Having completed the design of Coldplay’s all new, Wigwam built control system,
digital design specialist Alex Hadjigeorgiou, along with Account Manager, Chris Hill,
have taken the technical design lead for the fibre infrastructure on the band’s latest
trans-Atlantic tour, A Headful of Dreams.

Working alongside the band’s head of audio, Tony Smith, they had already
incorporated a number of Optocore devices into the DiGiCo console topology — but
have now taken the journey further by embracing the new Route66 AutoRouter from
technical partner, BroaMan — the first audio consultant to do so.

Powered by Optocore, the Route66 AutoRouter is compatible with both Optocore and
DiGiCo fibre loops, enabling a redundant “star’ to be created from the advanced ring
topology. Route66 automatically finds mobile and remote devices, closes the
Optocore loop and switches the links automatically to establish redundancy. “Put
simply, Route66 does the “thinking’ for [the sound team] when it comes to correct
cable connection — and the speed of prepping a show, which allows them to work
on the main system without the delays connected as part of the fibre optic ring,’ he
continued.

Smith, along with Wigwam crew chief, Nick Mooney, and system engineer, Jack
Murphy, have also welcomed the improvements in the new design.

While Wigwam successfully inducted the system in Europe, adding additional
Optocore X6R-FX and X6R-TP interfaces to their existing returns racks, over in the
States Firehouse Productions, responsible for the US leg, have been running a near-
identical set-up after themselves investing in a raft of new Optocore devices.

These are used to distribute AES signals system wide at 96Hz with a back-up LAN
network to the d&b D80 amplifiers. Optocore also handles all the clocking and
sample rate conversion for the feeds from the main and support consoles at FOH.

Coldplay started a relationship with the New York-based company during the
previous Ghost Stores promo shows and continued into the US promo dates prior to
the A Headful Of Dreams tour. Firehouse owner Bryan Olson and technical manager
Chris Russo both checked the system out in the UK before agreeing to build a
similar one.

The larger set-up, used in the UK and Europe, comprises seven nodes, each
featuring at least one X6R-FX at each position (the FOH Stage right and Stage left
nodes also feature an X6R-TP to allow additional I/O). The signal flow is effectively
a ring system set up in a star network via the Route66.

“[Route66 AutoRouter] is a natural progression, taking an already proven system
and making it better and more flexible,’ concluded Alex Hadjigeorgiou. “In fact it’s
enabling us to move the whole system design forward even further than we
thought.

“The options going forward have really opened up and I can see a situation in the
future where the Route66 becomes almost ubiquitous on live touring shows.’

For further information visit www.broaman.com