Barnfind Rocks the House for Karpe’s 2019 Tour

Center stage of Karpe tour with a design made possible with the help of Bary and Barnfind.
 
Bary, one of Norway’s largest suppliers of technical solutions and equipment for concerts, festivals, events and productions, called on Barnfind Technologies, Norwegian manufacturer of a multi-function, fiber-based signal transportation platform, to provide a technical solution to guarantee a successful concert series.
 
 

Arne Bakstad from Bary was doing the technical set-up for Barnfind.

"Instead of one main arena there were a number of different venues for this event,” explains Arne Bakstad from Bary, “So we were challenged to send signals back and forth over varying distances. Copper was a consideration, but the amount of cables and the possibility of a technical failure was so great that we sought a better and more stable solution for transporting the audio and video signals to the venue monitors as well as to the public. Barnfind was the perfect, and frankly the only, answer.”

According to Lars-Morten Larsen, the light designer responsible for the Karpe tour, the solution also had to be capable of handling communication between musicians, technicians and security personnel. “I was grateful to work with such ambitious artists, but my head was spinning thinking about the details necessary for all the pieces to fit together for a spectacular show. When we outlined the plan, it was evident that unconventional solutions were necessary.”
 

Initially the technical team created a detailed overview of the signal patterns indicating the different protocols for distributing sound, video and light signals, including intercom and communication networks and their transport paths between four independent sites. The system’s mobility was of major importance since it had to be transferred to locations where they could not rely on traditional stage settings.
 

This became a rather extensive needs map, which was first drawn up with a signal path that indicated what was desirable, and what was possible. Four sub-systems had to be controlled from the main system, one for each location. When it became evident what was needed to get this solution on the road, Bary’s Bakstad turned to Barnfind, a company he had worked with extensively in the past, for an answer.

Barnfind’s fiber backbone offered an enormous advantage for the system that incorporated mixed signals including video, light, sound, special effects and communications in the same cable. Bakstad designed a system with Barnfind equipment at its core that not only tackles the technical challenges but also addresses the disparities inherent when working with different signals traveling to numerous venues with varying distances between them. It leveraged the advantages of Barnfind’s fiber platform to reduce the amount of cable and support the various signals.
 

Lars-Morten Larsen was in charge of light-design on the Karpe-tour, with this special design of interaction.

The system comprised two BarnOne BTF1-04 frames, 32 SFP ports with redundant power and Stagebox breakout units. Six Special Boxes with 12x Gigabit Ethernet converters in each, half being switched. 10/100 / 1GBit and the rest is pure GigaBit. 16 pcs 16ch Fiber Mux / demux. 5 pieces 200m SM fiber drums (1 in reserve). BarnOne and all fiber are monitored via BarnStudio.

Each frame incorporates 16 channels full duplex gigabit ethernet, alternatively 3G SDI, which passively multiplexes into
the same fiber. This makes the system extremely compatible with all possible protocols without having to consider each
other's IP addresses and bandwidth.
 

Explained Larsen, “A traditional solution would have required approximately 40 single lines on separate LANs. We would have needed a separate car just to transport the cables alone! We also would have needed several technicians to keep track of all contact points, with sound, light and image, to and from the various scenes around the room. Barnfind facilitated the entire system with a single fiber cable to each location that sends the signals back and forth. All the signals go over ethernet, on gigabit lines.”
 

"Another advantage of Barnfind's system is that it is completely independent of protocols,” Larsen adds. “Signals don't have to be converted and forwarded, they are just transmitted regardless of what type enters the system. In addition, it is completely without latency, it works seamlessly from the moment you plug in the cable. Karpe needed a solution completely out of the ordinary, and now that know it is possible, future concerts will only be limited by the organizer’s imagination.”
 

The Karpe Tour system is serving as a foundation for new products, and Bary and Barnfind have since entered into an
agreement to collaborate on the development of new innovations for the Pro AV market.
 

About Barnfind:
Barnfind Technologies AS, headquartered in Sandefjord, Norway, manufactures a multi-function signal transportation platform that supports numerous signals in one frame, including common video and telco formats such as SDTI, SMPTE 2022-6, 2110, MADI, 4K 60p workflows, HDMI, DVI, CAM-CCU, KVM etc. In addition, there is a full router in the frame with re-clocking on all outputs (BNCs and SFPs), reference input, full redundancy and the capability to have integrated CWDM/DWDM multiplexing. Barnfind’s “no-cost” control software, BarnStudio, can be downloaded from the website. The platform is also compatible with many 3rd party control systems. Barnfind offers the world’s most sophisticated CAM-CCU solution capable of supporting 18 x CAM-CCUs on one single fiber with low jitter and latency. Barnfind is known as the Champion’s company; found in most sport Championships around the world.