Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nathan Grater]

We are looking to upgrade our wired com system. Currently we use Clear Com 1ch belt packs either with our Freespeak II system or with various Clear Com 2w base stations. That is not cutting it for the complexity of shows we are currently doing. We are looking to add a digital system with 2 or more channels per belt pack. 4+ channel keypanels or remote stations would also be great. Right now the front runners are Helixnet and OMNEO (Maybe OMENO ODIN). They seem to be similarly priced and have similar specs.

I like the 4ch packs on OMNEO but I also like the flexibility of powerline on Helixnet. Having a very similar programming methods between FSII and Helixnet is also alluring.

Does anyone have any preference or thoughts between the two? I have used and programmed Helixnet many times before but have not used Omneo before.

Is there anything else in this price bracket I should be looking at? We are Clear Com and RTS dealers and in Los Angeles I can easily get Omneo, Helixnet, and Artist sub rentals to buffer inventory as needed.

[Russell Ault]

{...} I like the 4ch packs on OMNEO {...}

I can't help with your question (I have no experience with Helixnet) but I did want to thank you for making me away that RTS has released a wired beltpack for OMNEO.

-Russ

[Nathan Grater]

Happy to help haha! It looks like exactly what I want. Four channels, great buttons and layout, and easy to use. Do you have the ODIN OMNEO or just the OMNEO Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced etc? The Matrix capability of the ODIN is what I really want but don't know if we can justify it. Having so much AIO would be great for a lot of the shows we do when we tie into a truck.

[Mac Kerr]

Happy to help haha! It looks like exactly what I want. Four channels, great buttons and layout, and easy to use. Do you have the ODIN OMNEO or just the OMNEO Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced etc? The Matrix capability of the ODIN is what I really want but don't know if we can justify it. Having so much AIO would be great for a lot of the shows we do when we tie into a truck.

The studio where I work has a single Odin frame with around 20 keypanels, and 5 or 6 Romeo wireless packs. We currently have no wired packs, but the DBP looks pretty interesting. If you go for an Odin, I would suggest selling your FSII and getting some Romeo RF packs. Like FSII you have to deploy enough transceivers, but then you program the 4ch wireless pack just like a keypanel, with access to the full system capabilities, inclucing point to point, Special lists, PLs, IFB, PGM, whatever. I assume the DBP programs the same, it just connects via POE+ Ethernet to Omneo.

The convenience of programming all belt packs as if the are 4 button panels will make a much smoother system.

Mac

[brian maddox]

I'll preface this with  admitting that I don't have much direct experience with OMNEO, so these comments are really more generalizations to maybe help you or someone else decide which direction to go.

in no particular order

1. In my experience, the sweet spot for number of channels for a belt pack nowadays seems to be 3. Of course HelixNet is only 2. Being able to change WHAT two channels quickly and easily [and remotely] is great, but if you stay in the Clearcom universe anyone that needs 3+ channels is gonna have to use a FSII pack so that's a consideration.

2. On a LOT of shows now I'm seeing people just deploying FSII systems for ALL comms. Sometimes those are interfaced to Unity or other things but most people on site are just using FSII. The old way of thinking that RF packs were inherently less reliable is largely gone and the advantages of remote configuration along with 4/5 channels PLUS direct talk on all belt packs all remotely configurable is hard to argue with. Of course it's also super easy to deploy AND to add stations or move them to different locations as needed. And the FSII system scales up and down so easily that it really is worth considering as your primary "belt pack" system interfaced to whatever hardwire system a show might require [a truck or an Intercom over IP or whatever] via good ol' 4-wire.

3. OMNEO is Dante based, which is both good and bad. It does require a good robust LAN to work correctly which may or may not be an issue for your applications. the HelixNet is NOT a traditional LAN system and I've found it to be more robust and fault tolerant than most Dante systems. And the Powerline capability is Super handy in a lot of situations.

4. Clearcom has a new "all singing all dancing" base station called Arcadia that interfaces HelixNet ["coming soon"] AND FSII as well as the new Freespeak Edge stuff. It also has DANTE built in which can be SUPER handy for interfacing to things like Unity Intercom or Unity Connect. Might be worth looking at, although I have no idea how this prices out with the other things you're looking at.

My last random thought is that if I were you I would be looking at this decision more as a Clearcom vs. RTS decision as once you've gone one way or the other I strongly suspect that you will essentially be locked into one company or the other for the foreseeable future. I would spend more time thinking about that decision from a long term strategy standpoint than I would necessarily looking at how any one product [like the 4 channel OMNEO pack] might solve a problem that you have Right Now. I think ClearCom has the edge currently [no pun intended] but I'm not working in your environment on your shows, so the answer for you might be very different.

Good Luck!

[brian maddox]

The studio where I work has a single Odin frame with around 20 keypanels, and 5 or 6 Romeo wireless packs. We currently have no wired packs, but the DBP looks pretty interesting. If you go for an Odin, I would suggest selling your FSII and getting some Romeo RF packs. Like FSII you have to deploy enough transceivers, but then you program the 4ch wireless pack just like a keypanel, with access to the full system capabilities, inclucing point to point, Special lists, PLs, IFB, PGM, whatever. I assume the DBP programs the same, it just connects via POE+ Ethernet to Omneo.

The convenience of programming all belt packs as if the are 4 button panels will make a much smoother system.

Mac

Mac wrote this while I wrote my reply, but as usual I tend to agree with him. If you go RTS I'd just switch over and go ALL RTS and be done with it.

[Russell Ault]

Happy to help haha! It looks like exactly what I want. Four channels, great buttons and layout, and easy to use. Do you have the ODIN OMNEO or just the OMNEO Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced etc? The Matrix capability of the ODIN is what I really want but don't know if we can justify it. Having so much AIO would be great for a lot of the shows we do when we tie into a truck.

The main multi-venue regional theatre here switched their entire comm system over to an ADAM frame a few years ago primarily for a ROAMEO deployment (to replace the now-illegal BTRs they had been relying on). The biggest complaint about the system (other than some intermittent pack reboots that appear to have been caused by battery contact corrosion) was that the ROAMEO packs couldn't be powered on while plugged in, so follow-spot operators (despite being basically stationary) need to run their packs on battery (and then we'd have to figure out how to make sure they got charged between shows). Obviously the DBP solves that nicely.

-Russ

[Nathan Grater]

Russell, Mac and Brian,
Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate the advice from each of you. I think I would prefer to go the OMNEO / ROAMEO route but I doubt I will be able to get buy in with the powers that be to fully transition from our large Clear-Com inventory to something else. Your advice to stick with one company is spot on. So I guess that leads me back to Clear-Com and Helixnet. I had completely forgotten that Helixnet was Coming Soon^TM to the Arcadia base station. That fact, along with having the ability to use the IP transceivers to have 10 packs instead of 5 per transceiver, is gonna sell us on it. I think adding an Arcadia with some Helixnet BP and remote stations will be what we need for now. In the end its probably a little undersized for our largest shows but I can sub rent Eclipse if required. Most of our clients have been fine with FSII on every station anyways except cameras and show caller / SM so having something with 4ch available through the remote station would be nice.

We do use 30+ drops of Unity pretty often so I am excited to integrate this into our system with Dante instead of 4w. We have a very robust Dante network as we are a Yamaha house so that shouldn't be a problem for us with either system.

Thanks again!

[Dan Currie]

Does anyone know if Arcadia has began to ship?  Having the ability to integrate with Helixnet/be Helixnet is an awesome feature, hopefully the license isn't too expensive. 

[ProSoundWeb Community]