First Baptist Rogers in Rogers Arkansas is currently worshipping in a temporary space – but they’re building a new worship center and looking forward to bumping up their production capabilities. One key tech item they’re going to need is a better intercom system. Geoff Hartley is the video specialist at the church. “The comms system that we have, it works, but it's not flexible. If we need to change anything at all, it's a whole ordeal and it's just not ideal for a live environment,” he says.
The Riedel Bolero wireless intercom system has received the Church Production Road Tested Certification.
Better communication gives production teams the ability to really enhance the service by collaborating with people around the room or around the building and it lets crews add special elements into the service and create better flow and timing.
As part of the Church Production Road Test User Experience, Riedel sent Hartley and his team the Riedel Bolero Wireless Intercom System. Their demo unit features six key belt packs and Bolero Active Antennas.
“It was plug-and-play,” Hartley explains. “We just basically plugged everything in, hooked it into the network switch, and it worked. It was super, super simple to set up. And then on top of that, with the Riedel NSA 002A interface, we hooked that into the network that we had the Bolero system in, and we could hook in whatever existing comm system we had via Ethernet, XLR, you name it. It was just such an easy process compared to pretty much any comm system I've had any experience in.”
This intercom configuration can support up to 10 belt packs, up to 32 different party lines, features many connectivity options for any type of headset, as well as an onboard speaker and microphone.
“The Bolero belt packs were super, super flexible. You could connect a traditional comms headset to it. You could connect any Bluetooth headset. I ran a wireless camera during our Christmas program with it and I was just listening in on my AirPods. It was just super convenient, super flexible,” Hartley says. “You can configure volume. You can configure who gets what channel. You can configure each individual belt pack. So, we had a belt pack for producers, we had belt pack for floor managers, we had belt pack for cameras. It really lends itself to a lot of flexibility based on what position has which belt pack. And I really think that the magic is the customization of each individual beltpack.”
Hartley and his team really got to give the system a serious workout at Christmas with all the additional services and a much larger team – and they were wearing the headsets much longer than for a normal Sunday service. “So, we had the Riedel Pro 1D headsets that came with our demo unit - one for each belt pack and the audio was crisp and clear. I have no complaints at all about that. But when you're talking about a headset in a live scenario, you're going to be wearing that thing for possibly hours on end, and there's a lot of headsets out there that aren't very comfortable, and I'm happy to say that this is not one of those.”
To hear and see more of Hartley’s interview and learn more about his experience with the Bolero Wireless Intercom System, watch this video.
