Optocore AutoRouter improves the sound system of the Finnish Musiikkitalo

The Finnish concert center has once again trusted Optocore with the installation of AutoRouter, which adds flexibility and frees up the FOH console for a multi-purpose role.

Music house (Helsinki Music Center), a major concert center, Finnish television and recording studio, has updated its infrastructure Optocore existing with the incorporation of AutoRouter, and patchbay intelligent, which provides greater flexibility by freeing up the audio console DiGiCo SD8 a FOH.

Although the venue was originally opened in 2011 as a concert space with capacity for 1.700 personas, Musiikkitalo renewed its infrastructure six years later and introduced an Optocore network for the first time, that your dealer supplied Intersonic.

“The original design was overloaded and it was too cumbersome to add anything, so we installed a pair of Optocore DD32FR for signal distribution to the amplifiers and SD racks, as well as the DiGiCo FOH mixer”, explains the Musiikkitalo studio head, Jori Tossavainen.

As he adds Pauli Molnar, Intersonic sales director, “we have supplied most of the audio equipment to Helsinki Music Center from day one, so we are very familiar with them. Optocore is a high-end professional networking solution very popular in Finland, so we had some experience with the brand even before taking charge of distribution”.

For this reason, This last and recent update had to have Optocore again; a clear decision for Jori Tossavainen, as well as for Kirsi Peteri, venue sound manager, who also oversees five satellite venues at Musiikkitalo. Both prepared the specifications to carry it out.

“AutoRouter has been essential for the update,” says Tossavainen.. It is perfectly suited for installations with multiple connection points and mobile stage boxes, as well as for live events, as is the case of Musiikkitalo”.

Compatible with standalone Optocore networks and DiGiCo fiber loops, The same functionality is also available for TwinLANe cards of Yamaha and the AVB network of Avid, enabling smarter theater sound systems to be designed using flagship consoles.

“With this update we decided to free the old DiGiCo SD8 from its FOH position and deploy it as a portable unit,” Tossavainen points out.. At the same time we move to the digital division, so we freed up an SD rack that could move next to the SD8, both connected by the AutoRouter to the main system”.

Besides, A couple of devices were added to the update Optocore M8 Tuesday, as well as a new console DiGiCo Q338, with a loop Optocore and FOH, replacing the previous SD8.

In the broadcast and recording part, The old consoles have been replaced by three Theirs mc² 56 for control rooms, through a red Ravenna and the interfaces Anubis y Horus de Merging Technologies. The total budget for the update has been about 700.000 euros.

Regarding the M8, stage microphones are distributed to Optocore through Madi from the Horus, while Musiikkitalo also has a link between the Madi DirectOut M.1K2 matrix and the Optocore.

“This is essential to have the same signals across the Optocore network. Now we have all the signals for the FOH and monitor mixers, and if necessary they are present in SD11 of the video control room”, subraya Tossavainen.

Thanks to this update, changeover times between productions have been reduced. “As we have a huge building, the distances between production spaces are large. Optocore works and is reliable: with complex connections, If something doesn't work it costs many hours of work. Now we can share all signals more flexibly and efficiently, since we operate on seven different networks simultaneously, Optocore being one of them”.