VALENCIA, CALIF.—As staff engineer for ATK Versacom, I provide production communications for a variety of events. Before each season, “American Idol” stages an audition tour, visiting cities nationwide to find vocalists for the next season. ATK Versacom is the intercom provider, and I was selected as PL Technician for their latest month-long tour, which included stops in Denver, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Louisville, Ky., New York and Los Angeles.

ATK Versacom had recently purchased two RTS ODIN digital matrix frames to upgrade our infrastructure to handle the latest digital hardware as well as legacy analog gear. We decided to use it on this tour, so in preparation I spent a few days getting familiar with the unit.

SEAMLESS INTEGRATION

ODIN is a digital intercom frame that uses Bosch’s OMNEO networking technology for seamless integration into IP-based networks like the Dante standard we use. Programming is easy via laptop, and the GUI is pretty intuitive. ODIN can support 16 to 128 digital audio paths per unit, depending on licensing, and includes 16 connectors for analog keypanels. Versacom purchased units set up for 64 channels, which was plenty for this tour.

The most obvious advantage of ODIN is its compact 1RU size. It’s also very energy efficient, using less than 50W of power, and has redundant power supplies. Everything I needed fit in one small 13-space rack—a huge improvement compared to my multiple-rack setups previously. This makes ODIN a great fit for flypack operations.

There’s a lot to like with ODIN in both features and usability. The frame handles everything—multichannel beltpacks, legacy keypanels and wireless. For this tour—which had the same production setup in every locale—I loved the fact that I only had to program it once. Its OMNEO networking architecture takes advantage of key Dante features, like the ability to recreate your setup when you come back the next day—even if you’re in a different location.

CLEAR AND CLEAN

After the first day, ODIN handled things automatically. My job was to make sure everything sounded clear and clean, and tweak anything that needed updating. During audition tapings, my main job was to monitor the comms system.

While the tour’s channel count for comms wasn’t huge, it was certainly diverse enough to put the ODIN to the test. It’s a full 6-camera shoot, and everything gets captured live. We had six legacy keypanels—Telex KP-5032s—and 12 Dante beltpacks. Those served our video village, plus the audio and lighting folks. For mobile techs, we had 12 wireless beltpacks (not RTS), easily interfaced into ODIN via its 4-wire ports.

The first stop, Denver, was the most stressful. It was my first time in the field with ODIN, so it took me longer than I planned to get everything set up and make sure all the gear was properly routed. After that, our comms were plug-and-play, every day.

Overall, my first experience with RTS ODIN was very positive. It’s Dante-friendly, easy to program, and plays well with others. Signals are clean and clear, and everything is controlled via IP. This is the direction our industry is going, and everyone at Versacom has jumped in and started using it on their shows. I look forward to using it again.

In 1999, Joe Watson started his career in the television entertainment industry as a comms technician. In 2004, he joined the ATK Versacom team as a staff technician and has been there since. He can be reached atjoew@atkversacom.com.

For more information, visitrtsintercoms.com.

LOS ANGELES—The award honors an individual or organizational achievement in the television arts and sciences that is so exceptional and universal in nature, it goes beyond the scope of annual Emmy Awards recognition.

” ‘American Idol,’ wasn’t just a hit show. With its successful integration of social media, dominance of the pop-culture conversation and legions of imitators, it changed television in a profound way,” said Governors Award Selection Committee Chair Michael Levine. “You could meaningfully divide the history of television into ‘before ‘American Idol,’ and ‘after ‘American Idol.’”

Simon Fuller created the singing competition, which ran from June 11, 2002 to April 7, 2016 on Fox, and served as its executive producer for all 15 seasons.

For an eight consecutive years, “American Idol,” ranked No. 1 in U.S. television ratings and played to a worldwide audience of 460 million across 53 countries. Its innovations in audience participation through text-based and mobile voting led to nearly a billion votes cast throughout its run.

Produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment, the groundbreaking series received 59 Emmy nominations and won eight Emmys. Additionally, “American Idol‘s” talented discoveries have won 13 Grammys, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award, among numerous other accolades.

The show also had a profound impact on the music industry, launching the careers of superstars Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry, among many others. “Idol”contestants have sold more than 60 million albums, resulting in more than 80 Platinum records and 95 Gold records. Its participants have generated more than 450 Billboard No. 1 hits and sold more than 260 million digital downloads.

Previous recipients of the Governors Award, which debuted in 1978, include William S. Paley, Hallmark Cards, Inc., “Masterpiece Theater,” “Comic Relief,” the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC networks for “America: A Tribute To Heroes,” the “It Gets Better” Project and last year’s honoree, A+E Networks.