Backstage at The Royal Albert Hall – communicating clearly with HelixNet

DRAFT - AWAITING RAH APPROVAL

Combine a Grade 1 listed building and a haystack of old wiring, some of it dating back 30 years, and it's not surprising that there are some communications issues! For the Royal Albert Hall's head of sound, Ollie Jeffery, it was clearly time to act, as the communications were becoming virtually unintelligible due to the number of buzzes and hums caused by the old wiring and the out of date system. During the summer, he and his team conducted some in-depth testing and research, identifying that there were two basic options – re-cable the entire backstage area or try to find a new system that would solve the problems. Their system of choice was the advanced Clear-Com HelixNet networked partyline intercom system, and Orbital was brought in to consult about the best way forward.

Orbital's installation expert, Tom Oakes, picks up the story:
"We knew that the main challenge was how to upgrade a really old system without costing the Royal Albert Hall a fortune. Ripping out the old wiring infrastructure and replacing even a fraction of it would have been prohibitively expensive. We advised Ollie to invest in a new HelixNet system, bringing in new headsets and beltpacks for a trial period to demonstrate how this very flexible digital solution could deal with their issues. Our proposal was to configure the system around a HelixNet Base station, together with 15 belt packs and appropriate interface cards, complemented by a TW47 walkie-talkie interface to integrate their existing Motorola units with HelixNet, enabling full communications between the two systems."


For Ollie Jeffery, the proposed course of action showed significant promise:
"The trial demonstrated straight away that the HelixNet system would improve our comms dramatically and it gave us confidence to go down this route, not least because it would save us tons of money! Orbital installed HelixNet half way during the Proms, and we used it in real anger for the first time on the McFly 10th Anniversary concert. We are really pleased with our choice and are already planning to invest in more belt packs. As an example, we now plan to put them on the follow spots and lighting team, giving them a dedicated channel to talk directly back to the lighting desk."


Stephanie Baldwin, xx at the RAH, was responsible for the project and the overall installation, elaborating:
"Orbital has been great, with Tom Oakes supervising the installation and providing us with brilliant support throughout as we got used to using HelixNet. They are really on the ball and we know that they will be there with us for the long haul – it's very reassuring. We now have a state-of-the-art digital four-channel comms system that runs on single 3-pin XLR cables without any compromise on quality. Best of all, we have crystal clear sound on all channels, anywhere we need it in the building, achieved without having to change out our existing wiring infrastructure. It's a great result all round."


"Orbital has been great, with Tom Oakes supervising the installation and providing us with brilliant support throughout as we got used to using HelixNet. They are really on the ball and we know that they will be there with us for the long haul – it's very reassuring."