This Intercom Solution Provides Audio Quality, Ease-of-use, Reliability for Major Sporting Events
Pliant Technologies and CP Communications have a long working relationship in collaborating on advanced intercom systems for many high-profile events, including The NYC Marathon, the Super Bowl, The NBA Finals, the All-Star Game and World Series, as well as the Westminster Dog Show, to name a few.
“One of the benefits of using CrewCom is it’s scalability—it can be a very simple intercom solution or we can ramp it up to be a very large-scale deployment, with the ability to sync and coordinate with multiple systems,” said Brian Ready, systems engineer, CP Communications. “For CP Communications, the typical users of CrewCom run the gamut of production, from stage managers to audio technicians to lighting. The gear is being used daily and over the long term it is robust and reliable. Our customers find it to be very easy to use, especially with its one-to-one relationship between the talk and listen buttons. There is no need to scroll through menus to get to what you need.”
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With CP Communications working on such a wide range of events and venues, the available frequencies often change from event to event, and from venue to venue. “We like that CrewCom operates in the 900MHz range since the usable frequency spectrum is a commodity, but with the 900 band, for the most part, it’s usable nearly everywhere,” said Ready. “The ability to also use 2.4GHz really helps for those venues operating in the 900MHz band.”
For the New York City Marathon, Pliant’s CrewCom system was deployed including 18 users at the start and an additional 18 users at the finish line for communications to and from technicians working in their respective locations. The finish line was set up in a traditional production scenario, with a booth communications kit that was interfaced to the CrewCom system and then brought back to the production truck. The starting line was more intricate in that all aspects of the production, including cameras and audio, were brought back via fiber optics or IP to the finish line – with the show being produced from the finish line. This also included all the content captured from the smart cars that were located throughout the marathon route. CP Communications managed both the domestic broadcast as well as the international feed.
This year, CP Communications also took on the NBA Finals with the help of Pliant and its CrewCom system. A variety of the brand’s products were deployed for this event, including 20 conferences of wireless PL (Party Line), three program feeds into the system, 40 radio packs [RPs], 14 radio transceivers (RTs) and three control units [CUs].
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CP Communications and Pliant have also been involved with the Super Bowl for several years. For last year’s event at SoFi Stadium, CP worked directly with the NFL Event Frequency Coordinators to provide the wireless intercom for the pregame show. Working in conjunction with the other parties involved with the game itself and the NFL Network’s CrewCom system, CP Communications utilized the Pre-Game Pliant CrewCom system as the master sync source for all of the production teams using the CrewCom systems. All three intercom systems were synchronized with CP Communications utilizing Pliant’s CrewNet network as the conduit, so there was no RF conflict with so many systems and users operating in one area. While the pregame and the game TV compounds were separated, there was a consistent intercom communications flow throughout all aspects of the event to allow for a seamless production.
CP Communications also utilized Pliant’s CrewCom system for a series of events surrounding the MLB All-Star game, including the Home Run Derby and the Future’s Game. For these events, two CrewCom control units, 14 radio transceivers, and 24 Radio Packs were used. ESPN then deployed another 20 packs and two CUs to manage those events that ESPN was involved in. CrewCom was also part of the system that CP Communications deployed for the MLB Draft. In addition to football and baseball, CP Communications also works with Turner and ESPN to supply several game day packages for the NBA and the NHL, each with a CrewCom system included. CP Communications also utilized Pliant’s SmartBoom headsets and its FleXLR Gender Adapter.
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In addition, CP Communications relied on Pliant for the 2023 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. CrewCom was also deployed at this event, which included two CU's, 24 radio packs and 14 antennas throughout the venue.
“The ability to configure the system offline with its CrewWare software and then export that drawing as a PDF for an onsite tech, really saves on time and potential set up errors,” added Ready. “I also really like the telemetry that is offered through the software; you can see how good your connectivity is to and from an RT.”
“We value the collaborative partnership that we have with CP Communications and always look forward to working with them to streamline and maximize the coms aspect of the events that they are involved with,” says Gary Rosen, vice president of global sales for Pliant Technologies. “We are grateful for their support and continuing to work together throughout 2023.”
