Clear-Com is a global leader in critical voice communication systems and Simon Browne, with whom we have a pleasure to talk today, has over 30 years of experience in the company. Simon joined Drake Electronics in 1989 worked in Project Engineering, Sales Support and Product Management for Drake, then Vitec and now following the acquisition back in 2010, for HME / Clear-Com since then.
Today, Simon is the Vice President of Product Management at HME Clear-Com, and we have a chance to talk with him about the company’s vision and directions in the EMEA region.
Iwona Wierzbanowska [AV Tech Magazine]: Clear-Com was established in 1968, and since the beginning, its scope has been intercom and communication systems. What, in your opinion, are the strongest sides and values of the company that have made you successful for so many years?
Simon Browne: Clear-Com has always prided itself on world-class technical support of its partners and end-users. We manage this through our world-wide partners, who we train so that they have a deep understanding of intercom in the markets they serve, and so that they can offer the very best technical help to our many end users globally. We hire people from the markets we serve so that we continue to understand the workflows and build products on that knowledge base. Finally, within HME, our parent company, we have an award-winning manufacturing facility providing repeatable high-quality products under our quality control.
What is your personal story, what are the milestones in your career, and what are your responsibilities right now?
I left University with a science degree and joined the BBC in 1979 as a Project Engineer working in audio studios. After some years building multi-track radio drama studios, I joined Calrec Audio as their London based sales representative but went back to project management with Drake Electronics working on their new broadcast console project in 1989. It was with Drake that I started my interest in Intercom, working initially on hard-wired analog matrix systems, then I lived through the digitization and now I find myself as the VP of Product Management with IP based intercom in our toolkit.
Can you tell us a bit about the Clear Com offering—which markets are you serving and what are the differences in the needs of those markets?
Clear-Com has a wide, possibly the widest, set of intercom tools for the markets we serve. We started with analog wired partyline in the Bay Area of California serving the rising music and theater entertainment businesses with wired partyline intercom, and then we added digital matrix mainly for the broadcast market, which is where cooperation of Drake Electronics with their digital matrix came in within the Vitec days. Today we supply many markets, anywhere there is more than 3 people working cooperatively on a common project such as, TV production, Theater, Music and Sports events and Shows, Corporate Launches and Infrastructure, Marine, Transport, Network Control Centers, Space launches, Manufacturing etc. Each market and the teams within them have varying needs from single channel partyline like Marine, to many-to-many configurable communications for TV Production and multi-space performance areas. Some like fixed installations like Broadcast and other markets prefer real time flexibility like Live Events.
The recent Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour deployed a robust intercom system that was used to connect the various departments to help facilitate and produce the complex and highly technical live show. HelixNet digital partyline, FreeSpeak II wireless intercom and LQ Series IP interfaces were deployed to meet the level of collaboration needed for the numerous crews in this example of intercom for the live event market.
What are your flagship products for the EMEA market?
FreeSpeak II digital wireless, a DECT based roaming wireless intercom has been very popular allowing new production methods over larger spaces than before. The Eclipse HX central matrix and the intelligent user panels V-Series IrisX find themselves in many of the EMEA broadcast centers and has a feature rich configuration with real-time tools such as Dynam-EC for live production such as sports and news. Arcadia, our latest intercom Central Station, marries wired digital and analog intercom with digital wireless all in a 1RU station. It is finding popularity in live events, small broadcast, and theater. Coupled with HelixNet digital Partyline and the LQ IP Audio over IP interfaces, Arcadia is the 21st century intercom tool of choice for many markets.
The recent upgrade at the Harpa Concert Hall located in Reykjavik, utilized these technologies with their latest integration of Clear-Com products, including an Eclipse HX Matrix system with V-Series Iris key panels, FreeSpeak II wireless intercom and Agent-IC Mobile virtual intercom that has significantly provided a higher level of functionality for the venue.
Within the communication and intercom systems, there are some functionalities that are crucial, like scalability, modularity, high audio and data quality, reduction of noise, and interference. How are you approaching the R&D process, and what are your plans in this matter for the near future?
Clear-Com has a very extensive Engineering team within our regional offices in the UK, Canada, and California. We have teams with specialisms in IP audio, analog audio, product UI design, electrical and wireless design, and digital control among other disciplines. We include elements of R&D within the teams to search out new applications with established and tested technology.
Do you believe that the pandemic has changed the market, and do you still see a tendency to use remote and hybrid solutions?
Very much so, our Virtual Clients such as Agent-IC for handheld smartphones and tablets, and Station-IC for PCs that we had before the pandemic found new uses to support remote working in many of the media creation markets. The Virtual Clients are hosted within simpler set-up systems like LQ connected to partyline or as a hybrid solution within Eclipse HX where on-site production center users on V-Series IrisX panels are joined remotely by those on Agent-IC and Station-IC.
Can you share with us your recent interesting applications in the EMEA market with the use of Clear-Com systems
Our latest Eclipse HX release includes a new workflow supporting those users that move between panels or between panels and other devices like wireless beltpacks. The recent release of Role Session option in EHX gives the users the ability to log-in at a panel station, by USB stick or menu, and load their pre-saved key assignments and audio settings. This allows users the fluidity to move between fixed and mobile devices to enable dynamic productions, or to provide for redundancy in the event a production gallery must move, or just for personal freedom yet staying connected
Arcadia’s latest version has had up to 24 channels of HelixNet digital Partyline added to its wired and wireless station. This multi-channel low noise high quality intercom over standard IP networks provides a modern solution to live production where dynamic changes are often needed that can be controlled by the end user.
