- ANNAPOLIS JUNCTION, MD-- FiberPlex's LightViper fiber optic audio transport system was recently installed at Southern California's MiraCosta Community College. The college recently completed a $21 million project to build a music technology classroom facility on its main Oceanside, California campus. This public school offers two-year AA degrees and certificates in digital audio production and recording arts/record production, as well as numerous academic programs that feed its grads into the traditional four-year California State University system. The new music technology building features a total of eight production control rooms fed by two large recording studios. All audio is routed through an extensive LightViper digital transport system via fiber optics.
- San Diego-based ProSound, Inc, a LightViper VAR and audio design firm, handled all aspects of the audio design, as well as installation of the fiber audio components. Mike Krewitsky, owner and chief systems designer for the 30-year-old pro audio company, shared some of his thinking concerning the college's build-out, a project nearly ten years in planning:
- "This project was truly about designing, and then putting into place, an affordable infrastructure that will remain technically relevant for the next ten to twenty years. Private or public, computer hardware in schools may get replaced every 3-4 years. Some audio gear, like consoles and related processing, might have a little longer life. However, what Christy Coobatis [the music school's Music Department Chair] and I decided to do about the building's 'arteries and veins' - its crucial audio network -- was to invest in a pure digital audio fiber network. We concluded that miles of copper wiring and transformers are simply no longer tenable in a forward-looking music production environment. In a word, copper is outdated. It's lossy, noisy, difficult to maintain, and on top of these technical drawbacks, it has become surprisingly expensive over the last couple years."
- Sam Spennacchio, FiberPlex's marketing manager for its LightViper brand equipment, commented on the unique fiber installation:
- "The MiraCosta job is one of the largest single customer sales of LightViper components we've had to date. Our engineers worked closely with ProSound and the school's design team to achieve a system solution that fits the school's needs. It took nearly a year to resolve all the design issues for the complex facility, but in the end it was well worth the effort, for everyone. The MiraCosta facility is now years ahead of the curve with its LightViper fiber optic network."
