
events
Youre reading:
Solotech UK ramps up its Optocore inventory
Growing touring deployments of Festival Box, report dealers fac365
As Optocore dealers fac365 end the year, they can reflect with satisfaction at having further helped to establish the company's portfolio, notably Festival Box-not merely during the festival season-but for major international tours with bands like The Killers and Coldplay with four Festival Boxes making up Coldplay's control package and network infrastructure.
One major source for this success has been fast-expanding rental house, Solotech UK-which has a historic relationship with Optocore-supporting production with gear supplied from four warehouses spread across the UK.
We have sold a large number of items to Solotech over the past two years, confirm fac365 operations manager, Richard Newall, most recently an M8 [MADI] package for a touring playback rig and X6Rs for their Control/Drive racks.
In the north of England, prior to becoming part of the Solotech Group, Wigwam had become the first rental house adopter of Festival Box, while down south Optocore has long formed the backbone of the extensive delay network on the two-week BST Hyde Park event in London.
The device itself comes in two versions-the Grand (with 12 SFP ports) and Petite (with six SFPs)-Solotech now holding six Grandes and eight Petites across the group.
So what exactly is Festival Box and why has it proven so popular on tours ranging from Coldplay, to Billie Eilish and the Spice Girls? Essentially, it's a point-to-point converter, which enables all signals and protocols to tunnel over the same fiber-ideal for productions requiring a substantial number of connections between stage and FOH or where a succession of artist engineers are rocking up with different consoles, operating on a variety of protocols. Deployed as a data tunnel, comms, video, the support band console and remote aerials can all be put through it, thereby substantially reducing the number of cables at front of house. So the advantages are self-evident.
Robin Conway, Solotech UK's Senior Account Manager, is in no doubt why Optocore devices have played such a major role in the company's rental inventory. Optocore continues to form large parts of Solotech returns systems in the UK-generally when specified by the client-and we are more than happy to roll it out in these instances.
He reports that that the Petites have been used at festivals this summer to run various house desks (such as Avid S6L's) and communication networks. They have also been deployed with The Killers as the core connection between FOH and monitors-carrying MADI, SSL Blacklight and Network between each of these positions.
Solotech then hired an M8 MADI device from fac365 for use at this year's Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo to meet the audio design requirement.
A lot of the Optocore equipment is specified, although given the shortage of DD2/DD4 units, the M8/M12 is now the go-to solution when production needs to bring external MADI sources onto a DiGiCo/Optocore network, confirms Conway.
In summary, the Solotech man sees Optocore as a robust solution, providing a solid working platform for both audio and data. It is used and spec'd by many techs and PM's at Solotech in the UK, he concludes, and it will continue to be used when required and when specified for both loudspeaker returns systems and as a way of bringing additional I/O to DiGiCo networks.
We will continue to lean on fac365 for support when needed.
Previous post Next post
Optocore GmbH
Alte Allee 28
81245 M nchen
tel: +49 89 899 964 0
OPTOCORE is a German-based manufacturer of World's most popular, successful and ground-breaking Fibre Network Infrastructure and Point-to-Point systems for the install, broadcast and live industries.
QUICK LINKS:
Products
News
Downloads
Where to buy
Follow
Follow
Follow
ContacT us. We want to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can reach us by phone, email or by filling out the contact form on our website. Our team is always here to help and we look forward to hearing from you!
Name
Email Address
What are you interested in? What are you interested in?InstallTouringBrodcastOther
Message
Submit
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
24/03/2026
As the music industry gathers for Canada's Juno Awards, the local edition of...
24/03/2026
Behind every great song is a complex web of people, stories, and inspirations th...
24/03/2026
Few filmmakers have shaped popular cinema as profoundly as Steven Spielberg. So ...
24/03/2026
Latest Eurorack modules revealed
ALM/Busy Circuits have just introduced another two Eurorack modules, delivering a powerful new modulator that builds on the...
24/03/2026
Smallest, most affordable MPC to date
Akai Pro have just introduced their most accessible standalone sampler to date, making the iconic MPC experience avail...
24/03/2026
Create & manage presets on Windows & macOS
Electro-Harmonix have announced that their free Mac/Windows application now allows users of their Oceans Abyss re...
24/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz amplifiers enable high-field immunity testing expansion at IB Le...
24/03/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
24/03/2026
Rick Bernier reflects on a career that has taken him to the very top of live broadcast audio. As a Senior Broadcast Audio A1 Engineer and Music Director, he has...
24/03/2026
Tuesday 24 March 2026
Netflix partners with Sky Business to bring boxing night ...
24/03/2026
The Death of Bunny Munro and Lockerbie: A Search for Truth receive four nominations eachTuesday 24 March 2026
Sky celebrates 28 nominations at the 2026 BAFTA T...
