A magnetic resonance imaging system includes a local coil assembly (30) which is disposed in an examination region (14) electrically isolated from the scanner. The coil assembly includes a plurality of coils (34) each with an electronics module. The received resonance signals that are digitized by an analog to digital converter (92) clocked by timing signals received optically from a scan controller (58). The digital resonance signals are converted (74) into optical signals. The optical signals from each of the plurality of coil modules (36) are communicated to a corresponding optical receiver/transmitter (1001, . . . , 100N) located on the scanner which converts the optical signals to electrical signals for transmission to a reconstruction processor (50) and the electrical signals from the scan controller (58) to optical control and timing signals for transmission to the corresponding coil module.