TED talks are more demanding than many productions, combining theatre, streaming and recording. Given that “TED is always on the cutting edge of technology - the T in TED,” as Mina Sabet, TED’s Head of Production, said, when its “existing communications system wasn't working as intuitively as I had hoped,” it turned to Clear-Com.
“We needed a tool that would streamline our communications and do it as good as possible, and Clear-Com has gone above and beyond. We can communicate very clearly and efficiently with everybody on the teams throughout the production. We've never had an issue. It's been completely seamless,” she said.
This isn’t always the case. “We had a conference in Nairobi and I wished we had talked about how to deal with our communications on site because we used a local company with local gear and it was not Clear-Com, and it was a little bit of a disaster,” she said.
Bob Boster, Clear-Com’s President, added: “TED’s permanent facility in New York is based on our Arcadia platform, and they have FreeSpeak 2 beltpacks for wireless, connecting over IP around the facility. They are also using HelixNet panels, and the system connects to our cloud intercom, Gen-IC, for people who need a system on their phone or their tablet. The connection between Arcadia and Gen-IC is through a product called LQ.”
TED also uses Clear-Com for its flagship conference, recently held in Vancouver, where it used Clear-Com’s Eclipse Delta Frame, FreeSpeak wireless systems and Dante audio distribution, all networked over high-performance Netgear switches. “We are partnering with Clear-Com again to do our newest series of conferences: TED Next, in Atlanta,” added Sabet.
“TED Next will use a wireless system based around our new FreeSpeak Icon belt pack, and that'll be attached to IP-based transceivers around the facility, which will use the Arcadia platform as the brain for the system,” explained Boster. It is also likely to use Gen-IC, but hasn’t decided how yet.
Adobe to acquire AI firm Topaz Labs
Adobe has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Topaz Labs, an Emmy-winning AI company that develops tools for video and image enhancement. Terms of the deal, expected to close in the second half of 2026, were not revealed.
Looking Gude for Tag team
Cable specialist Argosy has expanded its infrastructure portfolio with the addition of Gude Systems’ intelligent power distribution units (PDUs) and GeoTag asset tracking technology from Tazaar. The firm becomes an official distributor for both manufacturers.
Vortex spins up 2 to go
Vortex2 and Vortex2 Soft are two new compact lights from Creamsource offering the same CreamOS workflow, colour science, rugged build quality and IP65 weather resistance of its existing Vortex family, but in a smaller 160W form factor.
Cinema lighting with added punch
New from Fiilex are the G9 Color, its largest profile light to date, and the MotoK40, a 3600W moving-head LED punch light for film, live events and virtual sets.
Blackwell box boost for live production
Aimed at enterprise video production, and combining Grass Valley hardware and AMPP OS, and NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, AMPP Edge Live has its European debut at IBC2026. New capabilities can be introduced through software, allowing user workflows to evolve as requirements change.
