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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
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 
