In 2012 Henry Engineering introduced Talent Pod, a mic and headphone controller for remote broadcasts as well as in a typical radio studio. The Talent Pod lets an announcer to turn his mic on and off, and create his own headphone audio mix of local and return audio. Henry Engineering says that the Talent Pod solved several problems often encountered when doing remote broadcasts, especially at sporting events.
The company says that two comments it often heard from Talent Pod users were, “We need a talkback output, so talent can talk (off-air) to our producer” and “We need a way to remotely turn the mic on and off.”
Henry Engineering says its new Sports Pod will debut at the NAB Show with these features.
The Sports Pod will be similar to Talent Pod, with the same headphone audio-mix facilities and the ability to link several units via Cat-5 cable. But instead of two buttons for mic control, it will have three: mic on/off, cough, and talkback.
Unlike the Talent Pod, the Sports Pod’s mic on/off function will be remotely controllable. Both the talent and a remotely located pushbutton can control the microphone. The Sports Pod’s remote tally output can illuminate the remote mic on/off button for confirmation.
Sports Pod’s new talkback system will let the talent to talk to a producer or engineer. Pushing the talkback button will mute mic audio from the main (on-air) output, and send it to an isolated talkback output. This output is transformer-isolated and balanced, suitable for very long cable runs. When Sports Pods are used with a Henry Engineering MultiPhones master unit, full duplex talkback (intercom) between talent and producer is possible.
The Sports Pod will be compatible with the Cat-5 protocol used for Talent Pods, MultiPhones and MiniPods, so all units can be “mixed-and-matched” in an integrated system.
NAB Show Booth: C1831
Info: www.henryeng.com
