By: Debbie Hamby, Vice President of Marketing, Pliant Technologies
The idea behind virtual intercom is simple: give production professionals the ability to communicate from the devices they already use. But not all professional virtual intercom apps approach that goal in the same way.
Solutions such as Clear-Com® Agent-IC®/Station-IC™ and Unity Intercom have helped make smartphones and computers viable production communication tools. Clear-Com offers virtual clients through its Gen-IC cloud platform and existing hardware ecosystem, while Unity has built a software-first communications platform around mobile and desktop clients.
CrewCom Flex™ Virtual Intercom takes the concept one step further.
Rather than simply extending intercom communications to another device, CrewCom Flex makes the virtual user part of a broader professional frameless matrix IP intercom platform. Wired, wireless, and virtual communications can come together within one scalable ecosystem designed for modern production.
That’s an important distinction. The question is no longer simply, “Which company has an intercom app?”
It’s “Which virtual intercom gives production teams the fewest compromises?”
The Difference Between an Intercom App and a Virtual Intercom Platform
At their most basic level, virtual intercom applications allow users to communicate over Wi-Fi, cellular networks, or the Internet using smartphones, tablets, and computers. For many applications, that may be enough.
Professional production environments, however, demand much more. Producers, directors, camera operators, stage managers, engineers, announcers, and remote production personnel need access to sophisticated communication workflows that can include PartyLines, Groups, IFBs, point-to-point communications, program audio, mix-minus, wired users, wireless users, and remote contributors.
CrewCom Flex Virtual Intercom was designed around those requirements. Instead of creating a separate communications environment for virtual users, CrewCom Flex extends professional matrix intercom capabilities to smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers through an HTML5 browser or dedicated iOS and Android applications.
The virtual device isn’t simply talking to the intercom.
It becomes part of the intercom.
Advantage #1: Use an App—or Don’t
One of CrewCom Flex Virtual Intercom’s most significant advantages is right in the name: Virtual doesn’t necessarily mean app. Users can access CrewCom Flex through dedicated iOS and Android apps, but they can also use an HTML5-compatible browser. That can be a major advantage when productions need to add temporary personnel, freelancers, remote engineers, executives, guest contributors, or other users who may not want—or be permitted—to install dedicated software.
Open the browser. Authenticate. Join the production.
Clear-Com takes a different approach. Its Gen-IC virtual intercom platform uses Agent-IC for iOS and Android devices and Station-IC for Windows and macOS computers. Gen-IC can operate as a standalone cloud intercom or integrate with on-site systems through Clear-Com LQ interfaces.
Unity similarly uses dedicated client applications for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows connected to either its self-hosted or cloud environment.
All three provide virtual communications. CrewCom Flex adds another valuable option: the browser itself can become the panel.
Advantage #2: One Ecosystem for Wired, Wireless, and Virtual
This is where CrewCom Flex becomes much more than a virtual communications application. CrewCom Flex was designed as a unified professional intercom platform encompassing wired, wireless, and virtual communications.
That means a production can include an engineer on a CrewCom Flex hardware panel, a stage manager on a wired beltpack, a mobile crew member using CrewCom wireless, a producer on a laptop, and a remote operator using a smartphone.
The goal is not to create separate communication islands and then find ways to connect them. The goal is to make them part of the same communications ecosystem.
Clear-Com also provides extensive integration between virtual and hardware communications. Gen-IC supports standalone virtual intercom and can connect virtual clients with on-site systems through LQ interfaces. Clear-Com’s broader portfolio also offers significant wired and wireless integration capabilities.
Unity takes a more software-centric approach. Its clients connect to Unity Server or Unity Cloud, and its self-hosted system can integrate with external audio and traditional intercom through audio I/O or Dante-based workflows.
CrewCom Flex’s differentiator is the architecture: virtual communications were conceived as a native part of the same frameless matrix IP platform as the rest of the Flex system.
Advantage #3: Professional Matrix Capabilities Without a Traditional Matrix Frame
Traditional professional matrix systems concentrate communication routing around centralized hardware.
CrewCom Flex was designed to eliminate that dependency. Its frameless architecture distributes intelligence across the system instead of requiring every communication path to revolve around a conventional central matrix chassis. Virtual communications extend that philosophy even further. This allows organizations to create sophisticated professional communication environments without designing the system around the capacity of a central frame.
Start with virtual users.
Add wired panels.
Add beltpacks.
Integrate wireless.
Connect remote locations.
