For their most recent tournament, the Elite 1 Caribbean Basketball League (E1CBL) utilized a Clear-Com® Encore® Analog Partyline system provided by Clear-Com’s Jamaica-based partner, content creation firm M-One Productions Company Ltd.
E1CBL's mission is to elevate Caribbean basketball and the communities involved by ensuring Caribbean youth benefit from role models and the networks E1CBL is creating. The success of the much-anticipated E1CBL summer season tournament held at Kingston Jamaica’s National Arena in 2022 helped to advance that goal. In all, sixty players were drafted into the Summer League’s four teams, including players from Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Barbados, Ghana, and the UK.
M-One provided multiple services for event production, including shooting, audio, production, graphics, and live commentary, and produced a live feed to regional broadcaster Flow Jamaica for broadcast in Jamaica and Trinidad. Clear-Com technology was an integral part of these efforts.
The flypack was based on the Clear-Com Encore® system and included single-enclosed ear CC-300 headsets, a CEP-RK Rack Kit with an MA-704 Program Interrupt and IFB Leader Control and Access Station and an IF4W4 4-channel 4-wire interface. Additionally, M-One deployed two HB-702 2-channel flush mount remote stations.
M-One CEO Saeed Thomas explains, “We used the Clear-Com system for the director to speak to camera ops, the producer to speak to floor management, for the ‘red hats’ and, on that same line, to graphics and audio.” The IFB system was built into the flypack, with an output coming from the side of the panel running down to courtside to communicate with talent for interviews and to cue the host. The IF4W4, he adds, converts back to two-wire and was separated into two channels: one for the director to speak to camera ops, and one for the production crew.
Saeed and co-founder and COO Javae Munroe worked together for years on projects including short films and collaborations with international clients such as Red Bull, American Express, and Huawei before they joined forced to create a company that would “reimagine and provide groundbreaking and novel approaches to video production, live recordings, and content creation.”
When it came time for Saeed and Javae to purchase intercom for their new company, Clear-Com was their first choice. Since then, the system has served them exceptionally well. “Most of what we do is music and stage shows, so we’ve never maxed out the system,” Saeed says. This time they did, however. “It’s the first time we’ve had to do that. Our next step, our next investment, would be to get a four-wire system,” he continues, adding that Clear-Com will remain their go-to intercom solution in the future.
Competing with the production of major North American pro basketball leagues might sound daunting, but M-One is equipped for the task. “I think not many people expect the level of production [we provided] coming from Jamaica,” Thomas says. “Thanks in part to Clear-Com, we definitely got good feedback, and the promoter wants to do it again in 2023.”
"M-One's high-quality production assisted us in presenting our E1 Caribbean Professional Basketball League in Jamaica to the global basketball community on the level of the top North American and European leagues,” said Wayne Dawkins, CEO of Dawkins Sports Management Inc. “The feedback from our viewers was tremendous. Thanks to M-One, the E1CBL is now poised to become leaders in the professional basketball media market."