Over the last five years, Brett Johnson, chief sound engineer atColumbia College of Chicago, has equipped a modular media truck withcomponents of Roland's S-4000 digital snake system.

The truck is set up to record a variety of professional and academic events both indoor and out, and must withstand the constant shift in venue, event, and weather, while adapting to the different crews that man it. As Johnson states, "A larger modular truck like we maintain has a huge amount of systems that can go haywire on you. [It has to] put up with the bouncing around, the weird changes in temperature, and everything else." He concludes that the S-4000 Digital Snake System, "keeps working like a champ." The truck handles a lot of change, including temperature fluctuation from extreme low to high temperatures, and yet it remains dependable.

Application
With Johnson's supervision, the truck is primarily used to record Columbia College academic, sporting, and music events, but is also available as part of an exchange program to local television channels for external productions. The various engineers who have used the system aboard the truck have been extremely happy with how simple it is to boot up and keep going. Johnson states, "We haven't had any problems with it at all. It's just worked…Having this gear that gets bounced around–I'm not saying in the truck, but all the external gear that hooks into the truck–all that equipment has held up. All the multiple systems that you have to keep working on a remote truck–having [the Roland] system work, and keep working, is a big relief."

The System
The truck is equipped with the S-4000, S-1608, and S-0816 digital snake systems, with the S-OPT and S-4000R. The truck's configuration is modified for each event and Johnson notes, "Roland has been incredibly helpful with any of the different configurations that I've wanted to do. Any consulting that I have asked for, they've been incredibly helpful giving me any of the extra data or extra engineering that I've needed to do what I've been doing.

Johnson shared his favorite part of the digital snake system, its remote control capability, "I can take the basic network system and take it optically over extended distances…two to three football fields away." He also enjoys how expandable the system is, providing stage, front of house, and the truck with everything they need on one system.

Johnson described how the system was used at a recent mayoral debate in Chicago. The truck held all the multiple boxes of the S-4000 system with reinforcement in the house; "What makes the system so easy" Johnson enthused, "is that we can do what we need with those microphones, the house mixer can do what he wants with the microphones, the stage monitor can give the individual mix back to the politicians, and we don't have to have multiple snakes or splits of those microphones. We were just using one system with beautiful mic presentation. Everyone got exactly the same thing. Everyone was very pleased. Everyone was happy, happy, happy."

System Integration