BURNABY, British Columbia, Canada—The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) has replaced its wired intercom system with Pliant’s wireless CrewCom intercom, the company said today.
BCIT, which teaches broadcast journalism, television production and video production, gives students hands-on educational experiences at its production studios. The Pliant CrewCom intercom will enable students to experience what it’s like to work with modern communications technology as they hone their skills for a broadcast career.
Among the system requirements for the new intercom were sufficient coverage for clear communications throughout BCIT’s entire building as well as the ability to cover both of its floors. The institute also needed a solution with a 900 MHz frequency to avoid interference with pre-existing Wi-Fi infrastructures across the entire campus, the company said.
BCIT broadcast engineer Kal Ng worked with international systems integrator Vidcom on the project. With the integrator’s guidance, the institute purchased two identical CrewCom systems for its two main production studios. Each includes one control unit, 18 radio packs and four radio transceivers, it said.
“As a teaching environment, BCIT requires an intercom solution that could be deployed in different parts of the campus or anywhere in greater Vancouver BC, depending on the show’s content that day,” said Ng. “With CrewCom, we were able to set up a mobile unit with all of the gear in a rack with wheels for portability. Students can transport the mobile unit to wherever they need. With CrewCom being a wireless system, all they need to do is hook up the antennas, fire up the system’s radio packs, and they’re good to go.”
The new intercom’s ability to connect to wired systems is helpful for broadcast journalism students. It allows BCIT to connect CrewCom to its one-way IFB communications system that journalism students use, the company said.
“Our journalism students wear an IFB earpiece for programming cues, so they are able to listen to the director and producer’s cues, without the need to communicate back to them. With CrewCom having a wired interface capability, we can connect the journalists’ IFBs, so they never miss a cue. Additionally, CrewCom is super straightforward and simple-to-use, so there’s a very small learning curve for the students,” said Ng.
More information is available on the company’s website.
