Canadore College of applied arts and technology recently expanded its existing intercom system for a multi-purpose 125-seat theatre at its College Drive Campus in North Bay, Ontario, with the venue’s existing Clear-Com FreeSpeak II digital wireless system now joined by an Eclipse HX digital matrix system with FreeSpeak Edge digital wireless intercom, LQ Series IP interfaces, and the Agent-IC mobile intercom app.
Clear-Com Canadian partner GerrAudio provided support on the project, working with Quinn Pelletier, digital media engineer for the college’s School of Art and Design. The theatre hosts multiple Media Arts programs, including acting, graphic arts, computer game design, digital cinema, television broadcast programs and more, most of which have comms requirements.
The first system the college purchased was used as a standalone system for Canadore’s TV program. Comprised of a four-channel FreeSpeak II base station, a single transceiver antenna and splitter, and a small complement of belt packs and headsets that functioned as their mobile comms rig for productions around campus.
“We’ve had that system for five years and it stands up, no problem – it’s just the right product,” Pelletier says. “As soon as we got our hands on FreeSpeak II it was incredible. We set it up, started using it, and all the faculty complaints about our previous system went away, and we have since continued to expand our footprint at the school.
When funding became available for the new theatre in 2019, Pelletier and Canadore saw it as an opportunity to upgrade, ultimately adding LQ and Agent-IC to augment the TV production system. Also added for the theater proper is an Eclipse HX-Delta Frame with a 64-channel Dante interface card integrated with FreeSpeak Edge 5 GHz transceivers and 10 FreeSpeak Edge wireless beltpacks, along with additional headsets.
“We do post-production with a Dolby Atmos sound system, we have a music production program and studio, and we’re building a 10-seat E-Sports arena and TV studio,” Pelletier explains. “In the theatre, we’re going to be putting in lighting and sound, cameras, and TV production systems as well. The Clear-Com Eclipse system was built from the ground up to address all aspects of all our productions.”
The Eclipse system is distributed across spaces, including the TV control room, three-story Sony Atrium used for TV shoots and the site of an E-Sports arena, and a music recording studio. “We have built-in FreeSpeak II antennas in each of those, and one for our mobile, ‘flypack’ FreeSpeak II system, which works really well on location.” As an example, Pelletier cites a series of Lacrosse games on the campus Canadore shares with Nipissing University, for which they provided a four-camera system and used the mobile Clear-Com rig for comms.
Comms can also be used for other areas/purposes via a spare, bookable antenna, he adds, “For example, the D-Wing on campus has a teaching kitchen with a camera setup, so they can do a ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ type of thing. When they want to do more advanced production and add more cameras, they book out the antenna, plug it in, and VLAN it right into their comms system.
“Now we have this nice IP system here that works phenomenally well. The new beltpacks are amazing; we’re assigning roles — a professor shows up, the students assign themselves the roles of the class they’re in on the beltpacks and from there all the permissions are set up for them. And because it’s an IP system it allows us to expand wherever we need to. Everything here is Dante, and the Clear-Com, Dante integration is fantastic. That’s a game-changer in itself.”
