Clear-Com QampA

Meet Edmund Song, regional sales manager for South-East Asia at Clear-Com – the global intercom pioneer originating in Calfornia. Clear-Com offers solutions highly tailored to houses of worship, whether the application is the live production of a service or the trouble-shooting of an audio problem with someone in a different site. According to Clear-Com, having a solid and flexible intercom system makes a world of a difference. As houses of worship become more sophisticated in their audio and video equipment, the planning and coordination of each service takes a tremendous amount of communication across the production team – including audio, video and lighting operators as well as stagehands and other volunteers.

How does Clear-Com view the house of worship market in its plans for expansion? 

Clear-Com has been active in the religious market since the earliest days of party-line systems, the pioneering two-wire, group communication solutions. Our current wired and wireless intercom products are used extensively in this market, and they are very well suited for it because of their capabilities, simplicity and value. Increasingly, more and more users are seeking mobility and convenience. Therefore, our many wireless intercom solutions continue to be attractive options as they are able to meet a wide range of budgets and requirements. We anticipate significant growth in the house of worship market and are prepared to further our reach with the launch of a new-and-improved digital party-line system that is slated to become available next year.

What special techniques that Clear-Com can implement are useful for this market?

Very similar to traditional intercom functions, Clear-Com’s Concert Intercom-over-IP Communications Solution is a software-based application that conveniently runs on a personal computer over the internet or standard LAN/WAN. Users can make calls, chats and conferences with other crew members with simple point-and-click operations. Concert can run as a standalone system, or can be interfaced to Clear-Com’s advanced Eclipse matrix intercom platform, encompassing a user preference mix of wired panels, soft panels and wireless belt packs. This is now commonly used during major events when multiple users in various locations wish to communicate to each other during productions – a situation where latency is of critical importance.

What recent successes have you had in HOWs across Asia and the Pacific?

We have installed a huge range of Clear-Com equipment into various major religious institutions, ranging from our Encore 2-wire party-line systems to mobile, plug-and-play wireless intercom solutions like the HME DX Series and the more advanced Tempest range, plus wireless, matrix-based intercom systems like FreeSpeak.

How would you advise church volunteers to integrate Clear-Com products into the house of worship environment?

Based on our experience in the house of worship market, Clear-Com understands that many crew members come and go as they are mostly volunteers or part-time assistants. Therefore, providing a very easy-to-use and economical communication solution is most ideal for churches and other worship facilities. As mentioned, Concert can be installed on laptops that enable everybody to instantly create contact groups and communicate online. This is extremely useful when not everyone can congregate physically at a common location at the same time. Furthermore, Clear-Com’s Encore wired partyline system, HME DX Series and Tempest wireless intercoms are very simple to set up and operate. Therefore, the learning curve is relatively short.

What can Clear-Com customers look forward to in future technology, especially from partnerships with HME and Optocore?

Being a leading wireless communication manufacturer, HME recognised the potential of merging Clear-Com and its pro audio division following the acquisition of Clear-Com in April 2010. As a result, we now have the broadest range of wireless products that cater to every need and environment. Combining the great minds of Clear-Com’s product management and engineering teams with HME’s world-class manufacturing operations group, Clear-Com is poised to provide higher quality intercom products – and to provide them better, faster and more cost-effectively.

Regarding Optocore, just like many large, live productions, many large churches have to manage and connect a high volume of audio, data and communications products. Optocore is the ideal solution as it offers a network platform that can route and distribute very efficiently over fibre-optic cable or Cat-5. Essentially we can now piggy-back on the backbone of the Optocore system: the intercom can join the video and audio programmes that are already there, together with any control feeds such as DMX lighting and GPIs. They’re all bundled within a common fibre-optic network, and we as Clear-Com gain the advantage of being able to place the intercom wherever you need it. We’ve noticed a significant rise in demand for fibre-optic connectivity. The install period for large events is very expensive. To bring it all down to a bundle of single fibres really reduces operational costs.

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