London, UK ­ Thorpe Park, one of the UK's largest and busiest theme parks, has commenced operation of its new audio system, with the NetCIRA Digital Audio Networking System as one of its major components.

First opened in 1979, Thorpe Park welcomes over a million guests a year and up to 18,000 on any given day. To ensure their guests' enjoyment, and more importantly, their safety, an effective, discreet and flexible audio system is a necessity. That system was specified by Bernard Whates, Project Manager for The Tussauds Studios and Rob Brooks, Senior Field Engineer for Bose, whose processors are at the system's heart.

"The Park is split up into eleven areas," explains Brooks, "each of which requires a different audio stream. There are actually twelve streams that we can play out, including one outside the main entrance. Each stream has its own music composed specifically for that area which can be interspersed with promotional messages and announcements. Historically all these streams would have been done by individual sound stores at each ride. Now we can do it all from one control room."

Various NetCIRA MS88s, equipped with MI-1 AES/EBU input cards or SO-1 AES/EBU output cards, are positioned around the various zones, enabling Thorpe Park¹s sound team to send all the various audio feeds through a solitary fibre-optic network running through the entire Park.

"The NetCIRA network is transporting this audio all over the Park," continues Brooks. "We have two MS88s in the main rack which pick up the twelve streams of audio, along with the operators' zone selectable mic and messaging and send it off around the Park. All the audio is coming from one PC. It goes via a Bose ESP-88 processor, jumps onto those MS88s and is passed around the Park via the fibre-optic network. It gives you a lot of audio through a single connection. There's probably two and a half kilometres of fibre across the Park. If you were running it with discreet cables, that a lot of cable.

"I'd come across NetCIRA before I specified the system. We knew we needed a way of transporting audio around the Park. It was a question of whether we went with Ethersound or Cobranet. We felt happier with the NetCIRA, based on what would suit the Park better. It¹s simpler to set up and manage."

Although the day-to-day function of the audio system is ensuring all Thorpe Park's guests have the most entertaining time possible, it also has an important safety feature. In the unlikely event of a safety announcement being required the system enables the Park to have immediate access to each individual zone's audio, delivering a clear, quick message to the people who need to hear it.