- For the 10th year in a row, the Winter X Games were back in Aspen, Colorado, broadcast by ESPN on TV, radio and the Internet. With over 52 hours of programming shown in HD, 3D and via the Internet, ESPN decided to tackle the audio routing using the same tool as in their Bristol and LA facilities: Stagetec’s NEXUS »MADI« Routing System.
- For the first time at the Winter X Games, 9 Digital Mixing Consoles spread out across 6 OB Trucks, were linked together via MADI using Stagetec’s NEXUS system. Central to the system was the NEXUS STAR, which connected to each of the Calrec and other digital consoles in each of the 6 trucks, as well as to their RTS and Riedel intercom systems. The desired audio channels from each venue were routed by the STAR through both fiber and copper MADI links. In addition, the NEXUS STAR routed signals for On Air broadcast via a NEXUS AES I/O frame in the ESPN Transmission Center. There was also a NEXUS Analog I/O frame in the EPC Trailer connected to the only console on site not fitted with MADI.
- Control of the NEXUS was available locally to each Audio Operator through the NEXUS GUI running on their local laptops, connected via an Ethernet network to the NEXUS STAR. Control stations in the Central COMMS Room allowed the intercom operators to route to and from the RTS and Riedel gear, again via MADI lines from the NEXUS STAR.
- Thanks to the STAR topology used, each truck’s Consoles had a ‘home run’ MADI connection to the NEXUS STAR, with no ‘ring’ necessary. In all, the NEXUS configuration provided 812 inputs and 812 outputs to the compound, which may sound large to many, but is only a part of the thousands of inputs and outputs the NEXUS can easily handle.
- »Once we set up the NEXUS and configured the routing, the system ran flawlessly simplifying a complex set of requirements,« stated B. Morgan Martin of GMA, Stagetec’s partner in the US »I really felt like the famous “appliance repairman” with nothing to fix.”
- http://www.usa.stagetec.com/
