Riedel RockNet provides audio network for The Return of Colmcille production in Londonderry

For production staging The Return of Colmcille and Londonderry, Production House used Riedel's RockNet audio distribution network and RockWorks control system.

Production House uses RockNet professional audio network Riedel Communications to support the show The Return of Colmcille (The return of Saint Columba), a historical staging that has been organized to celebrate the Capital of Culture 2013 and Londonderry.

Produced by the firm specialized in outdoor art, Walk the Plank, The Return of Colmcille represents the battle waged by the founder of the city, San Colmcille, and the legendary Loch Ness Monster in the River Foyle in the year 561.

Riedel fiber network facilitated audio distribution at this event. “We chose Riedel RockNet for this historic event, since it offers reliability, flexibility and ease of installation, as well as a redundant ring topology”, explica Niall Lewis, director de Production House. “The system worked perfectly, it sounded very good, gave us all the flexibility we needed and allowed us to quickly adapt to last-minute production changes”.

Scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Thousands of spectators gathered on the river to watch the battle, which included flames, fireworks and original music composed for this special event.

Audio distribution

Riedel's real-time audio distribution network integrated RockNet output modules into each of the PA systems along the city's river and Peace Bridge, as well as four analog input boxes and one output box in the control position.

With this configuration, the production team was able to deliver an individual signal, Aligned via GPS for the monster boat, as I moved along the river, to the PA system creating a continuous sound experience. For the pre-show event, that brought together 20.000 personas, Production House reassigned PA system outputs to ensure optimal coverage, by redistributing the audio signal to the different RockNet output modules.

Intuitive RockWorks control software enabled redistribution and flexible routing options within the RockNet network.

The RockNet system supported communications between the audio engineer, the sound designer and the RF technician. Production House also used the RockNet system to distribute four code sources for pyrotechnic effects to occur in multiple locations., including main shooting site, a 1,2 km from the start of the monster ship crossing. The signals were sent to the RF transmission location and the audio and time code were sent to the monster ship via a wireless link..