‘I don’t care what the speaker or console brand is, but the audio transportation infrastructure has to be DirectOut – they support so many formats and the products are flexible and reliable,’ says system designer and engineer Ville Kauhanen. ‘Due to their popularity and ability to support most audio formats used in productions, I often find that different vendors for each department can provide Prodigy as part of the package, and I can patch things together as one infrastructure.’
Kauhanen has worked for nearly 30 years with some of the highest profile artists on the planet, most recently with Taylor Swift on her record-breaking Eras tour. The tour visited 54 cities across five continents playing 149 shows and was the highest grossing tour of all time.
Kauhanen was system engineer for the tour and provided the system infrastructure for each location. But his method of working today is very different to when he started, but, as he explains, his overview enables him to plan for the future, as well as succeed in the present.
‘When I started, we had very different ideas of what the future of audio networking would look like,’ he says. ‘We assumed there would just be one huge network with everything in it, but we now know that this may never happen. That’s why I need a strong audio backbone. I rely upon the Prodigy range, usually together with ExBox, for every project I’m involved in.’
Across the industry, protocols such as Madi, Ravenna, Dante and AVB are in use and successfully matrixing these elements is dependent on conversion that can operate seamlessly. The power of solutions like Prodigy.MP comes from the FPGA-based low-latency processing. Kauhanen relies on this to maintain a stable signal path across different clocking rates and network protocols, ensuring failsafe operation at every point, even in 90,000-capacity venues.
‘Most companies focus on a few network strategies, maybe point-to-point, or channel count, but I think the vision of DirectOut is much wider and has quality,’ he says. ‘I use it mainly for the powerful sample rate conversions, but the ability to matrix between different formats is also essential.’
Planning infrastructure on a stadium scale is a massive challenge. Kauhanen needs to get sound from the performer to the audience, but there are many other considerations. Time code must be shared across departments and there are feeds for social media, as well as broadcast and accessibility requirements such as correctly timed headphone feeds for sign language interpreters. This data will all travel on a network designed by Kauhanen, so it is essential that the infrastructure parameters are known in advance. For the fine details of the network, he uses an associate who manages details like network switches. Such is the requirement for a complex understanding of IT and audio technology, the use of his associate is written into his contract.
‘One of the most important parts of my job is planning. I need to get that done early, so the information can be sent to the venues. Because of the impact on seating layout, our loudspeaker, amplifier, console and infrastructure layout all needs to be confirmed before the venues can sell tickets. This is done very far in advance,
‘Once the infrastructure information is in place, we can add anything else we need to; extra audio-feeds or points of connectivity, right up to when the first show starts. We use time-critical NDI video across our network, too, so there are time sensitive issues that need to be understood.’
DirectOut is Kauhanen’s solution today, but he believes that it is flexible enough to anticipate the future. Another part of his regular working is delivering seminars where he shares his knowledge with the next generation of system designers. In several public seminars Kauhanen explains how Prodigys can be connected to create a single backbone that supports any audio network.
‘I have more experience than most, so I try to share. I also try to ensure that I’m not the smartest person in the room, so I can keep learning best practice,’ he says. ‘Nothing is ever a secret. Looking to the future, DirectOut solutions already support such a wide range of audio formats, that I will just keep using them until the end of the world.’
More: www.directout.eu