A new communications backbone a Raleigh, NC's Hope Community Church's allows the church's audio, lighting and video departments, located throughout the facility's 1,500-seat sanctuary, to better coordinate critical production cues. Previously, the church depended solely on a wired partyline intercom system for this. While reliable, the system inhibited the movement of the cameramen, technical director and stagehands. This prompted the church to choose a wireless intercom to augment its communications. The system would also need to address the RF interference issue caused by the church's 250 laptops, wireless microphones and consumer wireless devices. The church selected the Clear-Com Tempest2400 digital wireless system which offered freedom and flexibility as well as interference-free communications even in Wi-Fi crowded environments.
“Part of my role is to oversee all the production elements taking place during the service. For me to not be tied to one place by a piece of cable is definitely a win,” says Bob Blair, technical director for Hope Community Church. “Also, we have two camera operators moving on stage, so a wireless intercom made sense to minimize the amount of cables that those guys were tethered to there. Tempest gives us the reliability we need for cues to be heard while providing us with the option to easily and effortlessly change the setup when needed.”
At Hope Community Church, a two-channel Tempest2400 master BaseStation is installed at the front-of-house position, with one channel feeding a submaster BaseStation in the video control room. The system has five beltpacks, including two for the cameramen working on stage, one for the video director, one for the technical director, and one for the stage manager. The Tempest2400 has been integrated with the existing four-channel partyline system to aid communications with the rest of the technical crew, including the staff manning the stage, those recording the services backstage, additional cameraman in the back of the auditorium and staff in the green room.
In addition to the four weekly services—two on Saturday and two on Sunday—Hope Community Church also hosts kids-oriented sitcom productions every month. The Tempest system comes in handy here as well, particularly for the stagehands, because it enables communication and mobility. “Our kid's productions demand one or two stagehands in addition to the one or two camera operators on stage,” Blair explains. “Previously, the stagehands had wired intercoms and would take off their wired beltpacks to move set pieces. That would leave us to run the rest of the production elements without knowing what was going on while we were waiting for them to run back to their wired beltpacks and headsets. Now, the stagehands run on stage with their Tempest BeltStations to do what they have to do and run back, and we can stay informed the whole time.”
Tempest2400, which operates in the 80 MHz of spectrum in the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band, does not interfere with traditional wireless microphone or in-ear monitor systems operating in the UHF band. Because of its Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology, the Tempest system does not compete with signals from other 2.4 GHz wireless devices, minimizing frequency coordination and enabling more reliable performance. Further, with state-of-the-art Redundant Data Transmit (2xTX), which sends each packet of audio data twice on different frequencies, the system ensures uninterrupted audio communications.
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