At the 50th Annual Grammy Awards ATK Versacom, a provider of full service intercom rentals, stole the show backstage by deploying a wide range of Riedel intercom equipment.  Three Artist Digital Matrix frames, nearly 30 Artist control panels and a selection of Performer Digital Partyline gear formed the backbone of the event and guaranteed a successful evening. 

The Grammy Awards are never dull and this year’s special 50th Anniversary spectacular was no exception.  Herbie Hancock stunned the music world with his surprise win for “Album of the Year” and a host of live performances from artists like Beyoncé, Tina Turner and the Foo Fighters delighted audiences around the globe.  Producing such a dynamic event was a complicated task which demanded the best communication equipment available.  Faced with this challenge, Versacom chose to use Riedel. 

John Arenas, General Manager/Partner at Versacom, served as the lead intercom design engineer on the project.  He placed one Artist 128 frame on the main floor, one Artist 64 frame at the broadcast production truck and one 32 port Artist frame at the FOH, linking them via fiber to form a single decentralized matrix.  Individual intercom stations were then connected to the nearest node using standard coax cabling, thus eliminating the need for long home runs to a single mainframe.  Arenas also took advantage of Riedel’s ability to bring two separate channels of intercom to any panel on a single CAT5 or coax cable.  Users at these two-channel stations had auxiliary loudspeakers attached to their panels allowing different intercom sources to be heard from separate speakers.     

Performer Digital Partyline equipment, including both C3 digital beltpacks and C44 System Interfaces, was used to implement ISO functionality at cameras lacking standard 4-wire intercom connections.  Because the C44s connect digitally to the Artist matrix, no 2/4-wire converters were required.  This greatly simplified set-up and helped make a more reliable system, in addition to offering crystal clear audio to the camera operators.  

Besides Arenas, other Veracom personnel, including Matt Campisi, Jim Fay and Stephen Copeman, helped support overall communications at the event.  To this end they interfaced the Artist system to a wide range of other equipment including wireless devices as well as the intercom matrix installed in the television production truck assigned to the event.  Arenas described his team’s extreme satisfaction with the performance and features of Riedel’s equipment.  “It’s very efficient for the production,” he explained.   

In the past, the Grammys had been produced using only old-style speaker stations.  This year’s users were tremendously impressed with the high-tech Riedel gear. The Artist control panels’ 8-character LED displays were an especially big hit.  “Everyone was extremely happy,” Arenas summarized.  “This was a great experience for everyone.”