A portion of the KMOV Clear-Com intercom installation
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 atbmadoux@kmov.com.
For additional information, contact Clear-Com at 510-337-6600 or visitwww.clearcom.com.
