NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009 - Clear-Com® Communication Systems, a Vitec Group brand, is bringing the latest version of its software-based intercom solution, Clear-Com Concert™ Version 2.0, to AES 2009 (Booth 676). Concert V2.0 allows Concert users and those on the traditional Eclipse digital matrix system to communicate over a single network via the Internet, Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN), providing a cost-effective means of expanding a facility or venue’s intercom system without an additional hardware or infrastructure investment.
Based on I.V.Core, Clear-Com’s groundbreaking IP-based technology, Concert’s advanced audio quality delivers crystal-clear sound communications over a standard LAN, WAN or Internet network between local and remote users. Using their desktop or laptop computers, production team members working from home or a remote office location can take part in a communication session via the Concert panel and a microphone or headset. These conferences can be initiated within minutes from conception to execution and are of such high clarity that participants feel they are in the same room with one another.
Building on Concert’s existing capabilities, Version 2.0 allows Concert panel users to connect with traditional digital matrix users talking on wireless beltpacks and hardware panels within a fixed facility location. This enhancement allows more budget-conscious production operations to benefit from the type of advanced intercom capabilities that traditionally have only been available via high-end production systems.
“Rental and staging companies, festival organizers and others working in live event production today face enormous pressure to produce more highly-coordinated events in less time and with fewer resources,” says Craig Frederickson, Product Manager, Clear-Com Communication Systems. “These resources could be based in remote locations or in other parts of the organization that traditionally would not have access to hardware intercom panels. The new Concert V2.0 can quickly and cost-effectively connect new users with traditional users, and thereby facilitate new workflows and ad hoc communications that were never before possible.”
Included in Concert V2.0 is a new “soft-panel,” a highly customizable software panel that resembles a traditional intercom panel and offers similar benefits as well as the look and feel of a hardware counterpart. When used as a standalone intercom system, the new soft-panel offers standard intercom functionalities such as push-to-talk, monitor and latch-to-talk keys for communication with other Concert users, as well as connection to predefined conferences.
Concert V2.0 retains the same classic functionalities of earlier versions of Concert, including enhanced audio features for delivering crystal-clear sound and non-blocking communications, an intuitive interface that facilitates ad-hoc communications and makes the user the conductor of his or her own audio conference with easy drag-and-drop functionality and simple point-and-click controls and the “Presence Awareness” feature, which monitors participants’ availability, allowing users to communicate more efficiently in highly demanding and collaborative settings.
At the heart of Concert is Clear-Com’s revolutionary I.V.Core technology. The most advanced Intercom over IP (IoIP) solution on the market, I.V.Core comprises an intelligent decision-making engine that optimizes routing over standard networks, provides support for wideband codecs delivering high-quality audio, and features proprietary noise reduction and error recovery algorithms.
At AES, Clear-Com will also showcase a new interfacing capability for Concert that provides a USB four-wire interface for linking Concert clients and servers to two-way audio sources over IP, providing connectivity to paging systems, program feeds, conference bridges and any equipment with an analog audio interface.