LCM had used Pro Tools as its primary music recording platform for several years, but with the arrival of Pro Tools 11, the college decided to look into moving over to HDX systems. Although integrating all-Avid systems would have been technically straightforward, Liggins notes, the College was aware that there were many other options in the marketplace and felt they needed to evaluate some of the possibilities - including RedNet, Focusrite's range of Dante-based audio over IP networking interfaces.
In addition to listening tests, they considered other factors, such as whether or not the hardware would stand up to heavy usage by large numbers of students. "The notion for me," says Liggins, "was, 'What does it sound like? Is it good enough to replace all the I/O we've got?'"
With RedNet, the answer was 'yes'. "I was very, very impressed by how it sounded," says Senior Lecturer, Andrew Bourbon. "Having heard a bunch of competitors, for me it offered a more detailed presentation that still retained musicality. I think RedNet strikes an excellent balance."
"They have a very definite image quality to them; they have depth of field and detail; they handle bass really well; they show a definite improvement in things like stereo imaging, certainly; and when you run them through our Audient or Neve desks, they have a quality to them that is very pleasing. It's very musical, and there's a transparency to it that means you can get the best out of the recordings that you're making."
It was then that the London College of Music staff began to realise what opportunities were offered by RedNet's audio networking capability: not simply linking recording areas together but also making it possible to capture audio - and record it - almost anywhere there's an Ethernet socket. Bourbon had experience of audio networking systems in the live sound environment and immediately saw the possibilities for RedNet at LCM. When the costs were added up it made excellent financial, as well as technical sense, and thus the first phase of what is currently the world's largest RedNet installation began.
RedNet is already changing how the College works. Liggins explains, "People are coming to us every day with new ideas as to how to utilise RedNet's capabilities. Everything from multi-room recording to remote performance, distributed speaker networks and multichannel diffusion systems has been proposed! I love the fact that every day somebody comes up with another way of making use of it."
"We have students who come in, and they want to track into their own computer," Bourbon says. "We had an example: a group of students going into a studio - they've got a copy of Dante Virtual Soundcard, and they were able to go direct from that quality recording room into their own laptop. It's just preparing them for another part of industry that they're going to get used to."
"In the end," Liggins concludes, "if the RedNet units hadn't sounded any good, we wouldn't have bought them. So... it's down to the quality of the kit and the quality of the sound. They're great."
(Jim Evans)
