Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 1 - Dynamic Technology Adjusts to Whatever Comes Next Multiple approaches - wireless, IP, the cloud - are available but not without obstacles By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Over the past decade, intercom technology has evolved into a multilane highway. A couple of the channels were turned into express lanes by the COVID pandemic, with intercom users, including sports broadcasters, forced to seek alternatives. Some lanes have been slowed by other extenuating circumstances. And there are plenty of potholes to navigate.
Sports broadcasters are looking for everything, says Michael Brown, regional sales manager, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Central States, RTS, because they never know what they're walking into or what they'll need for a show or what might change when they're there.
The first new lane on that highway was the move to wireless connectivity, but that was hemmed in by the FCC's constriction of the 700 MHz and then the 600 MHz band - think of the highway sign that warns Road Narrows Ahead, No Shoulder. Then came lanes dedicated to audio over IP (AoIP) and, subsequently, to cloud-based virtualization.
Brown notes additional FCC restrictions atop the loss of spectrum, including limits on output power and antenna directionality, further complicating wireless intercom operations. Even so, it remains the primary mode for large-scale deployments. AoIP and virtual comms show promise as alternatives but have their own intrinsic limitations.
Cloud-based comms sound good, he says, but the first things the people on the trucks ask is, Whose cloud, whose server? And AoIP is limited to 100 meters - 328 ft. - before [the signal] needs to be boosted, which is not something every situation allows. That's why sports broadcasters want all of these options available to them.
In response, Brown notes, RTS has developed hybrid-type workarounds, such as its RTS Voice Over Network (RVON) TCP/IP-based VoIP product. The Odin frame is a multiformat analog-to-Dante audio frame, allowing existing analog users a migration path to interface with existing data networks, including Dante, thus extending the system's scale. Its ROAMEO system takes wireless to the 1.9 MHz DECT frequency range, addressing earlier spectrum loss.
Away From Hardware, Toward the Cloud Over the past two decades, the Telos Alliance has been shifting away from hardware-based matrixing and toward AoIP-based operation and then on to the cloud, according to Telos VP, Business Development, Martin Dyster. Its Telos Infinity Virtual Intercom Platform (VIP) fully featured cloud-based intercom system launched in 2021. Much of its evolution was sparked by the COVID pandemic, he notes, which accelerated what had been a trend toward remote broadcast production by budget-sensitive television networks.
Telos's Martin Dyster: If you have a cellphone, tablet, or computer, now you also have an intercom panel.
But, he adds, the pandemic had another effect: It created a component shortage, and we, like many other companies, couldn't build anything, pushing product development further in a virtual direction. As a result, if you have a cellphone, tablet, or computer, now you also have an intercom panel.
Of course, moving into a virtualized environment has its challenges. For instance, browser-based interfaces can be vulnerable to online interruptions, as anyone working on Zoom or Teams has learned. The potential applies to any foray into internet-based connectivity. Dyster acknowledges that concern, one shared by just about every other industry sector that extends its reach through employees' devices. Announced in February, Telos's Infinity VIP App extends operation of the Infinity system to iOS and Android mobile devices, mirroring Infinity's current HTML5 browser-based VIP panel offering.
On the one hand, browser-based operation continues the company's mission of putting a panel virtually (and literally) anywhere. But it also comes with such issues as maintaining compatibility with Apple's and Google's steady stream of OS updates for those devices, updates that can be quite buggy in their initial iterations.
On the other hand, the phone version, described by Telos as a companion application, isn't intended to replace Infinity's other versions but rather to extend its reach at a time when broadcast sports productions are experiencing and experimenting with novel - and often disruptive - workflows.
Another response to virtualization was Telos's announcement, in October, of a partnership agreement with Vizrt. The resulting Viz Now SaaS-type portal, hosted by Vizrt, is intended to simplify and automate more of the intercom operation in the cloud environment.
Right now, Dyster says, [intercoms in the IP environment] are in the midst of constant innovation and testing to meet customer needs and expectations.