24/03/2026
Tubi Turns Passion into Performance at IAB Newfront Announces New Interactive Ad Formats Including Scene Sense, Interactive Pause Ads and Connected Conversion...
24/03/2026
Arqiva shortlisted for Education Initiative of the Year'
We're excited to announce that we've been named a Finalist at the British Data Awards 202...
24/03/2026
Use of ABC data continues to grow, with 87% of buyers say they use it, compared ...
24/03/2026
All three presenters, Maura, D ith and Sinead, celebrate as afternoon chat show filmed in Cork hits milestone.
Ireland's longest running afternoon show, t...
24/03/2026
March 24 2026, 04:00 (PDT) Dolby Named to Fast Company's Annual List of the...
23/03/2026
It's been 20 years since Miley Cyrus introduced the world to Hannah Montana,...
23/03/2026
Made entirely from real natural recordings
Aimed at sound designers and editors working in film, TV and game audio, the latest release from BOOM Library com...
23/03/2026
Transcribe sheets, tabs or MIDI from audio files
Klang.io have announced the launch of a new AI-powered software tool that's capable of detecting multip...
23/03/2026
Monday 23 March 2026
Hacks, the multi-Emmy -winning Sky Exclusive comedy, retur...
23/03/2026
RT is sad today to learn of the death of legendary RT Sport broadcaster Michael Lyster, who died this morning aged 71 years.
Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General...
23/03/2026
RT Documentary On One has scooped its first ever dedicated music award. At the 2026 Icelandic Music Awards, composer lfur Eldj rn won Release of the Year in t...
23/03/2026
Inside Sport, Liveline, Morning Ireland and 2FM DRIVE will all be in Prague to bring fans to the heart of the action
Every Moment, Every GenerationRT | FIFA W...
22/03/2026
Free updates now available
VSL have just released some free updates that add some existing features to a selection of libraries in their expansive Synchron ...
21/03/2026
Presented to War Child UK's HELP(2) project
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have announced the launch of the MPG Impact Award, a brand-new honour that w...
21/03/2026
Microtuning support for Arabic, Persian & Turkish scales
The latest release from Best Service brings together a selection of string, wind and percussion ins...
20/03/2026
In 2021, we launched EQUAL, a program designed to address an industry reality that persists: Women artists, songwriters, and producers too often face fewer oppo...
20/03/2026
BTS' long-awaited fifth studio album, ARIRANG, is finally here. To celebrate...
20/03/2026
A new era for Kenia Os has arrived, and Spotify marked the moment by putting fan...
20/03/2026
Una nueva era para Kenia Os ha llegado, y Spotify marc el momento poniendo a lo...
20/03/2026
Combines sampling & physical modelling
Sound Magic have announced the launch of a comprehensive virtual drum instrument that's been designed to cater to...
20/03/2026
How much difference should mastering make?
In our latest Mix Rescue feature, SOS Editor in Chief Sam Inglis revisits a project from back in 2019, carrying o...
20/03/2026
In this blog, Laura Rognoni reflects on key discussions from the Connected TV World Summit in London, where NAGRAVISION hosted a panel on content discovery and ...
20/03/2026
Dingle, Co. Kerry - Animation Dingle is delighted to announce that Suzanne Kelly, Head of Children's and Young People's Content at RT , will receive the...
20/03/2026
Friday 20 March 2026
Sky Extends Saturday Night Live UK Run to Eight Shows
Ahead of Saturday Night Live UK's launch tomorrow (March 21), Sky has confirmed...
20/03/2026
It's time to play The Money List! Baz Ashmawy is back at the helm as the qui...
19/03/2026
In 2021, we launched EQUAL, a program designed to address an industry reality that persists: Women artists, songwriters, and producers too often face fewer oppo...
19/03/2026
Latest EZKeys 2 expansion arrives
Toontrack's staggering collection of EZKeys 2 expansions has grown once again, and the latest instalment delivers a on...
19/03/2026
New generative AI plug-in due in May 2026
Roland have announced the upcoming launch of a new generative AI tool created in collaboration with Sony Computer ...
19/03/2026
Nick Williams updates users on insolvency process
Nick Williams, the CEO of Native Instruments, has released the following official statement regarding thei...
19/03/2026
Iconic Swedish mic manufacturer back in action
Legendary Swedish microphone manufacturer Milab have announced that production is now fully underway, and mic...
19/03/2026
Acclaimed saturation unit goes virtual
Freqport's Freqtube FT1 (reviewed here in SOS February 2023) offers a convenient way to integrate real valve-base...
19/03/2026
The discontinuation of loss-making business activities as part of the restructur...
19/03/2026
Tubi Partners with TikTok to Offer Creators a Pathway to Develop Premium Long Fo...
19/03/2026
Thursday 19 March 2026
Sky TV customers can enjoy a taste of Hayu's most po...