Los Angeles Opera Communicates with Clear-Com^®
Digital Matrix Intercom System

It has taken just two decades of existence for the Los Angeles Opera to become the nation’s 4th largest opera company. Housed in Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the opera will undertake an aggressive 2007-08 season, delivering 71 performances of 10 operas, filling out its schedule with an array of concerts and other presentations.

While the performers hit the high notes in front of the backdrop, there is a buzz of communication backstage to cue the talent, lights, sets and sounds. The LA Opera installed Clear-Com’s Eclipse Median matrix intercom system and CellCom wireless headsets last fall to solve the many challenges to this backstage communication.

The challenges for the intercom system were outlined by Todd Reynolds, lead audio for the LA Opera. “You wouldn’t think a communication system for an opera would be such an issue,” he said. He described a cascade of cues and other communications essential to bringing off a production like clockwork. It starts with the stage manager.

“The stage manager in an opera situation is following the music and giving cues, based on musical timings. Everybody hears them, and each department can then make sub-calls to their own operators,” said Reynolds. As an example, the lead spot operator, from the stage manager’s cue, can make his own cue calls to individual spot operators.

It is critical to the opera’s production that these supplemental communications never interfere with the stage manager’s calls, nor bleed over to other departments making their own sub-calls. As an added complication for the intercom’s configuration, the head of each department must also be able to communicate privately with their counterparts in other departments.

The opera had previously used a Clear-Com party-line intercom system, and looked to the Eclipse Median matrix intercom system to add the capabilities and flexibility that they needed. “The Eclipse Median worked simply the way we had hoped that it would. We made our communication configuration maps and installed them. The transition was seamless. The software for the Median was flexible and easy to use, which was exactly what we needed,” explains Reynolds.

The Eclipse system’s flexibility is important for a variety of reasons. Shows conducted at the facility change on a day-to-day basis, and the intercom system must be able to be reconfigured quickly each time.

As an example, the 2006-07 season featured a run of Porgy and Bess where the L.A. Opera utilized a large cast and crew that required a great deal of inter-crew communication. The Porgy and Bess production alternated nights with the Merry Widow, which utilized only half the cast and crew, with a much simpler communication scheme. Each day a new communication map was loaded into the Eclipse Median, and the system was immediately reconfigured for that evening’s performance.

When they are between operas, the ballet can book the Chandler facility. “Ballet likes things to be local, so they have one button and everybody talks to everybody,” said Reynolds. “When we have a one-night ballet, you pull up the ballet map, pop it in, and everything is all-call. And you did it in five minutes.”

Finally, Reynolds noted the facility hosts lecture series, which have included former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. “You have to set up your communications system to the security specifications. What does the Secret Service want? What do they want to hear? And we need to be able to do it on the fly.”

The demands of the productions themselves are not the only needs for intercom system flexibility at the opera: there are also individual preferences. “We have one stage manager who likes to have a private line out to the tech table. So we set up one channel that talks directly to the tech table,” he said.

Reynolds estimates that about 60-percent of the Eclipse Median’s setup can be done by looking at the crew list prior to the beginning of rehearsals. For the rest, there is the Supervisor Functionality feature. “I have a guy who does nothing but come in and work with the system, from the time we come in to the time we go out.” That operator utilizes the Eclipse’s Supervisor Functionality feature, allowing him to reprogram an individual base station from a central location.

“We get different lighting designers who like different things, they like their buttons set up in different ways. And now with the Median, plus the i-Series Stations, we can do that on the fly. We don’t have to go out there and interrupt anybody because you can do it all with the software.”

Another user preference was the use of foot switches to key intercom mikes at locations such as lighting panels, where the operators could not interrupt their hands-on operations to push a button. This was also easily done with the i-Series Stations.

Certain work groups at the opera wanted flashing lights to let them know someone was trying to communicate with them. Relays built into the i-Series Stations and the Eclipse matrix made this request easy to fill.

Many of the opera’s technical crewmembers can not be tied down to a hard-wired base station, as their duties require them to move about the stage. Reynolds said Clear-Com’s CellCom10 wireless beltpacks not only provide reliable mobile communication, but programming flexibility to meet individual crewmember needs.

“We’ve been able to give the electricians a button so they can talk to the head carpenter in case there’s an issue, which we didn’t have before. Now heads of departments can talk to other heads of departments without interrupting stage management.”

Likewise, for crewmembers that never need to communicate back into the intercom system, the CellCom beltpack can be programmed to ignore any button push which would accidentally key the mic.

Reynolds said the LA Opera has high expectations of its intercom system. “We want a system that runs flawlessly.” The Eclipse Median has delivered just that.