Knowing you have a reliable way to communicate with every production staff member and volunteer position during every service – regular weekends as well as larger holiday productions --- will deliver the peace of mind and confidence to go from good to great.
Clear-Com stands proudly connected to our history of over 50 years in the industry, starting with our founder effectively inventing production communication for live performance and live events. Request a demo today.
This year’s Christmas production will be your most ambitious yet. You’ve got 25 speaking parts and a host of extras lined up backstage waiting for their cues in various rooms down the hall. You’ve got a half a dozen new, volunteer stagehands swapping out microphones, changing set pieces --- and keeping track of those extras waiting down the hall in Room 29B.
Everyone’s nervous. Perhaps no one more than you. Will they all respond and execute at the right time?
What if – God forbid – an emergency develops and you need to talk to the production team, the parking lot team and the greeters and users all at once?
On a normal weekend, you can get the job done by communicating with one or two groups on your intercom. How will you communicate with all of these new folks and not barrage them with information meant for someone else? These new stagehands don’t need to hear the same commands as the camera operators or the lighting techs. Even some new volunteers would probably rather have a direct line to you rather than feel “silly” asking questions that everyone can hear.
Outside, that same Christmas production is going to require a lot of extra parking lot help. Wouldn’t it be helpful to provide specific direction to those people working the entrance at the street, versus those parking cars, or those who are helping direct people to the entrance to the church?
Once people are in the building (many of them are first time visitors you know), how will you communicate to ushers and greeters about which seating sections are filling up so you can direct attendees to their seats like a well-oiled machine?
Lastly, what if – God forbid – an emergency develops and you need to talk to the production team, the parking lot team and the greeters and users all at once?
Many churches try to communicate with their extended teams using cell phones (either voice or texts) --- which weren’t designed for these potentially complicated situations.
With Arcadia Central Station, a new solution from Clear-Com, this expanded communications becomes possible because this new platform offers a centralized intercom system that, when installed in your control room or back of house, allows literally everyone on the entire team --- no matter their role --- to be connected. From people stationed at wired panels to folks roaming with wireless beltpacks to the security team on walkie-talkies, everyone can communicate to exactly who they need to, when they need to, all in one unified system.
Many churches try to communicate with their extended teams using cell phones (either voice or texts) --- which weren’t designed for these potentially complicated situations.
The Arcadia Central Station, a new solution from Clear-Com, is a next-generation, scalable, IP-based communications platform which integrates all existing analog wired and wireless partyline systems.
When you have poor communications, the holiday performance you have worked on for months could devolve into a complete disaster. It could be something as simple as the performance’s lead actor has a mic that’s failed. If the FOH engineer can quickly alert a stagehand via intercom, the new mic could be delivered in a matter of seconds instead of turning into a major distraction.
Maybe, you already have an intercom system or another way to communicate, either based on outdated technology or a bargain basement solution from the last decade. But your services are becoming more complicated. Video for the streaming ministry has become a vital part of each service due to the pandemic. Safety, including social distancing, is putting a new wrinkle into how you “do church.” You wish for the ability to communicate with individuals on your production, worship, and facilities teams, but you wonder whether the system’s going to even power up each weekend.
Arcadia can be a smart investment in what might be the most overlooked, yet maybe the most important, part of your church’s production capabilities - comms.
Everybody wants their production quality to be elevated from good to great, but that transition depends in large part upon improving communications between directors and camera ops, from programming directors to lighting techs and from sound engineers to stagehands. Sometimes it’s difficult to determine which is more distracting, the technical problem that develops during the service, or the production tech running down the aisle and backstage to try and fix it.
Already have an intercom system, but it doesn’t do enough? The new Arcadia system can still use the wired analog intercom stations you have in place, and you don't have to have a degree in rocket science to install it. Check this out.
Arcadia is a next-generation, scalable, IP-based platform which integrates all existing analog wired and wireless partyline systems, including the FreeSpeak family of digital wireless solutions and, in an upcoming release, HelixNet Digital Partyline – both existing Clear-Com systems. Arcadia can license up to 96 IP ports in a single rack unit device, with further licensing add-ons in the future, making Arcadia the intercom centerpiece for a vast range of applications, including your production teams, your greeters and ushers, the parking lot team, and of course your safety and security teams.
