SVG Sit-Down: Clear-Com's Bob Boster Reflects on the Company's 50th Anniversary Five decades of intercom innovation started in San Francisco's Summer of Love By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 8:30 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Intercom-technology developer Clear-Com hits the big 5-0 this year, at a time when the category is a state of flux, particularly with wireless and IP signal transport. In the year after San Francisco's Summer of Love, when bands like the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were laying the foundations for large-scale events requiring increasingly sophisticated communications systems, founders Bob Cohen and Charlie Button launched Clear-Com and built it into an iconic brand. They created the very first production intercom: the RS-100 distributed amplifier analog beltpack system was an instant success, used for production communication by Janis Joplin, the Dead, and others. Sitting down with SVG, Clear-Com President Bob Boster draws a line between those days and the far more complex landscape presented by broadcast and live sports productions today.
Clear-Com's Bob Boster: Intercoms need to be thought of as a here-and-now thing, with metadata available and cross-platform compatibility to allow real-time communications.
It's interesting that, like so much of today's sports-broadcast cohort, Clear-Com got its start in music. How is that legacy manifest in Clear-Com now and in the larger intercom space?
The way it still shows up is in the love of audio and focus on audio, and, to us, intercoms are part of the broader range of audio activity. For us, it shows up as an appreciation of good sound and communication. And there's also a little bit of MacGyver in there, too: a commando audio mindset that says we have to get things done. We're a group of engineers who are problem-solvers, who think about how to get things done in unique environments. We love that stuff, frankly.
The intercom sector is going through a rapid evolution, characterized by a mixed communications and connectivity portfolio comprising IP, digital, wireless, and mobile applications for group and point-to-point communications. Are intercoms the canary in the coal mine for audio communications in general? And how is that influencing other aspects of broadcast audio?
That's a good observation: as [intercoms] go, so are other things likely to go. That's even more true when you think about broader broadcast applications in the last four or five years vs. the last 20. It used to be one or two dominant players in an area; now everyone is their own [broadcast-sports entity], from small colleges down to the high school level, with different levels of technology and skill, gluing things together as they need to.
That's part of our portfolio approach: not to force people into one solution or another but rather helping them get where they want to go with the pieces that fit their needs. For instance, the growing complexity of applications means we can also offer IP as another route. That's an area Clear-Com was early into and now has a lot of experience in, in part with our acquisition of Trilogy. We see IP as an area of strength for us. We have a range of tools, and it often makes sense to have IP as part of the solution. And, in the last two years, we've done a tremendous job of taking the IP platform and democratizing it, taking it to all parts of the marketplace, not just the high end.
What are the biggest challenges in sports broadcasting today that intercom technology is helping address, and what are the biggest challenges faced by intercoms now in that space?
The biggest challenge is letting people move around: freedom of movement to let them do their jobs. We've made major headway in both wireless and mobile applications inside the product family. Intercom is addressing what I think is probably the most critical point in sports, and that's the ability to decentralize that activity, so a TV truck is not the end-all, be-all of how an event gets covered.
The biggest challenges for intercoms in the sports-broadcast space is that people don't necessarily design their intercom systems like they would design other critical systems of a broadcasting activity. When they think about covering an event, obviously, they have the video and the audio nailed down and what their uplink path is, and so on. But some pieces of that level of intention are missing when you think about intercom. That needs to change.
50 years is a long time for mortals but an eon for technology. What's the next big step in intercom tech space?
The next step is a way for people to talk to each other that is less structured and more decentralized. So you might be the third-hand [broadcast] recipient [internationally] of an NBA game, but you're struggling with some aspect of it, and you need to communicate with people upstream to address your issue - that's the big challenge for intercoms. Intercoms need to be thought of as a real here-and-now thing, with metadata available and cross-platform compatibility among manufacturers to allow real-time communications. Intercom needs to become more like the internet. That's where it needs to go.
Any predictions for the Super Bowl?
It's going to be an exceptional event, and we're pleased that they'll be running our FreeSpeak II system inside the venue in Minneapolis.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
SVG Sit-Down: Clear-Com's Bob Boster Reflects on the Company's 50th Anniversary Five decades of intercom innovation started in San Francisco's Summer of Love By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
