Telex headset an All-Star for All-Stars

By Andrew Lippe
The Telex Legacy wireless headset communications system had a successful rookie campaing, giving high school coaches technological capabilities equal to that of college and professional football coaches.

Marc Archer director of senior marketing at Telex Communications, says the Telex Sports Communications team provided systems and sideline services to High School Football All-Star games in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas Oklahoma Oil Bowl, Pennsylvania Ohio Big 33 Classic, North Carolina, Michigan, Mississippi, Virginia, New Jersey New York Governors Bowl, Illinois, Rhode Island Connecticut Governors Cup, and Texas.

The headset system runs about $5,000 and offers two way communications on a three-channel system. One channel is reserved for offense, one for defense and one for a conference between the two. The typical high school application invoves headsets for up to five coaches. The headsets themselves rely on the base station sending encrypted conversation to the beltpack around the coach’s waist.

The headsets use 2.4 GHz, IEEE 802.11 wireless signals, the same Wi-Fi standard technology that computers use for internet access. Each headset can be single or double sided and are available in either the Telex HR or the PH Series configuration. The base station located in the press box and beltpack both run on a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. This makes them reliable for hours.

“Our strength is our reliability,” said Archer.

What separates the Telex Legacy from its predecessors is the 64-bit encryption technology offers an automatic channel selection called ClearScan that ensures conversations stay between coaches and is absolved of interference.
When local news crews come in to do highlights mostly in the fourth quarter they created interference and often botched the system,” says Archer. However because ClearScan is constantly searching channels operation will always be the best functional one available.