New York City’s New Year’s celebration broadcast is the biggest in the country, and fittingly this year’s saw an entirely new networked approach to linking numerous stages and locations via a network of RedNet units, designed by All Mobile Video
Los Angeles, CA – A campus employing components from Focusrite’s RedNet range of Dante™-networked audio converters and interfaces provided flawless and comprehensive connectivity for multiple stages and locations throughout Times Square for the annual ABC broadcast of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, featuring performances by Nick Jonas, Mariah Carey, Neil Diamond, Andy Grammer and others. The live performances from the Times Square stages were all linked via a RedNet network, designed by Ian Vysick (Audio Development Specialist at All Mobile Video [AMV], the broadcast video provider for the event) and veteran A1 Bob Aldridge (who has mixed the audio for the broadcast for the past 17 years). A large arsenal of RedNet components created a seamless and reliable AoIP network that has revolutionized the way this legendary broadcast event has been managed, and will take it decades into the future.
“New York City told us that copper could no longer be used as it had been in the past — the poles just won’t support that much cable anymore,” explains Vysick, who was also working on his 17 New Year’s Eve event. “Plus, the artists need more inputs than ever, between wireless microphones and prerecorded tracks. We had to move it to an AoIP network, and RedNet had all the pieces we needed ready to go. Once Bob and I had designed the system and programmed it ahead of time, it was just plug and play on site.”
The RedNet system was applied to every facet of the event, from the webcast done from All Mobile Video’s Maverick truck to the actual broadcast music and production mix down from the Titan truck, which also supplied prerecords and stems via RedNet to Maryland Sound, which supplied the live PA and monitor systems for the event. RedNet handled every application flawlessly, from remote control of microphone preamps to MADI-to-Dante and other format conversions. For instance, says Vysick, a RedNet D64 fed the webcast between the Titan and the Maverick trucks, converting the signals from the webcast stage and prerecords to MADI. Each of the two main stages had its own set of two RedNet 2 interfaces, which gave the production much more routing flexibility.
“We had sat down four months before the event to start planning the system,” says Vysick. “Whatever we came up with had to virtually eliminate copper, provide the additional inputs that artists are demanding, and be a solution that could take us into the future and be able to scale up as needed. RedNet gave us all of the pieces that we needed to solve this puzzle. We broke the event down, location by location, and determined which RedNet units were needed at each one. RedNet has a solution for every challenge in an AoIP network design. I’ve been using RedNet for about five years now, and I know how reliable and flexible it can be. That’s what we needed that night, and RedNet delivered.”
All Mobile Video Focusrite gear setup for Times Square NYE:
· seven RedNet D16R 16-channel AES3 I/O’s
· three RedNet D64R 64-channel MADI bridges
· two RedNet MP8R eight-channel mic pre and A/D converters
· a pair of RedNet A8R eight-channel analogue I/O interfaces
· four RedNet 2 16-Channel A-D/D-A interfaces
· 10 RedNet A16R 16-channel analogue I/O interfaces
Photo caption: Times Square New Years Eve 2017-18. Photo courtesy of Countdown Entertainment. © 2018.
