Instant Breakthrough for Optocores Revolutionary Festival Box posted: 14/10/2019
Global success, from Spice Girls and Billie Eilish tours to top European festivals
Optocore's Festival Box looks set to revolutionise big event touring after rental companies around the globe were quick to respond to the launch of the much-anticipated new device this summer. As demo systems were released to targeted dealers and production companies around the world, Optocore Technical Sales Manager, Maciek Janiszewski, said, It is gratifying that customers have trusted us with delivering a completely new device concept and placed it immediately on high-profile tours and festivals.
Early adopters have included the high-flying Billie Eilish and Spice Girls, both with Wigwam, while festivals have ranged from the mighty Sziget in Hungary and KFPP Opole in Poland, to Parklife and Bluedot festivals in the north of England.
What makes Festival Box so special? In essence, it allows any audio protocol as well as video and data to tunnel over the same fiber, making it a hugely efficient solution for multi-act scenarios. Migrating the technology from sister company BroaMan's Repeat48WDM media converter, which uses Repeat48-2Fiber modules at its source, it offers countless conversion options, supporting all fiber protocols as well as Cat5 Ethernet-based standards or even HDMI, since the standard SFP optical module transceivers are hot swappable.
With each sound engineer bringing different consoles to festivals, running different protocols to the stage box, everything can now be transported down Festival Box using just a single duplex fiber, thereby saving a tremendous amount of cabling between FOH and Stage, continued Janiszewski.
Alex Hadjigeorgiou, from Optocore-BroaMan dealer, fac365, had led the charge to put the word into the rental community at the beginning of the year. It's been very well-received and we've had really positive feedback, he said. This year has been all about getting the concept across. In some ways the name Festival Box' restricts it as it is so much more than that: it's perfect for running complete touring infrastructure down it, using just two fibers.
In Poland, GMB Pro Sound have had it out at the Open'er Festival at Gdynia Airport, Krakow Live Festival and Festival Opole, as well as on tour with Meskie Granie. Festival Box also provided an elegant and efficient solution at the Sweden Rock Festival in Solvesborg, supplied by Soundware Sweden, Sziget in Hungary (via Leon Szolgaltato Ltd), while in the north of England fac365 supplied the devices to dbnAudile (for Parklife and Bluedot).
Said GMB Pro Sound Director, Remigiusz Kasztelnik, Festival Box might be a new concept but those who have tried it have immediately found it extremely useful, especially when there are different protocols in place. The big advantage is simplicity-there is no software or configuration necessary; you just plug in the cable onstage and FOH, and pair the stage boxes and consoles whether Cat5, coax or fiber.
We expect Festival Box to become a must-have, and a no-brainer for larger tours and mid-size/large festivals over the next few years.
Wigwam co-founder Chris Hill-another early adopter, and influencer of Optocore solutions over the years-agreed. I have always liked the quality of Optocore products and what they stand for, he confirmed. Festival Box has already dug us out of a couple of holes, and is proving to be a very useful tool.
It made sense to invest for many reasons, he said. When Spice Girls came along we put it on as a data tunnel so we could put comms, video, the support band console and remote aerials through it. It got used heavily, and proved to be very flexible, reducing the number of cables to plug in at front of house.
For Billie Eilish, Festival Box fulfilled an altogether different solution. Production had wanted to run their system over Cat5, since their Allen & Heath console sits on that network, and all available fiber ports had already been used. So instead of wrestling with a system rejig, thanks to Festival Box they were able to carry on as they were, with no issues of distance, no reconfiguration or software changes necessary, said Hadjigeorgiou.
Chris Hill agreed. Their production loved it because they could work the way they wanted to work. Festival Box introduced them to a really simple way of getting out of a problem.
You don't need a laptop and another screen-you can plug in more SFPs and put other formats down it. In fact it is now being specified on another project which will require further investment. Anyone who is initially sceptical only has to see it working to be convinced.
Alex Hadjigeorgiou also believes it offers a great return on investment for mid-sized rental houses who have yet to commit to the substantial investment required in fiber cable. It is generally hard to charge [clients] good money for fiber because it's expected to come with the consoles, he said. But as Festival Box is a separate chargeable item it becomes a chargeable item it makes a lot of sense.
In summary he said, Festival Box is ultimately about efficiency, but it's for the long term. In years to come, once Festival Box is established, people will be saying, In the old days we used to run a network, RF and console loop all on separate cables!'
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
06/07/2026
Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...
06/07/2026
The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...
06/07/2026
This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...
06/07/2026
IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...
06/07/2026
Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...
06/07/2026
NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...
06/07/2026
Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...
06/07/2026
DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...
06/07/2026
Bundle gains 100 new synths & more
Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...
06/07/2026
Available now via free firmware update
MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...
06/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...
06/07/2026
The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/07/2026
Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...
06/07/2026
Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development
Brie Clayton July 6, 2026
0 Comments
The strategic new appointment supports...
06/07/2026
Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve
Michael Cioni July 6, 2026
0 Comments
This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...
06/07/2026
Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith July 6, 2026
0 Comments
Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...
06/07/2026
Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...
06/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...
06/07/2026
Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...
06/07/2026
Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy
intellisphereinsyght2026
6 July Written By Suzanne Costello
Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...
06/07/2026
Monday 6 July 2026
Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...
06/07/2026
Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work.
This year's ...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
05/07/2026
We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture' - Zac Fields, SVP, Graphic Technology and Integration, FOX Sports...
05/07/2026
Browser-based and desktop apps available
Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
Instant Breakthrough for Optocores Revolutionary Festival Box posted: 14/10/2019 
