Copyright 2009 FiberPlex, Inc
All Rights Reserved
LightViper™ Digital Fiber Optic Audio “Snake” System Handles Critical New Year’s Performance by Cleveland Pops Orchestra
- Caravan Enterprises, live sound provider for The Cleveland Pops Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center deploys new FiberPlex digital fiber optic “audio snake” for live sound and broadcast feeds
January 20, 2005, NAMM Convention, Anaheim, CA – FiberPlex, Inc, an 18 year-old world leader in fiber optic data communications announced that their highly-acclaimed LightViper™ VIS-1832 fiber optic audio snake was used for the recent New Year’s performance and live broadcast of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Severance Hall.
Caravan Enterprises of nearby Elyria, OH, deployed the system on their first usage of a portable fiber optic audio snake.
Rick Galbraith, owner of Caravan, was enthusiastic about his first use of the LightViper fiber optic snake:
“I was extremely pleased with how well the LightViper performed in a concert situation. The run to F.O.H was approximately 200 feet and we had a monitor split. The audio quality was superb. In fact, nobody in the recording crew we were feeding was even aware I had replaced our normal copper snakes with the LightViper until after the show when we did the tear-down!
Galbraith continued: “It love that it’s so compact and lightweight. The terminations into our Yamaha O2R’s were a piece-of-cake. The line level outputs of the receive heads eliminated the need for additional mic preamps, this was one of the key points that interested us in The LightViper snake. We decided to replace our 40 channel snake last year, and held out to try the LightViper, it was well worth the wait.”
Editor’s Product Note:
The LightViper VIS-1832 consists of a “traditional” and highly compact 32 X 8 audio input Stage Box and a complementary 1U rack unit (Model VIM-1832) located at the main house audio mixing position. Connecting these two components is accomplished with a rugged and extremely lightweight “tactical grade” military specification fiber optic cable weighing less than two (2) pounds per one hundred feet of cable run (100’).
LightViper’s fiber optic cable offers total signal path isolation between stage and mixer as well as between the stage and all splits; the cable is totally immune to ground loops, RFI, EMI and electromechanical noise and runs of up to 1 1/4 miles (6,600 feet) can be easily accomplished without signal loss or degradation.
The inputs on the audio input stage box will accept balanced or unbalanced XLR or TRS mic or line level audio and eliminates the need for expensive DI boxes. Industry standard 48-volt Phantom power is supplied to all audio mic inputs. Two optional optical outputs on the Stage unit allow for a separate stage monitor feed as well as sending the audio data signal to a remote broadcast or recording vehicle (one main feed and two “splits” in total).
Pristine-quality Burr-Brown A/D converters are built-in to the LightViper and operate at 24-bit/96kHz sampling. The resulting multiplexed digital signal is transmitted via the optical cable on a single fiber pair.
The system also features a rugged Neutrik PowerCon connector (stage box) and synchronization to Word Clock as well as “Superclock.”
FiberPlex includes a limited lifetime warranty with all VIS-1832 system hardware components.
The suggested Professional Audio user price for a typical LightViper VIS-1832 configuration is $7,631.00; this includes all components (one Stage unit, the VIS-1832, one Mix position IU rack unit - VIM-1832, 300 feet of fiber optic cable and four send and one return breakout cables.
A wall mount enclosure for fixed installations is available (VBZ-1832) at $194.00.
NOTE: Light Viper™ is a registered trademark of FiberPlex, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
10840-412 Guilford Rd, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701• Phone: 301-604-0100 • Fax: 301-604-0773