Customers Are Asking The pandemic focused users on alternative remote-production techniques. As COVID receded, the need for more ways to manage comms on a show persists, but it's not one-size-fits-all.
Clear-Com's Kris Koch: IP connectivity adds tremendous flexibility in how teams communicate and adds valuable third-party integration as well.
Our customers are asking for more ways to connect their teams, which are spread across multiple venues and locations, says Kris Koch, business development director, broadcast, networks and media production, Clear-Com, and REMI workflows have continued to grow and mature after the pandemic.
He points out that the digital diaspora of operators during COVID put a new premium on flexible comms solutions: IP connectivity, he notes, adds tremendous flexibility in how teams communicate and adds valuabl
North America Stories
20/04/2024
As part of a push to improve the accessibility of its content, PBS Kids has announced that it has integrated American Sign Language (ASL) interpretations into m...
20/04/2024
SAN JOSE, Calif. Online security solution provider McAfee has released new research exploring the impact artificial intelligence (AI) and the rise of deepfakes ...
20/04/2024
The Federal Communications Commission has announced the agenda for an Open Meeting on Thursday, April 25, 2024 that will include votes on Net Neutrality Rules a...
20/04/2024
Virtual reality and its close relatives, such as extended reality, have been completely accepted into the workflow of high-end productions. Stepping into an LED...
20/04/2024
Video Games Round Out the Entertainment Package
Andy Marken April 19, 2024
0 Comments
By this, I take it you think everybody is who they say they are...
20/04/2024
With the Bears picking first, NBCUniversal Local's properties in Chicago plan extensive coverage of the NFL draft next week....
20/04/2024
Fox Sports said it hired two veteran advertising sales executives, with Jen Durda and Kathy Lydon both named VP....
20/04/2024
Daytime fans got a sneak peek at nominations for the 51st annual Daytime Emmys, with the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) announcing the...
20/04/2024
DAZN is launching its Run It Up, its first multi-sports original vodcast, or video podcast, and a set of micro-podcasts ahead of the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia fig...
20/04/2024
David Zaslav, CEO of troubled Warner Bros. Discovery, got a 27% increase in total compensation for 2023....
20/04/2024
New copper-catalyzed C-H activation strategy from Scripps Research Two-mode reactions inspired by human detox enzymes offer powerful new tools for drug discover...
19/04/2024
PARK CITY, UTAH - JANUARY 18: (L-R) John Early and Theda Hammel attend the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Stress Positions premiere at Library Center Theatre on ...
19/04/2024
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
19/04/2024
Pictured: Midnight Family
By Stephanie Ornelas
A great way to get to know a city as culturally unique and rich as Mexico City is to listen to the stories tol...
19/04/2024
St. Louis, MO - April 18, 2024 - Studio Network Solutions (SNS) announced today that MOD won three prestigious industry awards at NAB Show 2024 held this week i...
19/04/2024
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 19, 2024 - The Board of Directors of L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.16 per common share, payab...
19/04/2024
PARIS Intel has announced that its plans for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 will include using artificial intelligence technology powered by Intel ...
19/04/2024
LAS VEGAS Technologists working on all aspects of the 8K media production chain offered an optimistic update at the 2024 NAB Show on the state of 8K in video pr...
19/04/2024
OpenDrives New Software-Defined Platform Atlas Wins 2024 NAB Show Product of the...
19/04/2024
Grass Valley Showcases Next-Generation T3 Series 4K/HD Digital Recording and Pla...
19/04/2024
NiTRo's M-CUBE Studio Levels Up Esports Productions with AJA Gear
Brie Clayton April 19, 2024
0 Comments
Esports' rapid rise to popularity can...
19/04/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 19
Brie Clayton April 19, 2024
0 Comments
Major update adds new DaVinci Neural Engine AI tools, new color ...
19/04/2024
Sony Pictures Entertainment is reportedly in talks with Apollo Global Management to make a bid to acquire Paramount which itself is currently discussing a merge...
