Austin’s Celebration Church
AUSTIN, TEXAS—As one of Austin’s premier rental houses for professional video equipment, we’ve been involved in some of the most exciting installations in Central Texas. One such project was a recent installation at one of America’s fastest growing churches, Celebration Church in Georgetown, Texas. Celebration Church had always used analog systems for production intercom communications but wanted to expand on and improve their system. With our guidance, and after several demos and production rentals, they decided to upgrade their digital technology and Riedel Communications was their system of choice.
David Fry We use Riedel equipment for all higher-end and larger-venue installations due to the simplicity and quality of the company’s digital systems. These systems allow our customers to expand to larger systems quickly, while at the same time reducing overall infrastructure requirements.
For the Celebration Church installation, we chose the Riedel Acrobat digital wireless intercom system with a CC-8 controller/ base station and 10 WB-2 wireless beltpacks. The Acrobat system provides easy-to-use full-duplex communications solution with VoIP-over-DECT technology and an advanced cellular architecture to assure the best possible communications quality.
CLEAN COMMUNICATIONS IN A SEA OF RF NOISE
Each Acrobat wireless beltpack continuously monitors and automatically selects the best connection to the CC-8 controller/ base station. RF spectrum congestion in the area presented a potential challenge to the system, but its flexibility and resistance to interference from wireless mics, in-ear monitors and other RF systems keeps audio quality at the max.
The Acrobat system eliminates the need to add multiple master stations—in analog two-wire and four-wire systems, one is needed for every five users. Riedel’s proprietary digital routing allows assignment of an unlimited number of beltpacks to one Riedel master station via a Web interface. The WB-2 beltpacks are light and compact and provide two individually configurable channels for intercom and IFB use. Operation is intuitive with two large rotary level controls on top of the beltpack providing easy access to talk-key and volume control for each channel.
OFFERS FIBER-OPTIC CONNECTIVITY
Of all the benefits provided by the Acrobat system, the greatest is that it can operate in a fiber-optic infrastructure and can be easily expanded in the future when needed. In the case of Celebration Church, this means that multiple campuses can be linked through an existing fiber backbone.
We’re very proud of our role in helping Celebration Church build a more effective and future-proof communication system. The Riedel gear performed flawlessly and we had no reason to expect otherwise, as we’d used the same equipment successfully to support communications at several high-profile events including the 2013 South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW).
By offering Riedel products for sale and rental, we can meet our customers’ communication needs rapidly and less expensively when compared with other systems. We’re bringing Riedel to SXSW again in 2014 and also plan to use the Riedel gear to provide digital communications at the Austin City Limits music festival and the Circuit of the Americas (CoTA), which hosts racing events including the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
David Fry is the Vice President of Omega Broadcast Group and has been with the company for more than 25 years. He may be contacted atdfry@omegabroadcast.com.
For additional information, contact Riedel Communications at 818-559-6900 or visitwww.riedel.net.
