CARLSTADT, N.J.—Total Media Productions is a multicamera production company that offers turnkey services for a variety of producers, from network TV to online OTT platforms. In addition to providing a complete complement of equipment necessary for streaming and live broadcasts, such as cameras, audio, playback and recording gear, we also provide production management and full crewing for any project.
Everyone on our team is multifunctional, including myself, but my background as a technical director in broadcast TV has prepared me to efficiently determine the technical requirements of our projects and evaluate the most appropriate solutions.
When the pandemic hit full force, we had to scramble to ascertain how best to deal with remote productions—which had become obligatory during the shutdown—and we knew immediately that one of the critical components was a single, secure, efficient and user-friendly comprehensive system that gave us communications and a viewing component that would work remotely across any network.
Connecting 12 Locations
Our first request was to help with the reunion show for “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” We had to figure out how to connect 12 locations with audio, video and communications, so we looked for an intercom solution. We quickly discovered that most candidates were limited to the number of individual users they could support, and that was a critical consideration for us. When we found IntraCom Systems we knew that it provided the obvious answer to our search with its VCOM Matrix Communication Platform.
VCOM WebRTC is a cloud SaaS-ready multichannel, multi-access (aka “matrix”) communications solution for professional and mission critical applications that is scalable to thousands of users and supports virtually an unlimited number of channels.
VCOM is highly interoperable with support for SIP, NDI and four wire interfacing. The success of using it for that first show paved the way for us to offer those services to other producers and we are still building upon that success. On some shows, such as the “StanCam” Twitter show for the MTV VMA’s, we have had more than 50 individual users logged in to VCOM with eight different video channels to view EVS playbacks, multiviews of remotes, PGM and much more.
VCOM’s flexibility allows it to be used in the cloud or installed on premise, which works great for our varied production environments. In terms of operating VCOM, it had a very short learning curve.
WwbRTC Video Feeds
Our favorite feature is VCOM’s integration of WebRTC video feeds. We use MediaLooks for our video transport from remote locations and we’re able to add feeds as viewable sources in VCOM. For example, a producer working remotely could have one login (into VCOM) that gives them complete PL and P-P comms, including IFB to all talent, and also be able to view multiple video feeds such as a multiview of all talent, program feed, playbacks, graphics, etc. That’s huge!
Since VCOM has served as our communications backbone we’ve used it for numerous shows, including “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” “MTV Video Music Awards,” “Golden Globes,” “Country Music Television Awards,” “BET Awards,” “Powerball First Millionaire” (part of Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin Eve”) 2021 and 2022, “ACM Awards,” “MTV Challenge Reunion,” “Amazon the Boys Reunion,” “MTV Siesta Key Reunion,” “Black Ink Crew Reunion” and more.
Since we found VCOM at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s been a part of our service offerings and we’ve been on a monthly recurring SaaS plan with IntraCom. One of our next projects is an installation for The Orlando Ballet. I’m on the board of that organization and wouldn’t provide them with anything but the best.
Sandor Bondorowsky, president and founder of Total Media Productions, is a technical director by trade. Sandy is responsible for all business operations, and development for Total Media Productions, but also directs and engineers many of the company’s productions. Sandy can be reached at sandy@total-media.com.
For more information about IntraCom visit www.intracomsystems.com.
