Clear-Com enhances communications at the Alley Theater

Arcadia Central Station, integrating FreeSpeak II digital wireless beltpack systems and HelixNet digital party line systems, configure the system Clear-Com that this important American theater uses for its productions.

With a trajectory that began in 1947, he teatro Alley It is one of the oldest and largest in the United States, in which everything from classics to innovative works and community programs are produced that reach almost 200.000 people annually when they visit him in the city of Houston.

For years, the theater uses the equipment Clear-Com for its productions and has now renewed its equipment with the Arcadia central station, that integrates digital wireless beltpack systems FreeSpeak II and those with digital shared line HelixNet in their of the concert halls: Hubbard, with capacity for 774 personas, y Neuhaus, to 296 personas.

This combination with Clear-Com systems allows stage managers, table operators, technical and creative teams stay connected, without interruptions, throughout the Alley Theater Production Center, of 6.967 square meters.

“Clear-Com is essential for our team's communication,” says Chandler Oppenheimer, Alley Theater Deputy Sound Director. We use Bluetooth wireless packs for our FOH mixers and rely on HelixNet to support our automation teams.. It provides us with the reliability and flexibility we need for a theater production of the highest level”.

Clear-Com equipment deployed in theater includes, plus Arcadia Central Station with Dante integration for behind-the-scenes location and archive recording, twenty FreeSpeak II wireless belt systems and six transceiver antennas, providing coverage in both theaters and extensive backstage areas.

Added to this are twenty HelixNet wired belt packs and multiple remote stations for stage management and table operators., as well as speaker stations installed in offices and automation for extend communication beyond the stage.

This infrastructure allows the Alley Theater staging technically complex productions, like their annual show A Christmas Carol, where up to sixteen wireless belt systems are used simultaneously to synchronize all departments.

“Alley is a pillar of Houston's cultural life and a reference in the American theater movement - underlines Katherine Moore, marketing director at Clear-Com-. As a Houstonian, “It was especially meaningful to tour the theater backstage and see how our technology is integrated into each production.”.

For a repertory theater that produces classics, world premieres and major productions with rotating repertoire, flexibility is essential. Alley's technical team can set up a compact communications system for an intimate play in the living room Neuhaus a week and then expand it to cover the space Hubbard, with multiple lighting operators, sound, projections…

FreeSpeak II's robust wireless coverage also allows staff to move freely around the Meredith J Theater Center. Long, of 7.100 square meters, without fear of losing connection. As Oppenheimer points out, “maybe the public will never see the choreography behind the scenes, but feel with certainty the impact of a team that communicates with precision and confidence”.