Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 3 — Comms Are Key for Chess Competitions, Debuting as an Olympic Sport in Paris

A pathfinder in remote production, Chess.com will serve an ‘advisory’ role this summer

Chess isn’t usually the first event that comes to mind for sports media, but what’s regarded as one of the oldest competitive games in history will be part of the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. For chess competitions, reaching an audience through broadcast and streaming requires the same kind of back-channel communications capability that any other sports production requires. In fact, Chess.com, which streams 300+ matches a year in the annual Candidates Tournament and other international competitions to more than 100 million viewers and subscribers, has been a pathfinder in REMI-style production.

Click here for Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 1 — Comms Are Complicated by Production’s New Realities.
Click here for Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 2 — Suppliers’ Offerings Reflect Increased Reliance on Remote Production.

“Chess.com is 100% remote production,” says Chess.com Broadcast Tech Manager Bryan Downs, noting that it will have an “advisory” role during chess matches at the Olympics. “We have no headquarters, no plant. Every crewmember has an intercom panel in their home connected over a browser and the internet. We’ll usually have two talents that interface using a mix-minus into the cloud and back.”

The commentators will talk to each other and the audience and will listen in to players through ambience microphones in the playing space (competition rules prohibit wiring contestants directly). A Telos Infinity IP-based intercom system is deployed for this, Downs says, citing its ability to minimize latency through the cloud.

“That’s the biggest challenge for comms in chess: a low-latency mix-minus so that the talent can hear each other without having to hear themselves” with a distracting delay, he explains.

Chess.com tried several unusual solutions coming out of the COVID lockdown, including using the Discord chat service online, which Downs says worked in terms of connectivity but was operationally cumbersome. The Telos Infinity achieved the same end — a reduction in latency — with a higher degree of reliability and ease of use.

“We have the same positions as any other sports in a control room — audio, tape replay — but all remote,” says Mike Buetsch, director, broadcast engineering and production, Chess.com. “Our use of intercom is more than just as a back channel. We use it to transport talent audio to streaming and IFB, so latency is a real issue. We can have full production capabilities without having a dedicated central physical location.”