The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby, which teaches broadcast journalism, television production and video production in providing students with hands-on educational experiences within its multiple production studios, recently replaced an outdated wired intercom infrastructure with new CrewCom digital wireless intercom systems from Pliant Technologies.
Specifically, BCIT needed systems that would provide enough coverage for clear communication throughout the entire building while also being able to support coverage across the building’s two floors. In addition, the broadcast program was also looking for an approach with the 900 MHz frequency band to avoid interference with pre-existing Wi-Fi infrastructures within the campus.
Kal Ng, broadcast engineer at BCIT, turned to Vidcom, a systems integrator of high-end broadcast, streaming and post-production systems, to acquire and implement two identical CrewCom systems for its two main production studios, each of which consists of one Control Unit (CU), 18 Radio Packs (RP) and four Radio Transceivers (RT).
The school was also looking for systems that could be moved to different locations, depending on what story the students were capturing. “As a teaching environment, BCIT requires an intercom solution that could be deployed in different parts of the campus, or anywhere in greater Vancouver BC, depending on the show’s content that day,” says Ng. “With CrewCom, we were able to set up a mobile unit, with all of the gear in a rack with wheels for portability. Students can transport the mobile unit to wherever they need. With CrewCom being a wireless system, all they need to do is hook up the antennas, fire up the system’s radio packs, and they’re good to go.”
Another advantage CrewCom brought to the project is its ability to interface with wired systems. This allows BCIT to connect CrewCom to the one-way communication IFB system that the journalism students deploy. “Our journalism students wear an IFB earpiece for programming cues, so they are able to listen to the director and producer’s cues, without the need to communicate back to them,” Ng concludes. “With CrewCom having a wired interface capability, we can connect the journalists’ IFBs, so they never miss a cue. Additionally, CrewCom is super straight forward and simple-to-use, so there’s a very small learning curve for the students. Overall, CrewCom has done a phenomenal job of meeting all the school’s requirements, and I couldn’t be happier with our decision to choose Pliant.”
