Riedel Artist intercom gets MVP treatment

Mobile
Video Productions (MVP), a division of CanWest Media Works, installed an Artist
digital intercom matrix from Riedel Communications in its new HD mobile
production truck. The truck is wired for 10 cameras and is expected to
hit the road this month.
Ted
Krzywonos, an engineer with MVP, offered his impression of the Artist intercom
system. “It’s built like I would have built it – very intuitively,” he
stated. “You can tell that a lot of thought went into the design.
For example, the fact that you don’t have to set an address on the panels is
excellent in a mobile environment.”
The new
MVP system includes a 96×96 matrix in two frames with coax cards for connecting
control panels via coax cable and analog cards for interfacing 4-wire audio. In
addition, the frames’ redundant CPUs are equipped with fiber connectors to
enable the truck to merge its intercom with that of other Artist systems. This
will allow MVP to easily interface to other Artist-equipped trucks in the field
as well as to the multi-node Artist intercom matrix used by Global TV’s new
studio complex in Toronto.
When connected via fiber, the systems will function as one larger system
offering virtually limitless communication between them without any
bottlenecks.
Besides
the matrix and control panels MVP installed two RiFace radio interfaces to
incorporate two-way radio communication into the intercom system. Also, 8
Connect Solo telephone hybrids were added to allow up to 16 telephone lines to
be connected to the intercom matrix.