So, for those not technically inclined, what that is saying is that you can use your existing headsets, belt packs and all, and migrate to a much more flexible IP-based platform that is going to give you and your church ample expansion potential.
Are you a multi-site church and need to communicate with a satellite campus? Arcadia is IP-based, so you can communicate with a location in another state as easily as with someone down the hall.
Arcadia is designed for ease-of-use. The system is configured through Clear-Com’s redesigned Core Configuration Manager (CCM) enabling rapid setup, configuration and monitoring. The intuitive user interface has a straightforward design for a quick and simple means of configuring the Central Station with role-based beltpacks, including save and restore, text messaging, individual beltpack and group call signal and remote mic kill.
Clear-Com offers a free demo of the CCM tool, sign up here.
Simple and quick adjustments to the system are possible with Arcadia’s two large front panel touchscreens and rotary encoders allow the user to quickly scroll through menus or for use as a four-way key station.
The flexibility of Arcadia provides the team with a single 1RU device that can integrate wired and wireless partyline systems and multiple frequency bands, including 1.9 GHz, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Two-wire connection points give new life to legacy analog systems. Four-wire audio ports provide general connectivity to a wide range of Clear-Com endpoints, and the IP ports offer integration with third-party Dante devices.
Did you get all of that? If you didn’t, don’t worry. We asked Steve Sanford, Senior Product Manager from Clear-Com, for more information on integrating the new Arcadia intercom system into a church environment.
CP: Why Clear-Com Arcadia?
SS: Arcadia brings together our most popular products – FreeSpeak, Encore, HelixNet – as well as connecting to Dante devices and other 2-wire systems – all in one system. It was developed to build on the success of the FreeSpeak II Base II model, with the addition of IP transceivers, HelixNet and Dante, and it can scale via licensing, so it’s future-proof. Arcadia starts at 32 ports and can be licensed with up to 96 ports, which gives the user the ability to buy the system size they need now and increase it later if more ports are needed.
CP: Why IP?
SS: As the intercom market moves to IP-focused infrastructures (Ethernet), the need for an IP protocol that allows different devices from different manufacturers to communicate over an IP network is critical. When developing Arcadia, we identified this IP requirement and added up to 64 ports of Dante (part of the licensing scheme) to the unit. As well as having IP connections we understand not all customers are moving to IP so we still have non-IP based transceivers and analog four-wire and partyline connections in the Arcadia units, so they can be added to existing analog systems.
CP: What's the advantage of having one communications system that will connect everyone?
SS: Arcadia is a platform that can grow and adapt to the inevitably changing needs of the user. As part of the plan to grow Arcadia in early 2022, we will be adding HelixNet connectivity to Arcadia, which means you will be able to mix FreeSpeak wireless beltpacks and wired HelixNet beltpacks, wall plates and remote stations in the same system seamlessly. It will allow wireless beltpack users, IP-connected HelixNet users and analog partyline users all to communicate freely via one Arcadia unit.
Additionally, when we designed Arcadia, ease of set up was a key feature in the development, we developed a workflow that can allow the user to get up and running for a quick rehearsal with a basic set up within minutes of unpacking the boxes. For more structured or refined set ups for major performances, the user can use the configuration tool (CCM).
Closing Thoughts and Peace of Mind
Communication is vital. If your church is growing or going through a refresh, then Clear-Com’s Arcadia takes advantage of all the new IP-based networking technologies and provides a solid foundation for the future. If your church already has a substantial investment in intercom, and needs to be especially budget-conscious, Arcadia is both expandable and backwards compatible with existing analog systems.
Regardless, Arcadia can be a smart investment in what might be the most overlooked, yet maybe the most important, part of your church’s production capabilities - comms. Knowing you have a reliable way to communicate with every staff member and volunteer position during every service – regular weekends as well as larger holiday productions --- will deliver the peace of mind and confidence to go from good to great.
