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Installed Audio

Optocore: Core Values

Denton Bible Church, located in Dallas, Texas, recently underwent a major audio overhaul, featuring an automated network courtesy of Optocore’s AutoRouter. Here, Headliner explores the venue’s new cutting edge facilities...

A versatile, easy to use system was very much the order of the day when Denton Bible Church (DBC), a 3,500-seat house of worship located in Dallas, Texas, took stock of its new state-of-the-art audio infrastructure.

Operated entirely by volunteers, the church’s sound system required a specification that delivered high quality and low maintenance for its users, and as such required a smart and efficient design.

“The church relies on volunteers to run their system, and having Auto as the virtual tech to maintain the network is fantastic for them,” explains Lance Eddlemen, audio sales manager at Digital Resources, the company that installed the system.

“No one has to go to the equipment room, struggle with jumper cables or patch panels or remember which connections are in use or which ports go to what remote locations.”

The church’s new set up saw the arrival of a new DiGiCo Quantum338 console for both front-of-house and monitor mixing, as well as a new DiGiCo SD12 console as its new broadcast audio console.

The sanctuary features an Optocore Digital Fiber network, centred around one of Optocore’s new AutoRouters.

The network was installed and set up by Digital Resources, with Eddlemen personally implementing the Optocore AutoRouter. He also worked closely with Optocore North America’s Brandon Coons and Group1 Ltd to make sure that the AutoRouter would be the perfect fit for the church.

“Installation of the AutoRouter was easy. We just connected the fibre runs to the corresponding sockets and it discovered the network,” Eddleman continues. “In the future as the Church grows its audio system we can expand the ports to allow for additional remote points and equipment.”

The AutoRouter serves as a central patch bay and replaces the usual redundant ring topology of an Optocore network and transforms it into a redundant star network.

AutoRouter’s advanced transceiver ports then detect when devices are connected at remote patch points and reconfigures the active connections to maintain redundant fibre tunnels to each location. AutoRouter automatically adds devices to the network loop as it is powered up.

In the future as the Church grows its audio system we can expand the ports to allow for additional remote points and equipment.

Then, when a mobile device is disconnected or powered down, the AutoRouter closes the loop to the remaining devices to maintain a redundant architecture without any user action.

Meanwhile, transceivers in the unit allow for a signal refresh to provide longer cabling runs. What’s more, the unit can act as a media converter and can be mixed with Multimode and Singlemode TRX to support different fibre runs within the facility or between multiple buildings.

AutoRouter is completely interoperable with new and existing Optocore and DiGiCo fibre networks. Also, because the routers’ capabilities are format independent, it can also be used for Yamaha TwinLANe and AVID AVB networks.”

“Since its release, many of the industry’s top integrators and cutting-edge facilities have put in place AutoRouters,” Coons concluded. “We are seeing them put into performing arts centres, sports arenas and especially churches because of the power and flexibility they give the system.”