NAB NY 2017: Clear-Com Heads for NAB New York With Momentum, New Tech

Expanded features in LQ line target broadcasters using the at-home approach

Clear-Com will have a booth at both NAB New York (N332) and AES NY 2017 (828) this week to address the communications needs of both customer bases. And, after a successful IBC 2017, President Bob Boster and the team are optimistic about the prospects.

“At IBC, we had two profiles of customers attracted to different things,” he says. “The big-studio users with large-scale deployments were interested in the Dynam-EC, which allows making ad hoc changes to the Eclipse systems. And then there was a lot of interest in expanded features in the LQ product line across all types of market segments. But the people who were most attracted to that were those doing remote broadcasts who want to link multiple sites.”

Clear-Com’s LQ interface can host mobile apps without the need for a large intercom platform.

One of the major trends that Clear-Com is seeing among its users is use of an app on a mobile device as an alternative to having a large intercom system with hundreds of users. An LQ interface box, for example, can host mobile apps without the need for a large intercom platform.

“Users want to create tiers where there are people on high-end intercom systems like FreeSpeak II with dedicated quality of service and others are moved to 3G and 4G and run it on a phone or tablet,” says Boster. “A production team working on, say, Division III women’s volleyball, has a price point that is not a barrier to entry.”

The LQ interface box can also support use of intercom systems from other manufacturers thanks to the use of IP. As more and more sports networks and content creators embrace at-home production, Clear-Com systems at the permanent broadcast-control room allow easy interface to the team at the venue, regardless of manufacturer.

“Users are also multiplexing the HelixNet intercom across the same pipe as the audio and video signals,” Boster adds.

HelixNet will also see some advances at NAB New York, including binaural listening in the HelixNet HXII-BP-X5 beltpack, a six-fold increase in I/O ports, and direct connections to the Agent-IC mobile app and VoIP phones. The HelixNet HXII-BP-X5 beltpack, for example, now features binaural (split-ear) functionality to enable program feed from one channel to one ear and the feed from the intercom channel heard on the other ear. This feature adds to the existing capability of mixing audio from both channels in both ears.

By simply connecting Clear-Com LQ Series devices to the HelixNet Mainstation via an Ethernet module, users can gain up to 24 audio I/O ports assigned to any of the 12 or 24 intercom channels in HelixNet. These additional ports supplement the HelixNet ports for interfacing with two-wire and/or four-wire intercom or audio devices, effectively creating a very high-density digital partyline intercom system. Since HelixNet and LQ are linked over LAN and WAN IP networks, users have the flexibility to move these extra audio connections to the next room or the other side of a facility. Signals from any remote devices are routed over IP to the assigned HelixNet endpoint(s).

The 2017 AES Show is co-located this year with NAB NY 2017.