the university to continue its monthly graduation cycle. Even as the pandemic lingered, Full Sail has added new RedNet units to serve unique purposes, such as the RedNet AM2 stereo audio monitoring units that enable those working on campus to create safely enclosed work spaces within common areas.
‘We connected the AM2 to powered speakers in each control room space,’ Lepore explains. ‘RedNet is now part of all of our flagship spaces on campus.’
This level of scale is illustrated by how the D64R units are used as the Madi-to-Dante interfaces for the university’s huge audio-for-video infrastructure. ‘They handle hundreds of channels of audio in and out of our video routers, for example,’ says Lepore, who adds the D64R is ‘at the heart of what we do in our facilities’.
And that integral embrace of RedNet will continue, even as students began returning to campus last October, as RedNet concurrently offers the solutions for health safety while and creating the same kinds of networked environment that graduates will work in as they launch their careers.
‘We’ve added RedNet units every year since we started five years ago, and it’s something we currently plan to continue to do,’ Lepore says.
More: http://pro.focusrite.com
