Rack cabinets in the Alexandra Trianti Hall technical room with the Pínanson SAR splitter installed

Case study · Performing arts venues

Megaron, Athens | Alexandra Trianti Hall

The Alexandra Trianti Hall needed to share 80 microphone signals at once between the front-of-house, broadcast and multitrack recording systems, free from noise and ground loops. Pínanson built a custom SAR splitter.

Client
Megaron Athens
Hall
Alexandra Trianti Hall
Location
Athens, Greece
Equipment
SAR 1DX3-80
Sector
Performing arts venues

The hallAcoustic excellence in the heart of Athens

The Megaron Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Moussikis) is Greece’s most important cultural and performing arts centre. Every year it hosts the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras, top-tier opera productions, international conferences and music tours.

Within the complex lies the Alexandra Trianti Hall, its largest and most emblematic concert hall. It is designed for live music, and every production requires mixing, broadcasting and recording at the same time: front-of-house (FOH) mixing, live broadcast, multitrack recording and external OB units. That calls for transparent signal distribution, free from interference and ground loops.

After first meeting Pínanson at the ISE international trade show, the hall’s technical team commissioned it to design, manufacture and supply a custom audio distribution system. As a public, international institution, the project went through a strict tendering process.

Equipment in the hall

Front of house (FOH)
Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 with RPio stagebox
Broadcast
Yamaha DM7 in the control room
Multitrack recording
Merging Technologies (Pyramix)
80microphone channels
4outputs per channel: 1 direct and 3 isolated
Lundahltransformers on the 3 isolated outputs
19″AR rack format, all XLR

We were looking for an 80-channel splitter with 4 outputs per channel (1 direct + 3 isolated), equipped with Lundahl transformers. Each input and output had to be completely independent, with no common ground and with XLR terminations.

Christos Ntalipis · Megaron Athens

The solutionSAR 1DX3-80, built to order

Based on this brief, Pínanson designed and manufactured a custom SAR 1DX3-80 unit:

Outputs
Four per channel: 1 direct and 3 independently isolated by Lundahl transformers. Full galvanic isolation and zero ground loops between FOH, broadcast control and external recording.
Connections
All XLR, with a direct input patch to configure the signals for each production.
Format
AR, for a 19″ rack cabinet.

Outputs with or without transformers? We explain it in audio distributors with or without transformers.

Front panel of the Pínanson SAR 1DX3-80 splitter installed at the Megaron Athens
Pínanson equipment installed at the Alexandra Trianti Hall. Photo courtesy of Christos Ntalipis (Megaron, Athens).

“We have finally completed the installation of the splitter and we are very satisfied with the result. The build quality is excellent: very solid, robust, and exactly what we were looking for.”

Christos Ntalipis · Megaron Athens

How it was builtWorkshop assembly timelapse

The assembly and wiring of the 80-channel SAR splitter in the Pínanson workshop, in 52 seconds.

Custom Solutions. Unlimited Possibilities.

As with all of our projects, this 80-channel system was custom-developed, adapting precisely to the client’s technical requirements.

If you need a signal distribution infrastructure that does not yet exist on the market, we can design, manufacture and ship it anywhere in the world.

Do you want to know what Pínanson can do?