Red Bull Cashed Captures Speed of Sound With Yamaha, EDGE ShowTek

As the sport continues to grow in popularity with U.S. fans, ice cross downhill continued its residency again this year in the ‘state of hockey’ with a fourth visit to the capital of Minnesota. For the past three winters, Saint Paul has hosted the Red Bull Cashed Ice Downhill Competition with a crowd of more than 140,000 converging on the Cathedral of Saint Paul to witness the high-speed action featuring skaters competing in a four-man heats race to the bottom of a quarter-mile long track full of obstacles.

EDGE ShowTek of Northbrook, IL deployed an all-NEXO/Yamaha system comprised of hundreds of boxes of GEO D, GEO S12, GEO S8, RS18 Ray Subs, and CL5 Digital Audio Console. The company used a Dante network with fiber distribution all connected to several Yamaha Rio input/output boxes and many NXAmps with Dante cards, dotted throughout the area.

“This show has an insatiable demand for outputs and used up almost the entire capacity of the Yamaha CL5 console,” states Al Zara, EDGE ShowTek.

By having the ability to drop Rio boxes anywhere in the network, Zara said the system allowed them the freedom of inputs and outputs right where they were needed.

“From the singer of the National Anthem at the start line 1200 feet away from audio control to the broadcast announcers and show DJ located in different areas of the course, we were able to drop Rio boxes to accommodate inputs and outputs,” he says. “Given that all the NEXO lines are very closely voiced, the system enabled us to provide seamless coverage of the show grounds.”

Zara, who functioned as A1 front of house engineer, said the event is a major challenge from a design and technological standpoint.

“There are many demands for speaker zone outputs and alignment, multiple broadcast trucks’ needs, and complicated show cues,” he says. “We handle a good deal of broadcast events, and to be successful, you need to have a systematic approach to all of your AV systems. It’s a major plus to have the capabilities of our Yamaha and NEXO systems.”

System Technician, Jon Carrico.“The Dante network lends itself to the Red Bull Crashed Ice type of event by allowing us to use off-the-shelf product to convert from fiber to copper and integrating very easily,” states