AY Productions Turns to Pliant Technologies' CrewCom for a Range of Popular Live Events

AY Productions, audio and coms specialists, turns to Pliant Technologies' CrewCom wireless intercom to provide robust communications for a range of live productions including Thursday Night Football (TNF), the AFC Championship, the Democratic Debate in Charleston, the Masters, U.S. Open Golf, PGA Championship, World Series, NFL Draft, and the Super Bowl. Aaron Young, coms engineer at AY Productions, and Andy Rostron, freelance coms engineer, began their partnership working on Thursday Night Football (TNF) back in 2013.

As technologies advanced and productions grew more complicated, the duo found they were outgrowing their traditional analog wireless system, which was difficult to deploy and did not provide enough coverage. During their search for a replacement wireless intercom, they found exactly what they were looking for with the CrewCom 900MHz system.

For TNF, AY Productions deploys 16 Radio Packs (RPs) and 14 transceivers (antennas) to provide a reliable and extensive coverage zone. "Our entire RF coms system is CrewCom -- we don't need any third-party networking equipment," says Young. "Everything is included within one ecosystem, which is a big advantage. The antennas connect via a single strand of fiber, so we place those all around the stadium, wherever coverage is needed -- and we know it will always work. Users can walk around from zone-to-zone with seamless coverage including the tunnels, locker rooms, and truck compound."

A standout feature for Young and Rostron is the system's ease of deployment, which is especially important for mobile productions. "CrewCom really streamlines the setup for us -- it's essentially three products in one: intercom, audio transport, and wireless PL," says Rostron. "In our old configuration, we had to transport analog audio to sets both inside and outside the stadium where there would be racks of different RF equipment. Now the only thing we deploy away from the truck is the transceivers. The control units and all interconnections are positioned within the compound, which is a huge advantage for us. Additionally, the CrewCom packs have far superior audio quality to other manufacturer's intercoms."