LUTV HD Studio Employs Clear-Com Intercoms for Diverse Programming Schedule
ST. CHARLES, MO, MAY 6, 2010 — Clear-Com®, a global leader in mission-critical voice communication systems, is proud to announce the delivery of its state-of-the-art intercom communications solution to the prestigious J. Scheidegger Center for the Performing Arts at Lindenwood University. Staff members and students at the facility’s LUTV HD studio, a branch of the school’s student-run television station, count on Clear-Com’s Eclipse Median Digital Matrix and CellCom® Digital Wireless intercoms for fast, easy access to reliable communications across the performing arts complex, using the systems to coordinate the production of a wide variety of programming.
LUTV HD is one of the few university facilities built from the ground up for HD, and it offers students in the communications degree program hands-on experience in capturing and disseminating many different types of productions, from stage plays to weekly sports and news programs. Studio personnel needed a communications system that could handle all of the station’s diverse programming, so they specifically sought out Clear-Com intercom systems.
“We rely on Clear-Com to give us the quality and flexibility we need to accomplish our extremely varied program schedule,” says LUTV Director of Operations Ed Voss. “We produce news and talking head-type programs in our fixed-set production studio. However, we also need to cover the more than 43 different sports offered at the university, stage plays in our 1,200-seat Bezemes Family Theater and special programs produced in our 200-seat Emerson Black Box Theater. With a production cycle this complex, we felt that the Clear-Com Eclipse Median and CellCom systems were the only intercom solutions on the market that could handle the job.”
Voss also appreciates the adaptability of the Clear-Com solutions. “When we have a production in the Emerson Black Box Theater, we can easily move the Clear-Com sets from the HD studio to the theater, along with our Hitachi HD cameras,” he says. “We are able to maintain full communications without missing a cue. The software allows us to reconfigure the setup quickly and efficiently for all our needs. Clear-Com enables us to address the mission of the HD studio, while additionally providing traditional communications used for stage productions. That is pretty remarkable.”
LUTV HD studio’s package consists of a 48-port Clear-Com Eclipse Median frame, I-Series panels in the control room and a CellCom system with wireless handsets with coverage throughout the facility. The main stage and second stage theaters also have traditional powered wall plates, HS-6 telephone-style handsets and wired packs.
“Given Clear-Com’s long history of supplying intercom equipment to the live performance industry, we were able to identify and provide solutions tailored very specifically to the needs of LUTV HD,” says Michael Rucker, Senior Sales Manager, Central Region, Clear-Com. “The Eclipse Digital Matrix intercom, combined with CellCom, offers LUTV HD the perfect balance of sound quality and flexibility. We are happy to have been a part of this facility’s communications success story.”
The Eclipse Median, part of Clear-Com’s popular Eclipse Digital Matrix intercom family, is a 6RU frame that houses two CPU and seven matrix slots with eight built-in interface module slots, uniquely designed for production environments where rack space is limited. The CellCom Digital Wireless System operates license-free in the 1.8 – 1.9 GHz frequency band, with a base station supporting up to 20 beltpacks. Key features include full-duplex digital point-to-point communications, easy linking to existing party-line channels and the ability to create custom groups.