Coordinating camera crews with wireless intercom systems

Broadcasting major international sporting events involves a lot of technology behind the scenes. Multiple cameras for live streaming, lighting, on-air talent, and production teams need to be coordinated. Sporting venues are supported by vast IT infrastructure including switches, routers, file transfer systems, storage, communications, and high-powered processing capacity.

RTS, part of the Bosch Group, is a leading supplier of professional intercom solutions, with more than 40 years of experience in the market. RTS systems are the choice of major broadcasters worldwide, trusted for coordinating coverage of the world's largest sporting events. These include the recent Summer Games in Tokyo, where RTS's unique Trunking technology enabled all the local and global locations of a major US-based broadcaster to act as a single virtual location. The installation for coverage of the Games was fully IP, comprising over 600 ports and leveraging two more singular and superior RTS technologies: OMNEO high-quality audio for local communication and RVON for international comms.

Improved Bluetooth connectivity with ClarinoxBlue

The RTS product line-up also includes high-quality partyline intercom solutions, including the new Digital Belt Pack (DBP). To ensure the highest quality Bluetooth connectivity to headsets and smartphones, RTS defined several objectives during the belt pack's development, addressing both hardware and software in the process.

First, it was a priority for the user to be able to place the DBP on a fixed stand or bench for freedom of movement within a limited range, without the restriction of wires. Next, it was desirable to allow the user to receive calls on their phone and talk or listen on the belt pack headset. Finally, it was required that the user be able to make calls on their smartphone and bridge these calls into the intercom so that the phone could act as a telephony bridge. To address these objectives, RTS chose Clarinox Technology to supply the ClarinoxBlue Bluetooth protocol stack software for RTOS.

ClarinoxBlue is a developer-friendly software protocol stack, designed exclusively for the development of embedded Bluetooth applications. The stack handles complex applications using both multiple profiles and multiple local Bluetooth devices, enabling an application to interact with several local Bluetooth devices simultaneously. The simplicity of the ClarinoxBlue API greatly reduces application development times. For most applications, the code written based upon ClarinoxBlue will comprise only one-third of the number of lines required for other stacks.

Clarinox tailored, compiled, and tested its ClarinoxBlue protocol stack software based on RTS's requirements. Bluetooth Classic handsfree, audio streaming, and cable replacement profiles were packaged, tested on the target hardware, and provided by Clarinox along with a reference application. In addition, Clarinox used its ClariFi debug tool to quickly resolve issues as they arose in the development phase.

"Reliability and quality in engineering are hallmarks of the Bosch brand, along with products that are innovative and spark enthusiasm," says Kevin Moore, Vice President of Engineering at Bosch Critical Communications Systems. "We chose Clarinox because the company and its products exceeded our requirements and our expectations."