Clear-Com: Jay Wallace Interview

01

INTERVIEW

“Everybody needs what we have - there’s never a dull moment and that’s the fun part of it. Different workflows and customer needs - sports is one large component of it.”

Jay Wallace Regional Sales Manager-NW/MW USA and Canada Clear-Com

INTERVIEW

JAY WALLACE

Regional Sales Manager, NW/MW USA and Canada, Clear-Com

Tell us a little bit more about your background… So, I began in commercial television here in the United States, then moved into radio work, which included working on The Dallas Cowboy football team radio broadcast for 11 seasons. I then moved to California to take over Regional Sales Manager position with Clear-Com - that was in 2009. My territory is North Western US, Mid Western US and Canada.

What does your role consist of? Day to day, it’s interfacing with our partners, dealers and integrators. As well as users in various parts of our industry be it sports related business, broadcast, theatrical, medical, so across several different platforms in several different markets. The cool thing about what I get to do, is that I get to go to a lot of different

“We are constantly working on new products and designs to satisfy this part of the market.”

Jay Wallace

venues, a lot of different clients - sports is just one component of it. I could literally be in a grand theatre one morning and an athletic stadium in the afternoon, so that makes it really cool for me. Everybody needs what we have - there’s never a dull moment and that’s the fun part about it. Different workflows and customer needs - sports is one large component of it.

Can you explain what Clear-Com specialise in when it comes to stadiums and sporting venues? So, we found ourselves in three different areas within stadiums - depending on the size, of course, and the type of client. We’re typically found providing intercom for broadcast or providing intercom for stadium scoreboards, display boards and marketing. The marketing side of it typically consists of wireless intercom for the people that are coordinating the special events during game day - that can be the opening ceremonies, half time breaks and so forth. The scoreboard and broadcast side are very similar; in some cases, the stadiums are switching these continuously with different crews. This can be a Partyline Intercom system or Matrix system. Basically, it’s a director working with multiple cameras, audio, replay and graphics.

How does a stadium or sporting venue project start for Clear-Com? These projects begin in a couple of ways, either a client or end user will hire a consultant to come in and lay out the facilities for them, this includes a broadcast, scoreboard or video display board. Another way is for the client to partner with an integrator and begin a design build project. In this case, the dealer or integrator will discuss with a client in lieu of having a consultancy do it. In some cases, our relationship with individuals in the industry will lead to us getting the call first and they will say ‘look, we are about to do a major upgrade and we would like you to give us your impressions of what we need to do to be able to do our job’. So, it can go those three ways.

Which is the most common? The most common is normally a consultant on a design or build project with an integrator, as opposed to dealing with the client from the very beginning. However, that has started to change because these clients are much more tech savvy than they once were as they are attending trade shows and regional events. They are getting a handle on it themselves before they start dealing with consultants and they have an idea about what’s in the market and what their fellow sporting teams are using. There is a word of mouth element that is permeating within the industry and that certainly wasn’t there a few years ago.

What are the main things you have to take into consideration when working on a stadium or sporting venue? We want to get an idea of the number of users and the way they work. While all of these people are doing similar jobs, they usually have their own independent workflow. For instance, I have one professional football team and their marketing department has 15 people on wireless intercom on the field simultaneously, others have eight, and some have only four. It all depends on their workflow, so we try to hammer that out first. Once we get an idea of how they want it to work, including the desired coverage area and number of discrete channels that are needed, we can then provide options of our product offerings that will allow them to accomplish their tasks. We can advise them on better way – or more efficient way – to use our products. It’s a real learning curve, we go in and listen to what they need and then we can guide them throughout the whole process.

Are there any difficulties that you experience on a regular basis? Absolutely - some of the venues are quite large and invariably, what a client wants, especially on the intercom side, is a large and wide area coverage of wireless intercom. That can be challenging on implementation, in terms of where to put the antenna transceiver modules, cabling, networked antennas versus home runs and general issues with potential

multipath concerns that can affect range. Designing the wireless component can be the most challenging portion of it - luckily, we have tools for that!

What stadium or sporting venues have you worked on recently? We have done several projects in my territory recently. The Husky Stadium at the University of Washington has recently purchased wireless systems. Another large project was the Vivint Smart Home Arena for the Utah Jazz. The Jazz now have a large FreeSpeak II system for game day use and we have a similar system at the Moda Center – the home of the Portland Trailblazers in Portland, Oregon. We also worked on multiple venues at Northwestern University. They have a workflow that a number of universities are moving toward. They use a centralised control room and are connecting the individual venues remotely through IP or over fibre. That’s kind of a new thing that has come up in the past few years.

What would you say has been your favourite stadium/sporting arena project so far? That’s an interesting question! I rather like the NBA arena projects, purely from a personal standpoint. I am a fan. From start to finish, the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, was the most interesting, because that

026WWW.MONDOSTADIA.COM

INTERVIEW

was a full building retrofit. They installed a complex FreeSpeak II wireless intercom system, with multiple users and a large coverage area which was little tricky. That was a design build project and we were brought in to the project as a result of a recommendation from another NBA team. After several visits and a successful demo during a playoff game, our FreeSpeak II system was chosen.

What would you say is the next big thing in terms of stadium / sporting venue technology?

It’s going to continue to be challenging on the wireless side, with other devices competing in a limited RF spectrum and more users wanting the freedom to be mobile. The spectrum isn’t getting larger – it’s getting smaller and more congested. We are constantly working on new products and designs to satisfy this part of the market.

Clear-Com’s award-winning FreeSpeak II wireless communication system was deployed at all 12 stadia across Russia during the recent global football tournament. The 12 standalone systems have been installed by Clear- Com’s channel partner WNM, which has responsibility for wireless and infotainment for the event’s Host Broadcast Services (HBS). The FreeSpeak II high performance wireless intercom system is designed for extensive communication in large-scale operations. Its ability to maintain a strong and continuous wireless connection across an expansive coverage area while providing crystal-clear digital audio makes FreeSpeak II the ideal wireless roaming solution for live events, broadcast and sport production, and the communication system of choice for many of the world’s largest and most prestigious events. At the Russian tournament, FreeSpeak II basestations, antennas and rugged beltpacks provided extensive, reliable coverage and uncompromised audio quality for the camera and production teams throughout each stadium, including the tunnel where the players arrive,

the area around the pitch and the broadcast compound (connected via fibre with a splitter). “FreeSpeak II is once again playing an integral role in one of the world’s highest profile live sports events, where communication is crucial to ensure the best broadcast coverage,” said Nicki Fisher, Sales Director, Clear-Com. “The power, reliability and flexibility of FreeSpeak II make it a system that can be relied upon in the most demanding environments.” In addition, Brazil’s TV Globo is harnessing Clear-Com’s latest IP communication solutions to reduce costs and simplify its production workflow at the global football tournament. By using the Agent-IC app with V-Series Panels and LQ Series IP audio codecs, TV Globo has a streamlined, reliable and mobile communication solution, while saving considerable export costs to Russia, since they only brought panels and mobile devices which connect via IP to the Eclipse matrix system back at the broadcaster’s facility in Rio de Janeiro. www.clearcom.com

027