Nicéphore Cité (Chalon-sur-Saône) France
On 2 May 2006, the French audio research and installation company Irelem, together with digital product manufacturers Yamaha and Auvitran, organised two days of presentations on the topic “digital audio and the network environment”. The delegates were audio professionals potentially interested in Ethersound networks, in particular in the area of fixed installations. They chose Nicéphore Cité as a location because it is a centre of technological excellence and it has a variety of Yamaha audio equipment installed already.
Irelem (www.irelem.fr) founded thirty years ago now as an audio research firm, has been able to make its presence felt as one of the biggest professional audio/visual installers/integrators in the Burgundy region of France. Some recent installations include:
-Médiapôle of Chalon-sur-Saône,
-Parc Vulcania projection room,
-Mémorial of Oradour-sur-Glane,
-Chalon Technical Training Institute /IUT
-Dijon Medical Faculty, etc.
Irelem has been working very closely with Yamaha France for ten years. The company’s installations include an impressive number of Yamaha digital consoles and examples of the versatile Yamaha DME engines; (32, then 24 and 64). It currently employs 18 people, and makes a turnover of 2.5 million euro.
Nicéphore Cité
Nicéphore Cité (www.nicephorecite.com) is a former dockside sugar works now dedicated to digital image and sound, lead by the College of Art and Design/École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers of Cluny close by. The rapid growth in computers and IT lead to the setting up of a post-graduate course for digital images and virtual reality and five years work has been put into developing the work around these technologies. The result is an exciting mix of pure research and applied commercial enterprise and Irelem contributes and benefits both to the association of companies that has grown around the Nicephore site; Nicéphore Partenaires and to the research done by Nicéphore Labs. It was Nicéphore Labs that hosted the two Irelem/Yamaha/Auvitran days.
Nicéphore Labs reproduction rooms are used to present simulation and virtual reality programmes, with a multi channel 5.1 format sound. It is a very flexible space: the tiered seats (50 places approximately) can be folded away to free up the floor space. There is a 5.1 audio system, controlled with Dolby Digital decoders and professional dts. A touch screen automation system connected to the Yamaha DME24N DSP and Yamaha O2R96 mixing console controls and co-ordinates the sound and visuals according to pre-set programmes. The DME network ensures audio can be accessed from any room in the complex.
The projection/reproduction space is supplemented by a 5.1 recording/mixing studio. It revolves around a digital Yamaha DM 2000 console and a Pyramix audio workstation and a 5.1 Genelec 8050 listening system. The studio is also used for independent projects (DVD or SACD mixing) and for creating sound tapes for the image projects presented alongside them.
Talks on throughout the day
In the projection/reproduction space, Irelem, Auvitran and Yamaha had set up an entire audio digital facility: a M7CL console, AD8HR remote pre-amp, DME, Auvitran Ethersound transport solution, etc. The idea was to present, to a public of technicians unfamiliar with the concept of digital audio network, what it is possible to do with such a concept, and the level of security achieved. Jean Vient started off the morning with a brilliant presentation on the advances made in audio and in video over two centuries. Fabien Saadoun, Chargé d’Affaires in the area of audio pro with Yamaha Musique France, re-centred the brand name in this context – in particular by its digital consoles, all in Hi-Fi facilities solutions and DMEs. He then handed over to Yves Ansade, from Auvitran (www.auvitran.com), who drew up the long list of various current digital network formats, and explained with panache the basic principles of Ethersound networks, of which he was one of creators with Digigram a few years back. By comparing the various systems, he dwelled, in particular, on the notions of audio output, link length, synchronisation, service data, etc
Professionals of Yves Ansade’s standing give valuable advice and insight. Things that seem obvious to network connoisseurs are not known to sound professionals. For instance, the fact that in an Ethersound network, it is the device receiving nothing as input that is the master clock etc; where an installer used to ADAT synchronisation chains, for instance, would supposedly tend to “loop” the signal from the last device to the first.
Scores of professionals and sound technicians attending these half days experienced a genuine curiosity about the possibilities of audio transport over Ethersound network, and they were very interested in the simple replacement of heavy and cumbersome multipair cables by one or two optical fibres or Cat5 cables. Yves Ansade’s demonstrations gave a completely tangible aspect to the Ethersound, and Olivier Gastoué, from Yamaha Commercial Audio France, answered many questions concerning the M7CL, the control of AD8HR preamps, the DME24N and DME64N, the remote control of Yamaha products etc. Yves Ansade was quick to translate his words into action, by starting up equipment that many only knew on paper. He showed live, for instance, the security brought by the redundancy from the two networks. It was the chance for many participants, to find out for real about the possibilities of digital systems that they knew little about. Many, for instance were amazed to note than no interference was detectable when a switch was made from one fibre to the other, even when one was unplugged.
Many came away from this day knowing much more about the concept of EtherSound networks and their integration with Yamaha solutions. In this way, the standard may spread and become the choice of installers across France and elsewhere.
