Corus Quay features an integrated digital infrastructure for broadcast and digital content creation, with system integration for the facility handled by The Systems Group, who contracted Bexel to provide its wireless engineering expertise – including an advanced intercomm system. With six Telex BTR-80N wireless base stations, each with 24 TR-82N dual-channel belt packs working in conjunction with 20 wireless microphones and 16 wireless IFB systems throughout the space, Bexel’s Distributed Antenna System allows maximum coverage facility wide.
In addition to being a worldwide provider of broadcast services, including video and audio equipment rentals, fibre services, new audio sales, used equipment sales, and repairs/maintenance, Bexel has had a strong history in wireless support for the broadcast industry since it purchased the former Systems Wireless in 1998. ‘Wireless is our specialty,’ says Senior Project Engineer, Jim Dugan. ‘We often work with The Systems Group on facilities where they are the integrator; they bring us in to do the work specifically on the wireless portion of a project. We design, install and commission the entire RF system for the facility. We like the Telex BTR products because they’re robust, extremely durable, and reliable. The BTR’s have definitely proven their worth over the years.’
At Corus Quay, The Systems Group provided an RTS Adam digital matrix, which interfaces directly via four wires with the Telex BTR-80N wireless intercom base stations. ‘It’s such a perfect virtual wireless extension of the intercom’s functionality, says Dugan. ‘It’s very easy to get around and very simple to interface either two-wire or four-wire. There’s also a very convenient aux input on the base, which can be used as a programme input.’
The wireless intercoms used are six Telex BTR-80N narrow-band, two-channel UHF synthesised wireless base stations. The new narrowband design simplifies frequency coordination and planning because of its more efficient use of spectrum. ‘You can, in effect, get more beltpack frequencies to take advantage of as much spectrum as possible, especially in the ever-popular and changing UHF spectrum,’ Dugan adds.
The intercom at Corus has to operate in an environment that is shared with 20 wireless microphones and 16 IFB systems for wireless foldback to talent. ‘The BTR-80N base stations transmit on two frequencies,’ Dugan explains. ‘If you have four beltpacks then you have another four frequencies being transmitted back to the base. So for each station we use six frequencies, and with six stations that makes 36 frequencies – just for intercom. It’s because the Telex narrowband systems are so efficient that we’re able to use that many channels without interfering with the mics or the IFB.’
The TR-82N wireless belt packs also have a Stage Announce feature that allows production staff to hit a button on the pack and talk directly to a PA system for audience coordination. ‘The TR-82Ns also have a wireless talk-around feature,’ Dugan says. ‘All the beltpacks can talk to each other without going back through the base. This lets production relay messages on the floor without disrupting the control room. The beltpacks also have an RF auto power-control setting, which will adjust power as needed. Depending on your distance from the base, this feature both reduces the chance of intermix and also gives you much more efficient use on battery life.’
The BTR-80N bases, wireless mics, and IFB systems are all connected to a distributed antenna system custom-built by Bexel. This services eight separate zones in the building, including four studios, various green rooms, and hallways. ‘The distributed antenna system lets us extend the range into eight times as many places as any one base station would reach on its own. The Telex system works great with a distributed antenna topology because of Telex’s band management strategy, in which the transmit and receive frequencies are 100MHz apart.
‘We are very proud of the work we do with The Systems Group and are always grateful for the opportunities they provide us,’ Dugan says.
More: www.bexel.com
