Light Comm

Four years ago a scientists by the name of Jiontha Shanra made a startling discovery that he believed would make communicating across distances much easier and faster. During the course of one of his experiments he got back some results, that while were of no use to the experiment he was currently conducting, seemed to indicate that sound could travel on a beam of light. He took his findings to some of his fellow The Astronomers, who worked with him at the Puurtan Observatory and they agreed with his initial assessment.
Jiontha applied for permission to create a team to work on this project full time, and it was granted by The Astronomer who said he quite interested to see where it would lead. Over the course of the next eight months the five person team dedicated themselves to their research, at the end they had a rough working prototype of a device to carry sound via a beam of light. They successfully transmitted a message from the top of the observatory to a receiver in the courtyard, and it caused quite a stir amongst their fellow scholars.
The device works by converting sound waves to light waves, then transmitting that light in a beam to a receiver, which then converts the frequencies of the light waves back into sound at the other end. While this was an incredible discovery and people could already think of a number of applications for this new technology, it did depend upon an unbroken line of sight between the light source and the receiver. This was great for over short distances, but even sending a message across the city could be a bit tricky, without specially built towers.
The Astronomer assigned another team to help Jiontha's team come up with ways to make this new method of communication work in a more practical way. They came up with a number of solutions, but none that were practical on any kind of large scale. That was when one of them heard about this new method of creating thin strands of sillica which could carry light.