19/04/2024
CBS Stations has launched CBS News California Investigates , with Julie Watts named regional CBS California correspondent. She will uncover and raise awarenes...
19/04/2024
MediaCo Holding, which owns radio stations WQHT (Hot 97) and WBLS in New York, said it acquired Estrella Media's Spanish-language video, audio and digital c...
19/04/2024
Netflix has ordered season five of fantasy drama The Witcher, which will be the final season. Production has recently begun on season four, and the two remainin...
19/04/2024
DirecTV Stream said it added eight more The CW affiliates to its lineup on Thursday....
19/04/2024
CBS has renewed Elsbeth for the 2024-2025 season. The drama, with Carrie Preston in the lead role, debuted February 29....
19/04/2024
With the Bears picking first, NBCUniversal Local's properties in Chicago plan extensive coverage of the NFL draft next week....
19/04/2024
PHILADELPHIA As government subsidies for broadband services come to an end, Comcast has launched NOW, a new product portfolio of lower-cost Internet, mobile and...
19/04/2024
DirecTV Stream has added more local CW stations for its streaming customers in Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Hartford-New Haven Conn., Phoenix, San ...
19/04/2024
NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES MediaCo Holding Inc. has announced that it has acquired all of Estrella Media's network, content, digital, and commercial operations....
19/04/2024
SAN JOSE, Calif. Adobe has announced that the all-new Adobe Express mobile app is available to all users, bringing features powered by Adobe Firefly generative ...
19/04/2024
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix reported another blockbuster quarter by adding 9.33 million new subscribers in Q1, 2024 as global paid memberships hit 269.6 million, ...
19/04/2024
The Current State of the Industry and the Future Impact of AI
Hillary Lewis April 18, 2024
0 Comments
The Entertainment Industry: How did we get here ...
19/04/2024
After Effects Tutorial Text Blur Reveal
Andy Ford April 18, 2024
0 Comments
Here's a way to do a quick blur reveal for your text layer. Start by...
19/04/2024
Hollyland Mars M1 Enhanced Wireless Transmitter / Receiver
Colin Smith April 18, 2024
0 Comments
This tutorial shows the new wireless transmitter rece...
19/04/2024
Resolve Fusion: Writing Expressions with Lua
Simon Ubsdell April 18, 2024
0 Comments
The answer to the very frequently-asked question: what is the pro...
19/04/2024
B+C and Next TV have announced the winners of Best of Show Awards for the 2024 NAB Show. The awards were judged by a panel of industry experts at the convention...
19/04/2024
Cate Blanchett narrates the Netflix series Our Living World, which premieres April 17. The four-part series looks at the extraordinary creatures around the glob...
19/04/2024
Apple TV Plus has a spinoff of For All Mankind in the works. It is called Star City and details the cosmonauts, engineers and intelligence officers working behi...
19/04/2024
Jacquie Walker, longtime anchor at WIVB Buffalo, will step down from the anchor desk. She has spent over 40 years at WIVB and her last day as an anchor is May 2...
19/04/2024
Bob Hearts Abishola will premiere in broadcast syndication this fall on such station groups as Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair, Hearst Television, Tegna, E.W. Scr...
19/04/2024
Live With Kelly and Mark remains TV's top entertainment talk show as Kelly Ripa and her co-host and husband Mark Consuelo celebrate their one-year anniversa...
19/04/2024
Sean McLaughlin has been named VP of news for Graham Media Group. He had been senior VP of local news at E.W. Scripps. He will will be responsible for developi...
19/04/2024
Netflix has shared the first trailer from One Hundred Years of Solitude, a series based on the esteemed novel by Gabriel Garc a M rquez. The streamer is on boar...
19/04/2024
NAB 2024 in Review: West Hall - SportsTech Buzz From AWS, Appear, Ateme, The Swi...
19/04/2024
NAB 2024 Draws 61,000+ Attendees With More Than Half Attending the Show for the ...
Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 1 - Dynamic Technology Adjusts to Whatever Comes Next Multiple approaches - wireless, IP, the cloud - are available but not without obstacles By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
