Small-medium church setting here... 400 seats. We're really beefing up the production quality since covid. Recently did a sanctuary cosmetic renovation so money isn't abundant at the moment.
I'm searching for an inexpensive intercom solution that really may only be used for communications between myself (camera switcher and overall person in charge of the mess), a Pro Presenter person, 2-3 camera people, and maybe a broadcast audio engineer.
The ability to talk in groups and talk individually is definitely desired. Also the ability to route my com mic to a channel on the mixing console (we're using Dante) which I then could send to someone's in-ears to talk to them during the service would be really snazzy for those rare occasions you need to pass a message to the stage.
It makes sense to seek a smart-phone and computer based solution since every already has one or both with them. I have a background in networking so IP-based and locally hosted solutions really tickle my fancy.
We're using Bird dog minis for our cameras and we got the free comms pro for being a church, but this only solves our problem for our camera operators... we need a system that works for people not at bird dog devices.
The Unity intercom platform looks REALLY promising and ultimately will probably be what we end up with (I'd need to repurpose my old retired mac mini as we're all windows)... but I'm kind of seeking a less expensive solution for the temporary (yeah I know... it's already pretty inexpensive).
The Zello app looks like it may be a decent in-between?
I just want to hear your thoughts on the matter... I'm sure some of you have already fought this battle so I'd love to hear your findings.
