HARMAN PROVIDES SUPERIOR QUALITY SOUND AT REPUBLIC DAY PARADE IN DELHI
India, the largest democracy of the world marked its Republic Day with a grand parade on the 26th
of January at Rajpath. The annual parade which is held from the President’s House along the Rajpath till
India Gate was attended by the top political and military brass and various ambassadors to India, making
it an internationally important event for India. Thousands of people swarm the parade which showcases
India’s defense capability and its cultural and social heritage. Telecast on National television, and
broadcast on the National radio, the parade is the most awaited event of the year.
With such grandeur it was of high importance that the 2.1 km stretch of Rajpath delivered the best audio for
spectators. The success of the show not depends not just on how well the contingents and tableaux perform,
it also depends on how well the speech is delivered to the spectators. And this has brought a lot of
challenges to the organizers and the 1, Signal Unit of the Indian Army which takes care of the Public
Address (PA) System.
Till now, the 1, Signal Unit was using a rudimentary setup to transmit audio across the venue, which consisted
of analog audio lines from one rack location to another. While it is a cumbersome task logistically, it also
involved high noise and unavailability risk. The high system availability requirement of the event brings one
more challenge, to have hot standby amplifier backup. That means that a standby amplifier will take over in
case any primary amplifier fails. The organizers were using age old manual switchovers to achieve this.
When the Indian Army decided to revamp the system, Harman was chosen after a tough competition with various
other brands. To connect 5 different rack locations, Harman offered a system with Dante and CobraNet backbone
for transmission of audio. Soundcraft mixers were provided for the operators while Digital Signal Processors by
BSS were provided for audio transmission. Crown DriveCore Install Network Amplifiers were used for amplification. The amplifiers were chosen for a unique dual input with priority router feature. The amplifiers get both digital and analog input which is processed by priority router onboard. In case the digital input fails, the analog inputs get routed. The amplifiers also have onboard DSP with latency, crossover, band pass filters, input/output EQ, limiter and various other monitoring features. The amplifier line switching is achieved by Crown CT8SHO amplifier line switcher. Using the CT8SHO Switchers, the amplifier switching is attained without any human intervention. Each PA zone at Rajpath is fed by two different amplifiers which provide redundancy for loudspeaker line connectivity.
The loudspeakers for the event were chosen after high scrutiny by the Signal Unit. The Loudspeakers needed to
reproduce the speech in best possible way and needed to be suitable for music as well. While according to
general wisdom, the cabinet type loudspeaker fits the requirement, they are hindrance to the line of sight
and don’t have any aesthetic appeal, which is not acceptable for an event of such splendor. To get a balance
of both, the Indian Army chose the JBL CBT 70J-1 with CBT 70JE-1 extension. The column type construction of
the loudspeaker blends it with the existing architecture.
The system control and monitoring is achieved using the HiQnet Audio Architect, on which the custom panels
provide the command of complete system on a single screen for the operator.
The Republic Day, for the first time, used an end-to-end digital system and had the best sound for the most
awaited event of the year.