Emmerdale production crew bolstered by new Clear-Com system

Communcation systems manufacturer Clear-Com‘s latest Eclipse intercoms now play a major part in the making of long-running British soap opera, Emmerdale.

The show, which is filmed at ITV’s new HD complex in Leeds and on location in the Yorkshire Dales, airs six episodes a week to an audience of almost ten million.

A Clear-Com Eclipse-Median digital matrix intercom has recently been employed by the production team, as well as V-Series panels and ICS-1016 digital intercom stations from the company, which ensure immediate access to fast, reliable communications across the various studios.

The size of the new Eclipse setup, which is larger than ITV’s previous Eclipse-PiCo system, allows the crew to communicate between the five studios and two production galleries at the facility. The system is also expandable, allowing the team to incorporate functions to meet more communications needs if required.

“With both a quick move and production schedule, we needed a talkback system that would be flexible enough to meet our needs as we grew into the new complex, while also being immediately recognisable to the crew,” said Steve Ridley, ITV senior engineer.

“While the PiCo system worked well for our original studio, when we moved to the new location we wanted something that gave us the same capabilities with an increased channel count. Also, because of our tight shooting schedule, we had to move straight into our new studios with minimum downtime. So, we had to have a talkback system already in place rather than try to move and reconfigure our existing equipment.”

Centrally located in the station’s main apparatus room, the Eclipse Median is a four-wire system with connections to cameras, the ICS-1016 digital base stations and other analogue sources. The standard port-wired panels are used in the control rooms, but the team takes advantage of the system’s network connectivity and V-series panels to run communications between all floors within the complex.

Keep up to date with the latest developments from the world of pro audio by registering for our free daily newsletter.