Front of house engineer Aaron Alcántara with Roland M-5000 and M-5000C consoles.

Barcelona, Spain, January 12th, 2016 – The Roland O.H.R.C.A M-5000 and M-5000C live digital mixing consoles were the consoles of choice for the public New Year’s Eve event in Barcelona, configured in a full R.E.A.C (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) setup. The Roland consoles were specified by Focus for a system that required over 80 inputs FOH and monitor, and a PA including 12 delay towers. Focus – one of the largest production companies in Barcelona – were in charge of the sound, light and video for the outdoor party and were supported by Roland ProAV Product Manager Nico Suárez.

The Barcelona New Year’s Eve celebrations are attended by around 95,000 people and broadcast live to over 1 million others on Spanish television. The massive celebration spreads from the Montjuic mountains to the Espanya square in the city, with music and performance all along the Maria Cristina Avenue.

A full Roland setup included 2 x M-5000 consoles, one for monitors and one at the heart of the system as the FOH console mixing down music - with the compact M-5000C console providing the television and PA Systems feeds. The Roland S-4000S-3208, S-2416 and S-0816 Digital Snake solutions took care of all the inputs and outputs for the stage, video feeds, mix minus buses, RF and In-Ear microphones. Each of the 12 delay towers featured a Roland M-48 personal monitoring system creating a simple R.E.A.C to analog output between all of the elements. The R.E.A.C infrastructure totaled approximately 2km of Cat5e cable.

In a setup that truly demonstrated the flexibility and adaptability of the O.H.R.C.A configurable architecture of the M-5000 and M-5000C, the consoles delivered seamlessly for broadcast and live production simultaneously. The M-5000 at FOH position mixed down 98 channels delivered from the I/O boxes on the stage before splitting the signals down to the M-5000 used as the monitor console. This was done using one pre-amp for each line for both consoles. The compact M-5000C was used to mix the presenters, actors and video - and also to split to the PA system. The feed from the inputs on the back panel of the M-5000C and another I/O box (the Roland S-0816 8 x 16 FOH Unit) for video control were used to send all the video feeds for the live television broadcast.

Commenting on the challenges that this event posed, Suárez explained, “The show was very complicated; over 40 people on the stage with live music, an opera singer, presenters, a lot of video going in and out. Flexibility is the key with these kind of shows and you need to rely on something that can cope with the live changes without problems. The M-5000 was the only option for us and it worked perfectly.

Roland M-5000 monitor consoles and back up M-5000C.

In the stage area the inputs provided by 2 x Roland S-4000S-3208 Digital Snakes were used for inputs from the bands playing at the event. The inputs on the Roland S-2416 took care of all the RF mics and In-Ear Microphones for the presenters and performers whilst the Roland S-0816 handled the video feeds and mix minus buses.

The M-5000 at monitor position simultaneously controlled three types of monitors– traditional wedge monitors, in ear monitors and the Roland M-48 personal monitoring systems at the delay towers. The 2 Solo Busses on the M-5000 allow one Solo Bus to be assigned to the wedges and one to the in ears.

The O.H.R.C.A platform on which both the M-5000 and the M-5000C are based stands for three key concepts: Open; High Resolution; and Configurable Architecture. This internal architecture is not fixed to any configuration and can be freely defined within a range of up to 128 input or output channels or busses, allowing the operator essentially to ‘build’ a console to suit the application. Each path can be used as a mixing channel, AUX, matrix, subgroup buss or MIX-MINUS buss in any input/output configuration. All paths are delivered at a pristine 24-bit/96kHz sound quality. This open audio architecture supports Dante, MADI, Waves Sound Grid, and REAC audio protocols, as well as audio delivery over video using SDI, DVI and SFP cabling. The intuitive and flexible workflow is key to the design of the control surface of the M-5000 with a 12-inch colour touchscreen, 28 channel faders in four groups, multifunction knobs and buttons, ‘selected knob’ functions and an entire user assignable section. The displays are bright, colour-coded and highly visible in any light. The M-5000C measures 30 inches (74 cm) in width and weighs just 70 pounds (32kg), offering all the flexibility and power of the M-5000 console but in a smaller footprint - making it the ideal choice for touring, broadcast, theatre and live performance.

Full product list:
1 x M-5000 FOH
1 x M-5000 Monitors
1 x M-5000C TV feeds and PA system feeds
1 x M-5000C backup
2 x S-4000S-3208
1 x S-2416
1 x S-0816
12 x M-48 (one for each delay tower)
+2Km REAC infrastructure