Fuzion Far East has provided sound reinforcement for the Royal Procession on Land, an event that was part of the formal Royal Coronation Ceremony His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun (Rama X) of Thailand. Far East Fuzion designed and set up the audio systems for the entire parade, working closely with the Thai Royal Army. To handle this massive task, Far East Fuzion designed a Dante digital audio network in a star configuration with 11 loops, employing miles of fibre optic cable, and managed by 49 Symetrix Radius 12x8 EX DSP units.
His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun (Rama X) of Thailand commenced his reign on October 13, 2016. Following ancient tradition, the formal Royal Coronation Ceremony was conducted over three days, May 4 to 6, 2019, including the Royal Procession on Land on May 5, 2019. In this formal procession, the King rode in a royal palanquin, encircling the city so that the people might attend and pay homage to their new King. Beginning at the Grand Palace, His Majesty travelled 6.7km, paying homage to the main Buddha images at three major temples before returning to the Grand Palace.
Varuit Rattapongfrom, technical director at Far East Fuzion, said: "The parade had many microphones for instruments and for announcements. The audio routing needed to change many times along the way. For example, from Point A1 to A5 was one band, then after that was a different band playing different instruments and using different microphones. We also provided the broadcast feed."
This was the first Royal Coronation Ceremony since 1950, and the Fuzion Far East team needed to ensure the network would operate optimally throughout the procession. Rattapongfrom added: "Symetrix Radius processors were the best solution for the job. The Radius is reliable, the sound quality is very good, and it's easy to control. We mostly used the DSPs for routing and EQ." User control was provided for monitoring, leveling, feedback suppression, and the EQs.
In addition to Symetrix Radius 12x8 EX DSPs, the network racks included gigabit hubs, wireless antenna couplers for active antennas, wireless mic receivers, power amplifiers, and uninterruptible power supplies. An analog Allen & Heath mixer combined the signals, and laptop computers served the system administrator, engineer, operators, and CCTV feed.
Designing, installing, and operating an audio network and sound system of this magnitude for an event of such importance was a challenge, but Fuzion Far East succeeded with help from the Royal Thai Army. Rattapongfrom concluded: "The Symetrix processors and Dante network worked very well. We didn't need technical support, and our client was very satisfied with the results."