Pro Sound Web: Clear-Com is announcing enhancements to its Tempest digital wireless intercom at the upcoming Prolight + Sound 2013 show in Frankfurt (Hall 8.0, Stand L51).
Among the enhancements is a remote transceiver line extender that further increases the Tempest systems’ ability to provide portable wireless communications capabilities in RF-rich environments.
5 comments:
The new tempest intercom sounds pretty sweet. The main three reasons I like it are the easy of use, longer distances, and the quality of the brand name. The article explained that the new Tempest has a Seamless Roaming feature that will allow users to walk freely and not need to switch channels as they move around.This feature will make the easy of use go way up. The second thing I really like about the new intercom is that with the new remote line extenders you can get "cable runs" of thousands of feet. This seems to me to be a greatly useful tool if your working in a large space. The last great feature of this new product is that the intercom is sold buy clear-com, who is by far the best name brand in the business. The brand name tells me that this product will do what I want, when I want it to , and not break down all the time. The new tempest intercom sounds great over all.
ClearCom has been trying to solve wireless com for years now. They problem that most theaters face is not that the technology doesn't exist to make wireless com feasible, but rather only high end systems (like the tempest) are way to expensive for your average bear. ClearCom have had this problem, in my opinion, for years. They have the ability to make seamless roaming and continuous use belt packs, but they are not affordable, and therefore useless to most of us. Let's hope this technology will be available to us in the near future.
As ruben points out, the big pain for most entertainment companies is the cost that comes with any useable wireless clear com system but since the only available wireless systems are so costly and they still have their issues. So people chose not to waste their money on incomplete systems. Now that they have increased the abilities of this system, larger ranges and seamless roaming might make this system worth purchase
Sounds great and exciting to be able to roam more around a complex and still be in contact with everyone on the com system. Markowi and Groves make good points about the cost of the equipment. There is a ton of equipment out there that does great and amazing things but what is the dollar sign to that equipment, usually higher then most theatres can afford or want to afford. So many theatre go with out of cheaper less dependable com systems. Hopefully like most things as technology increases the cost will slowly decrease or at least we can only hope.
This new and improved system sounds absolutely fabulous, and I can definitely see how it would be very useful for huge arenas and complexes with a lot of obstructions and large distances to cover. I also think that for some very large theatres, this could be a huge improvement. However, many theatres are not near as large as what this system can cover. This article only speaks to two real enhancements to previous products (distance covered and number of base stations), but doesn't mention an improvement to the relative strength of the signal, which is the problem that many theatres encounter, not necessarily the distance it needs to cover. Problems with a signal in a theatre are more likely to be caused by concrete walls and floors, and so I'd be interested to know if this system is able to improve the strength of the wireless signal to make the coms less likely to cut out when a crew member goes to a different floor or turns a corner.
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