OMAHA, Neb.—Digital news startup Straight Arrow News recently launched operations with the help of Clear-Com IP solutions, including the company’s Eclipse HX digital matrix system, LQ series of IP interfaces and the Agent-IC mobile app.
The Straight Arrow News production team initially focused on pre-recorded segments, such as studio shoots with its anchors and morning news updates produced through its main facility and control room in Omaha. As the year progresses, the news organization looks to expand with new live shows, remote production and streaming to Facebook Live and other platforms, Clear-Com said.
“We’re not building for now, we’re building for the future,” said Chris Childs, director of technical operations at Straight Arrow News. “What we have right now is more than we need, but we wanted something that could scale with us as we grow. We’ve invested a lot to get this site off the ground, so the last thing we want is to go back to management in two years and say we need to upgrade our equipment. Eclipse HX is highly scalable, and it will easily accommodate our communications needs as they grow in complexity.”
The news organization has installed a Clear-Com Eclipse HX system, which offers the ability to interface with any 2- or 4-wire device as well as with IP (Dante, AES67, native) and wireless communications devices. The installation included an LQ device to enable future expansion and enhanced communications with SIP telephony and mobile apps, like Agent-IC.
Currently, the Eclipse HX system is mainly used for in-studio productions, handling the communications among the control room and three camera positions within the Omaha location. The team also uses the system for mix-minus feeds to and from its news bureaus in New York and Washington, D.C., where the morning show interviews are recorded.
“They [Clear-Com] are a huge help in making sure everything is in place during rehearsals and script read-throughs,” said Rusty Havener, senior production specialist. “We can talk to everyone at once or easily set up private channels for side conversations.”
The next phase of Straight Arrow’s growth includes more live programming, which will give the team an opportunity to put the Agent-IC mobile app to use. Agent-IC allows the core intercom system—in this case Eclipse HX—to be accessible from anywhere on a user’s smart device over 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE or Wi-Fi, the company said.
Childs and Havener are targeting mid-2022 as the critical months for Straight Arrow’s expansion, including regular Facebook Live shows, live in-studio content, pre-recorded segments from their satellite news bureaus and original programming such as panel-type talk shows with a rotating guest line-up, it said.
More information is available on the Clear-Com website.
