The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, home of the world-famous Wimbledon Championships, upgraded their on-site audio system earlier this year, and NetCIRA digital audio distribution products were at its heart.

As rebuilding work started on Centre Court, the Club made the decision to install an audio system capable of coping with every future demand served its way. Tim Speight and Jon Berry, Project Coordinators for RG Jones Sound Engineering were in charge of the installation.

Originally formed in 1926 and conveniently based in Wimbledon, RG Jones is a preferred sound contractor to many of England’s high-profile venues and last year were granted The Royal Warrant by Her Majesty the Queen. RG Jones has been providing the installed sound system and temporary systems to the Club since the 1980s.

“In the old Centre Court with the old international commentary boxes there was a single audio feed that was distributed through conventional analogue amplifiers,” Speight explains. “Those commentary boxes were removed when the Club removed the roof, so they needed a new system installed. The Club originally wanted like for like, but we said that now would be a very good time to put in a more expandable solution. I’d seen the Ethersound stuff at PLASA and I was quite interested in it. That seemed to be the way forward. We did a demo, and convinced the Club that NetCIRA was the way forward. Cost-wise, it made a lot more sense. And it proved itself when we could add audio feeds instantly during the championship.”

“At the last minute we had a request from the Club to enable a communications system for Hawk-Eye,” he continues. “Hawk-Eye operatives were in a commentary box and they needed point-to-point communications with the umpire in the chair, in the case of a dispute, so they could talk to each other. With a microphone on the umpire’s chair we were already in position to get a signal, so we could send that up to the Hawk-Eye box via the NetCIRA system. All we had to do was put a microphone in that box and send the signal back to the chair. We put in an MS-88 to give us that bi-directional capability and there was a small speaker strapped to the back of the umpire’s chair and a little power amp underneath. The club were pleased with the implementation.”

The NetCIRA system also proved its worth when the IP-based on-site TV service for international broadcasters revealed one small problem.

“One new thing they put in the international commentary boxes was a little box for an IPTV system,” Speight explains. “Rather than the old fashioned RF that was used to distribute signals to those TV, they went to an IP system that offered all sort of clever graphics and announcements and multiple channels. What no one could have predicted was that there was an audio delay on the live pictures. So broadcasters that would previously get their audio out of the headphone socket of the TVs were unable to use that while commentating on a live match on centre court. Thankfully, we had the capacity on our system to provide them audio from the BBC’s Centre Court effects mix through the NetCIRA system, so they could dial it up from their NetCIRA box and get real-time audio while they were commentating on a match on Centre Court. There are 107 commentary positions on Centre Court and we ended up installing 60 ES-2 NetCIRA modules with a hundred-odd custom control panels to go with it. There was very little feedback, which was good. No news is good news. Of course NetCIRA saves a lot of cabling, but there’s the flexibility of adding additional service as and when. The system proved itself.”

For Speight, the beauty of the NetCIRA system is its versatility. In a venue like Wimbledon, where every year will bring new demands, it’s a useful tool to have in reserve.