Clear-Com has announced that it is the official intercom supplier for the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage, which will showcase performances by up-and-coming and established artists, at the upcoming 2024 NAMM Show in late January at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Clear-Com was brought on to the production by long-time partner Mastermind Production Group, which provides the majority of the audio production infrastructure for the stage, with PA being provided by Reach Communications. Chad Griswold, CEO of Mastermind states, “Clear-Com’s a natural choice for this production since they are a first choice in intercom for the touring and live music market and our first choice for all of our events in the music and corporate event spaces we work in. We used the Arcadia system last year with great success, and this year we are excited to put the latest updates to that system to the test, including the Bluetooth connectivity on FreeSpeak II beltpacks.”
An Arcadia Central Station system will be based at front of house, with a FreeSpeak II wireless intercom system and FreeSpeak Edge wireless beltpacks dedicated to the stage management and production team members who need to roam around the area. HelixNet digital wired partyline user stations will be located at key fixed locations, including the lighting director, spot ops, and for the Audio FOH, monitor, and broadcast mixing engineers.
In addition, this year Griswold plans to experiment with using Bluetooth headsets for the FreeSpeak II 1.9 GHz beltpacks; with bone induction headsets, users can maintain situational awareness (or use hearing protection) while staying connected on comms. This workflow could be effective for primary audio mixing engineers as it leaves their ears uncovered while still maintaining intercom connections.
