Clear-Com has announced that its intercom solution successfully aided Event Wave Productions in producing interactive video broadcasts of live medical procedures at the 28th Annual Cardiovascular Interventions Course in San Diego, CA. The 3-day event allowed physicians at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel in San Diego to collaborate virtually with interventional cardiologists in New York City and San Diego hospitals during real patient procedures for teaching purposes.

“Using a range of cutting-edge audio equipment, including Clear-Com’s HelixNet digital partyline wired intercom, multiple LQ Series IP interfaces, and a 1.9 GHz FreeSpeak II wireless intercom system, we provided clear and reliable communications systems to link up production crews at the two hospitals and the physicians at the Hilton hotel,” said Ross Goldman, managing partner of Event Wave Productions in San Diego. “This production capability enabled the production crew and the presenting doctors at the hotel to consult in real-time with the broadcast team at the hospital, allowing them to seamlessly coordinate in live procedures on camera.”

The installation at this interactive medical event was a ground-breaking deployment for Event Wave Productions team, which recently upgraded its intercom systems from legacy analog technology to Clear-Com digital systems. “We were tired of fixing the hums, buzzes, cross-talk, and other ‘gremlins’ that plague analog intercom communications,” said Goldman. “By moving to the HelixNet/FreeSpeak II digital wired/wireless solution, we eliminated those problems.”

“As well, our new digital systems are faster and much easier to set up on site, and provide better and more flexible coverage, delivering full-range sound that is extremely natural and intelligible,” Goldman continued. “Even when someone is across town, connected via our LQ interfaces, they sound like they’re in the room next door. This really reduces listener fatigue during long events.”

Event Wave Productions used a portable rack-mounted HMS-4X HelixNet Main Station digital intercom to support 12 HXII-BP wired digital beltpacks with power and networked audio channels, four HRM-4X remote intercom stations and two HKB-2X speaker stations. This same rack housed a Clear-Com LQ-R interface running version 4.0, which simplified connecting HelixNet to the web for IP-based distant connectivity. “We also used two additional LQ units to connect the hospitals to our main HelixNet system over the web, and on the wireless side, a 1.9GHz band FreeSpeak II Base II station with four Transceiver Antenna and two Antenna Splitters were deployed to support 10 roaming wireless beltpacks,” said Goldman.

On this and other assignments, Event Wave’s HelixNet/FreeSpeak II system has won rave reviews from its clients. “They are so happy with the enhanced capabilities that these digital systems deliver, that many of our clients have quickly come to expect HelixNet/FreeSpeak II as the standard for their events,” continued Goldman. “They won’t accept anything less.”

At the upcoming 7th Annual Structural Heart Intervention and Imaging Course, for instance, “our client wants us to carry direct doctor-to-doctor communications over our LQ intercom system,” Goldman noted. “That’s just how good the HelixNet/FreeSpeak II digital intercom system is – and why we now can’t imagine running our live event production business without it.”

“Our HelixNet and FreeSpeak II solution has become the defacto intercom system of choice by many event production companies like Event Wave Productions for their ease of deployment, intuitive operations, and clear audio quality,” said Kari Eythorsson, Clear-Com’s Regional Sales Manager, Southwest USA. “The fact that doctors want to use our intercoms for direct communications during live cardiac procedures speaks for itself.”

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