Puppet Theatre of Zadar Selects Clear-Com for Prestigious Performances

Famed Croatian Puppet Troupe Counts on Clear-Com’s Eclipse and V-Series Intercom Systems

Clear-Com®, a global leader in mission-critical voice communication systems, proudly announces the delivery of its Eclipse Median digital matrix intercom and V-Series intercom panels to Croatia’s world-renowned Puppet Theatre of Zadar (Kazalište Lutaka Zadar). The facility will employ the Eclipse and V-Series to ensure reliable, easily accessible communications between key production team members in various parts of the facility - factors that are especially important when it comes to putting on a world-class puppet show.

The Puppet Theatre of Zadar was impressed with the ability of the Clear-Com Eclipse and V-Series systems to offer high-quality, flexible communications under challenging production conditions. The theatre, known for its groundbreaking puppetry emphasizing rhythmic motion and music over dialogue, requires close, two-way communications between its stage manager, stage crew and lighting and sound technicians during show times, regardless of where a person is located in the two-story facility, that includes a 230 seat hall (with extension capacity of up to 400) and total of four additional rooms housing the Clear-Com equipment.

By utilizing the Eclipse Median intercom system and the V-Series panels, theatre staff members enjoy the benefits of full-duplex communications from multiple locations in the building, as those located remotely from the Eclipse can still tap into the same communications environment via the V-Series panels.

“In some ways, production for a puppet theatre is more complex than for plays involving human actors,” says Mate Petricevic, Sound Technician/Sound Designer for the Puppet Theatre of Zadar. “The cues for the actors and the technical staff must always be accurate, or else it compromises the realism of the puppets and therefore the performance for the audience. Clear-Com’s Eclipse and V-Series panels will give us the 100-percent reliability we need for every performance, making the process of coordinating communications much easier. It allows us to focus on the performance itself, rather than the technical issues behind it.”

The full Clear-Com setup for the Puppet Theatre of Zadar includes a 16-port Eclipse Median, four V-Series 1RU lever key panels with accompanying 110/340 gooseneck condenser microphones and two CC-95 single-muff headsets. In addition to the aforementioned use by the stage manager, the equipment will be used for virtually all stage directions, including the stage manager’s announcement to audience members waiting in the facility’s lobby that a show is about to start.  Members of the theatre’s technical crew will use the Eclipse and V-Series to have access to full duplex communications with one another as well.

“We’re happy to play a role in communications at such a prestigious facility as the Puppet Theatre of Zadar,” says Karlie Miles, Director of EMEA Sales, Clear-Com. “We consider unique performance spaces such as this to be the ultimate proving ground for our intercom products, as the demands for complete reliability and accessibility are very high.  The choice by the Puppet Theatre of Zadar to use Clear-Com is an indication of the trust they have in our intercoms to help them pull together top-notch productions. It demonstrates to us that we are designing products for which there is very much a need in the marketplace.”