This year, marking its 30th anniversary, Poland’s largest festival, Pol‘and’Rock, draws aggregate crowds of between 500,000-750,000 to the Czaplinek-Broczyno airfield, making it one of the largest in the world. The three-day free festival (formerly known as Woodstock Festival Poland) drew rock legends Coma, alongside Motionless in White, Flogging Molly, Less Than Jake, The Warning, Guano Apes and many others.

A veteran of the event’s successful sound since the beginning of the millennium, both as main sound engineer and crew chief, is Przemek Naguszewski (of Fotis Sound). He deployed an Optocore XR6 system for fiber transmission between FOH and monitors, as well as a Festival Box. “I was responsible for providing all [systems] between the sound engineer and system input,” he said. “All needed consoles, outboard, connectivity and multicores. At Pol‘and’Rock I always feel like I am throwing a party with friends and for friends. As crew, from all departments, we have known each other for many years.”

Przemek is a familiar user of Optocore devices. “The first time I encountered Optocore as a brand was [in partnership] with the DiGiCo D5 back in 2005. Then the X6R [converters] appeared at Fotis Sound and I found this system very convenient to use—especially with large PA implementations, such as stadiums or big venues, with a number of delays and so on.

“I have since used X6R’s many times as an AES/analog signal and data distribution for large PA implementations,” he enthused. “Its ability to provide signal and data transmission over long distances via fiber is extremely useful.” At Pol‘and’Rock he used two input and two output modules as stage console input and additional tie line.

Przemek was also aware of Optocore’s Festival Box. “I only used it for the first time this year—firstly at the Warsaw Rocks festival with, among others, the Scorpions and Europe, and then at Pol‘and’Rock.”

The system had first been provided for assessment by Dawid Somlo at Audio Rebel. “He and Radha Mohan Rajani made a short presentation and training just before Warsaw Rocks festival. Mohan was always on hand to answer any questions, although the preconfigured unit was so simple to use that we didn’t really need any support.”

This year at Pol‘and’Rock the FOH set-up comprised DiGiCo Quantum7 as a main desk and SD12 as auxiliary, along with other desks to meet rider requirements. “In addition some artists brought their own consoles and in total there were eight different desks at the FOH shed.”

Therefore the Festival Box provided a great component in the inventory. “It saved time and effort during installation and of course saved equipment resources,” assessed Przemek. “You require only two fibers instead of a number of Cat6, fibers or BNC. We tested it in connection with DiGiCo, Yamaha, Avid and Allen & Heath—and all worked without problems.”

He continued, “Pol‘and’Rock is one of the rare cases where self-contained bands are unable to use their own multicores or it would be very difficult to do. All stage to FOH connections go through the pipe buried in the ground so all necessary cables need to be in place at the installation stage.

“Festival Box provides an easy-to-use solution for events with a number of different consoles. It is stable and redundant and uses trustworthy fiber with HMA connectors. It saves time, effort and equipment resources. From my point of view, I had only positive experiences with this equipment, and I am sure that, as with everything in this industry, it will continue to evolve.”

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