Best Audio managed the communications for the opening and closing ceremonies in India, 2010. The organizing committee supplied trunking Motorola radios to the ceremonies department. We included the management of these radios in our bid specifications, although the radios would not be supplied by the chosen vendor. This allowed us to add a group of accessories to the vendor’s equipment which greatly increased the usability of the trunked radios.
The Riedel system was built around 9 control nodes with 69 panels, 61 C3* Digital beltpacks, 16 Acrobat wireless digital beltpacks, 32 Radio interfaces (16 simplex and 16 semi-duplex), 10 Tetra radio interfaces, and 10 channels of 4-wire interface to the host broadcaster.
Working in India was a challenge. As per the production schedule we were supposed to install in the control booth September 1. They had just been working a week on building it! See the pix below.
By the 25th or 26th we installed and had time for 3 rehearsals before the opening show. Looked good but imagine if we had had the planned time to rehearse.
Larry Estrin with show PA system. It's amazing what a few horns can do if mobile enough.
Opening ceremony booth. Note the Riedel panels. The center of the field was a stage.
Under the field there was a tunnel to access the center field stage.
Interface of the Tetra Radios to the Riedel system. Analog audio was interfaces from the Artist system and GPO triggers were used to activate the radio transmit.
HME DX121 used on field Riedel panel to make the Stage manager totally mobile. Whip antennas covered the entire field from under the stage in the center.
Control position for Comms. Semaphore flags on wall are backup system.
Control Booth six days after we were supposed to begin installation!
This is the control booth during one of the very few rehearsals we had. Larry Estrin is at his panel in the center rear row.
Ric Burch, Producer of Commonwealth Opening Ceremonies and Larry Estrin in the stage managers booth.