Venue & MADI - Sharing a Stage Rack and Word Clock...

[Chris Johnson]

Hey All,

While at PLASA this year i had a chance to talk to Mr Scovill about the Stage Rack sharing options available using the MADI card.

So, i'm designing a system for a client which involves having a single stage rack talking to a FOH rack (at FOH) and a MixRack onstage. For operator reasons, FOH will retain gain control, and the MixRack will get the inputs via MADI.

Now in this situation, i believe i have to also connect wordclock between the consoles? (The venue cant clock to an incoming MADI stream).

So the plan is, a Big Ben at FOH to clock the FOH console, Protools (also receiving MADI via an RME bridge/distributor) and the Monitor Console. Question is though, will my wordclock signal be OK down the 120m Coax run to stage?

Thoughts Appreciated...

[Roland Clarke]

You don't need the Big Ben, save your money and just take the clock output of the madi card from the FOH end and clock the monitor desk to that, it will save you a whole lot of money!

Roland

[Kenmillerjr]

Yes, you should be fine. I agree, just use the onboard Word Clock...unless you have money to burn. It works just fine. IMO, it is best to keep things simple. Adding more devices will just complicate the setup/troubleshooting process.

[Chris Johnson]

The Big Ben is not there because i have been deluded into thinking it will improve quality, more that this system will require the ability to sync multiple protools systems, the consoles, possible AES sources and video world and the Big Ben will do all that without DAs or Black Burst Generators etc... actually simplifying the system.

The issue is, how does word clock fare over 120m (or 360' for those accross the pond...)