Serving as the symbol of country music’s past and present, the Grand Ole Opry is a legendary venue. Expanding outside of its Nashville location, it has recently opened Opry City Stage in New York with Focusrite RedNet audio infrastructure. [related]
The new Opry City Stage employs digital audio technologies to connect the Nashville and New York City venues through Focusrite audio converters and interfaces that utilize the Dante format.
The 28,000-square foot, four-story entertainment Opry City Stage complex features two main music rooms: The Opry City Stage main stage on the second floor and the Studio at Opry City Stage on the fourth floor.
Patrons experience live music from Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry and the city’s other famous venue, the Ryman Auditorium, via LED video walls.
“This remarkable connectivity is accomplished thanks to RedNet,” says Billy Gastfield, production manager, technical director and lead audio engineer, Opry City Stage.
Focusrite RedNet with Dante is Plug and Play
The venue’s Focusrite RedNet system was installed by Gastfield, along with Lance McVikar, resident broadcast engineer, Brad Fuss and Ken Strum, owners and operators of Brighten Entertainment.
As part of the installation, the system’s hub of connectivity resides two blocks away at Brighten Entertainment, which is owned by Sturm Asset Management. Sturm Management also owns Ellen’s Stardust Diner, the Iridium jazz club and has interests in the Opry City Stage as a managing partner.
“RedNet lets up capture the multichannel audio in both directions at the venues,” explains Gastfield.
“Using the RedNet MP8R units, we can have complete control over the mic pre’s remotely from two blocks away, which offers us tremendous flexibility.”
The system includes two RedNet HD32R 32-channel HD Dante network bridges at the Opry City Stage broadcast facility, along with a half dozen RedNet MP8R eight-channel mic pre and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters at the venue in a mobile rack case.
“How else could you get 48 channels of Focusrite mic channels this affordably with the level of control the MP8R gives you?,” emphasizes Gastfield.
“I’ve had a lot of experience with Focusrite mic pre’s and there is nothing like them. We can get the kind of vocal and acoustic instrument sounds that country and bluegrass demand with them.”
