ST. LOUIS, MO.—Broadcasting in the shadow
of the Gateway Arch here, KMOV originates
local morning, noon, evening, and
late-evening newscasts, along with an hourlong
late-morning talk/lifestyle show every
weekday. Managing this busy broadcast
schedule requires coordination between
the newsroom, production control room,
ENG area, master control and studio, making
reliable communications a must. Our
270-port Clear-Com Eclipse-Omega matrix
intercom and CellCom wireless intercom
enable us to do this.
The Eclipse intercom is integrated with
the station’s main audio mixer, allowing
the director, producer and technical director
to listen to any of the talent studio mics,
as well as three additional mics at any time,
independent of fader position. These same
mics also have an associated talk button on
the intercom panels for talent IFB, allowing
the control room to have complete communication
with the talent. We also bring talent
stationed at remote locations outside the
studio into the Eclipse via our house routers.
These 11 routers have associated fixed
mix-minus feeds from the audio console
that go to the intercom. All 11 of the routers’
“listens” can be monitored using the control
room’s 2RU V-Series lever panels and two VSeries
expansion panels. To put the camera
person and talent in the field in direct connection
with the control room, some telephone
couplers are configured as
dial-in IFB, or configured for use as
remote party lines.
During our morning show
broadcast, we have many guests
entering and leaving our facility,
making mobile, wire-free communications
a necessity. In escorting
these guests around the building,
the show’s associate producer
uses a Clear-Com CellCom wireless
beltpack to stay in touch with
the rest of the production team.
MAKES SPECIAL EVENTS A BREEZE
The Eclipse has also vastly simplified
certain broadcasts, such as coverage of the
annual St. Louis Thanksgiving Day Parade,
which is shot live from a location one block
from our studios. In setting up for this event,
we program the Eclipse a week in advance,
and can easily tweak the configuration as
parade day approaches. On parade day, we
simply load the file to the Eclipse through
the Eclipse Configuration System (ECS),
which is the easiest job of the day. The front
of our building has audio, video and communications
connectivity with the equipment
room, and some Cat-5 and CellCom
antennas and splitter provide wireless communications
for parade coverage. Once it’s
over, we restore the Eclipse to normal use
by recalling the previous operating file.
Programming the Eclipse is straightforward
and fast with the ECS. For special projects,
a copy of the current Eclipse setup file
is made and renamed. Any changes to the
project are made and saved, thus not interrupting
normal communications while we
prepare a new configuration.
Our Clear-Com system is an integral part
of our technical operation. It allows talent,
producers, directors, and engineers to all
work with efficient communications, making
the most of our time and energy.
Bob Madoux is a maintenance engineer
at KMOV television. He may be contacted
at bmadoux@kmov.com.
For additional information, contact
Clear-Com at 510-337-6600 or visit www.clearcom.com.