Clear-Com’s Arcadia Central Station and FreeSpeak Icon Beltpacks Keep Red Bull’s Wheels Spinning
ALAMEDA, USA – February 24, 2026 – Clear-Com® kept the action on track at Red Bull Shay’iMoto, an adrenaline-fueled motorsport spinning event that transformed the streets of Durban, South Africa into a live performance arena.
To manage communications in the extreme noise, speed, and complexity of live motorsport, production specialist Showcom invested in a new Clear-Com system, deploying two Arcadia® Central Stations, multiple FreeSpeak Icon™ beltpacks and FreeSpeak II® transceivers, supplied by Clear-Com partner DWR Distribution. Arcadia delivered broadcast-grade performance while meeting the fast setup and teardown demands of outside broadcast (OB) and live event production.
“What we’ve just invested in is opening a whole new world for us,” said Nickolas Chapman, Managing Director of Showcom. “In our business, setup and teardown time is brutal.” Chapman continued, “We can’t afford full complex matrix systems that take hours to rig,” he said. “This modular Clear-Com system gives us high-end flexibility without the heavy lifting. It’s fast, efficient, and built for high-pressure environments. The game-changer for me specifically is the VI12 key push-button panels that can IV inject straight into Arcadia”
Arcadia gave Showcom freedom to scale communications dynamically across the event footprint, supporting multiple production teams while maintaining clarity and control. Its design allowed rapid configuration changes as needs differed throughout the event.
“This was one of the largest Clear-Com deployments we’ve seen in South Africa,” said Kyle Robson, Sales Support Specialist at DWR Distribution. “Red Bull Shay’iMoto was the perfect proving ground. The system handled the intensity of live motorsport with ease and demonstrated how Arcadia can support serious broadcast workflows in a compact, efficient package.”
For Showcom, the investment in Clear-Com technology has already delivered tangible business impact. “This system directly led to our first broadcast contract,” Chapman added. “We can now scale up or down depending on the job, expand channel counts, and reduce setup time dramatically. Arcadia’s plug-and-play design makes it incredibly powerful for OB and live events.”
Chapman, who has been a Clear-Com user since 1985, emphasized the evolution of the platform. “Clear-Com has always been rock-solid, but what they’re doing now is next level. I can break a large system into smaller ones or link systems together depending on the show. It’s exactly what modern productions need.” He also recalled how quickly things evolved. “We started small with two Arcadias, a 32-port and a 48-port, and I’m already running out of space. I’m linking channels, integrating older FreeSpeak units, pushing everything to the max. It’s modular madness in the best way possible.”