Expand as production requirements change.
The system can evolve with the workflow instead of requiring the workflow to conform to the limitations of a predetermined hardware architecture.
Advantage #4: Deploy It Your Way
Cloud shouldn’t have to be an all-or-nothing decision. CrewCom Flex Virtual Intercom supports multiple deployment models, including on-premises, integrated, and Cloud-based environments.
Organizations can deploy CrewCom Flex on a dedicated appliance or customer-provided server, integrate it with existing intercom and audio infrastructure using AES67 or SMPTE ST 2110-30 connectivity, or host the system entirely in the Cloud.
That flexibility matters because production organizations are at very different stages of their transition to IP and cloud-based workflows.
A major broadcaster may want to maintain substantial on-premises infrastructure while adding remote personnel.
A corporate AV department may want primarily virtual communications.
A production company might need one configuration this week and a completely different deployment for the next event.
CrewCom Flex doesn’t force all three organizations into the same model.
The architecture adapts to the production.
Advantage #5: Scale from a Few Users to Hundreds
Virtual communications become particularly valuable when the size of the crew changes frequently.
CrewCom Flex Virtual Intercom is designed to scale from a handful of remote users to environments supporting hundreds of virtual users. That creates a different way to think about intercom capacity. Instead of asking how many physical panels need to be purchased or how much capacity needs to be built into a central frame, organizations can add virtual users as operational requirements grow.
That can be especially valuable for broadcasters, live events, sports production, corporate AV, universities, houses of worship, and large distributed productions where the number and location of users may change from event to event.
Advantage #6: Turn a Virtual Panel into a Physical Control Surface
Touchscreens are convenient. Production professionals, however, often want buttons they can feel. CrewCom Flex bridges those two worlds through integration with Elgato Stream Deck®.
A dedicated plug-in allows Stream Deck controls to provide tactile operation of the virtual intercom environment. The result is an interesting middle ground between a software app and a dedicated hardware panel.
A remote producer working from a laptop can add physical controls without deploying a traditional intercom panel. A temporary control room can gain tactile communications without adding another rack of dedicated equipment. Users can choose the interface that makes sense for the job.
Phone when mobility matters. Browser when convenience matters. Physical controls when speed and tactile operation matter.
Advantage #7: Go Beyond Intercom with a Virtual Commentator Panel
Perhaps one of CrewCom Flex Virtual’s most compelling differentiators is that Pliant isn’t stopping at recreating an intercom panel on a screen.
The CrewCom Flex Virtual Commentator Panel turns a compatible computer, tablet, or smartphone into a purpose-built professional commentator station.
It provides separate on-air and intercom microphone channels, automatic on-air muting when intercom channels are active, and programmable monitoring for IFB, program audio, mix-minus, and auxiliary sources. Users can control monitor levels through rotary gain controls, and Stream Deck+ integration adds tactile operation. That has significant implications for sports, esports, remote commentary, live streaming, distributed broadcasts, and productions involving talent located outside the primary venue. Instead of shipping a specialized hardware commentator station to a remote announcer, the production can potentially bring the workflow to a device the commentator already has.
That’s no longer simply virtual intercom. It’s virtualizing the production position itself.
How Does CrewCom Flex Compare?
Other well-known intercom providers can provide professional virtual communications. The difference is that CrewCom Flex is the combination of capabilities.
It brings together browser access, dedicated mobile apps, frameless matrix architecture, wired and wireless integration, open IP standards, flexible deployment, large-scale virtualization, Stream Deck control, and specialized virtual production tools within one ecosystem.
No single feature tells the whole story. The integration of those features does.
The Clear Choice Is Flexibility
The future of production isn’t exclusively hardware. It isn’t exclusively software. And it isn’t exclusively Cloud. Professional production is becoming a combination of all three.
Crews move between venues. Engineers work remotely. Freelancers join productions temporarily. Broadcast facilities share resources. Commentators work from different cities. Wireless users move throughout the venue while producers and directors may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. The winning virtual intercom platform therefore shouldn’t simply replicate a walkie-talkie or partyline on a smartphone.
It should allow communications to follow the production wherever it goes. That’s the fundamental advantage of CrewCom Flex Virtual Intercom.
Use the device you want.
Work from the location you need.
Deploy the architecture that makes sense.
Add hardware when you need it.
Go virtual when you don’t.
Professional intercom is no longer defined by the panel sitting in front of you.
With CrewCom Flex, your next intercom panel may already be in your hand.
