Unity Case Study - KSHB News
This is a case study with KSHB Action 41 News using Unity Intercom. We asked the station to share the details of how they were using Unity. The following Article and Video was created by the TV station to demonstrate how Unity Intercom had been integrated into their existing infrastructure and how it has positively changed the way they communicate.
Article by Phil Brooks - Engineering Manager - KSHB- 41 Action News
Our station found out about Unity Intercom at 2016 NAB and we were curious to see if we could use it as a tool to help eliminate our dependence on traditional phone couplers for our Remote ENG shots. Traditionally phone couplers worked very well in a scenario where you had a full truck equipped with telular and wireless IFB packs, but with the advent of Cellular Network IO streaming solutions where more than half of our live shots are done from a back pack device the traditional phone couplers were becoming a bottleneck for our communications. We quickly ran into a scenario where we had more talent and photographers in the field needing communications than we had available phone couplers. The Unity Intercom server was an affordable solution that removed this bottleneck while providing field talent an IFB that has much higher sound quality than the traditional “dial in” type.
Our challenge was to see if we could integrate this system into our current Clear Com Median frame so that it would be transparent to our Director and Producer team. It was important to not disrupt the workflow that had already been established in our control room. Using a Mac Mini and a Behringer FCA1616 audio I/O we were able to setup 6 analog input and output ports that linked the Clear Com Median frame to the Unity Server. We were then able to group these new audio ports with the old legacy Phone coupler talk listen ports and assign them to the same button configuration our staff was currently using on their existing intercom panels. The end result was a seamless workflow for our production staff and much more flexibility for our talent in the field.