The new National Forum of Music (NFM) in Wroclaw, which houses an 1800-seat
concert auditorium and three smaller chamber halls (ranging from 250-450 seats),
will become home to all Wrocław’s major orchestral and vocal ensembles and
festivals. In addition to staging jazz and pop concerts, it will also double as a movie
theatre.
Designed by APA Kuryłowicz & Associates, it is also believed to boast one of the
biggest and most advanced technical implementations in Poland, with signal
distribution and routing over Optocore.
The Optocore system, which provides 768 inputs, was approved by the consultants,
Artec and supplied by the German manufacturer’s dealer, M. Ostrowski. Installation
and commissioning were handled by ESS Audio, who oversaw the audio, video and
intercom. The company formed part of a two-way consortium with PS Teatr, who
were responsible for the mechanical staging and lighting — with both parties
contracted by general contractor for the venue, Inter-System.
ESS were working with Optocore for the first time, and their project manager Adam
Pieron, admits, “I was positively surprised as installation and configuration went
extremely smoothly.’ In designing the routing system he consulted Optocore’s
Applications Engineering Manager, Maciek Janiszewski.
Optocore has provided the mic preamp front end in the form of eight multiple X6R-
FX interfaces (all DualMic) and 22 X6R-TP DualMic devices, connected to the X6R-FX
via their SANE protocol. Two sets of four X6R-FX and 11 X6R-TP DualMmic modules
are in use in the main hall and five DD2FR-FX MADI interfaces handle the FOH,
Monitor mixer, OB vans, ProTools HDX recording and MADI-Analog-AES converter.
Four separate gain controls are provided to 120 mic inputs — and up to four mixing
desks, including the Soundcraft Vi6 and Vi1 delivered with the system, could control
gain individually.
In addition,two further DD2FR-FX Optocore devices distribute MADI between the
different auditoriums. “Two DD2FR-FX are used to connect all the halls (Red, Black
and Chamber) on a single Optocore MADI network,’ says Pieron. Soundcraft Vi
consoles, with additional MADI cards for Optocore, reside in both In Red and Black
halls while in Chamber Hall a Soundcraft Performer 2 is also fitted with an
additional MADI card. “So with all halls connected to Optocore, you can for instance
record a concert in the Red Hall, or transmit a concert from main hall to all recital
halls.
As for sound reinforcement, while one Optocore DD32R-FX interface feeds the
Meyer Sound Galileo and Galileo Calisto processors, the second feeds the large
ClearCom intercoms system and BSS Soundweb BLU network, which controls Crown
amps and 70 JBL speaker zones over the proprietary BLU-Link; this covers the
announcement systems in the concert hall and throughout the entire complex.
Premium Meyer systems, specified by Artec — who remained as onsite consultants
and engineering supervisors — are found in each of the halls, with Mina and Mica
systems providing the main PA hangs in the principal two.
In conclusion, Adam Pieron says he is confident that the Optocore deployment
meets all the requirements of the venue and the operators. “We have given them a
very big, very flexible and hopefully very reliable system.’
