Pliant Technologies CrewCom Shows Off its Range at Opéra de Limoges

Pilote Films, a distribution partner for Pliant Technologies' solutions in France, recently worked with local integrator Geste Scenique to deploy and install Pliant's CrewCom wireless intercom system at Opéra de Limoges, a three-floor, 1,500 seat live theater venue.

"The CrewCom 2.4GHz wireless intercom system is based on a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and offers many advantages, which is why we recommended this system for use at the opera," says Bettina Hulsmeyer, director at Pilote Films. "It gives customers the ability to connect a large number of users, while allowing resources to be put where they are needed within the theater for complete coverage. CrewCom has excellent voice quality and the most compact, lightweight, full-duplex Radio Packs (RPs) on the market as well as countless additional user features."

Pilote Films recommended the CrewCom system to Christian Desaivres, manager at Geste Scenique and Samy Barillot, technical director, to meet the needs and requirements outlined by Opéra de Limoges. After an initial demonstration of the system, the Geste Scenique team was very impressed by the benefits CrewCom offered and agreed that it was the best option for the venue.

For this particular application, two Control Units (CUs) were required to support the 20 RPs used by the theater's production crew. The system deployment required the installation of nine CrewCom Radio Transceivers (RTs) to ensure a large coverage area to meet the needs of the entire facility. The opera has separate RPs for the indoor and outdoor productions.

"We wanted to change our high frequency communication system because the frequencies we used were no longer regulatory," says Philippe Laurent, CTO at Opéra de Limoges. "We use many of CrewCom's innovative features, including the ability to change profiles on each RP. The permanent staff has several job functions in the opera house, and they can quickly change the configuration accordingly. We also use an AUX output dedicated to an external sound source frequently to have the music of the orchestra playing in the headphones. We never know what event or concert is coming next and CrewCom's versatility helps us cover a wide variety of productions."