Overview

Our Custom Commentator Boxes, that we built, have Arduino microprocessors in them that communicate via the WiFi network to our Yamaha TF3 Audio Console inside the OB Truck. We currently have them setup for Channels 1 & 2 on the TF3 board. Essentially they are remote controls that communicate with the Yamaha TF Audio Console. No audio passes through these boxes. We have a Tio1608 that connects over the fiber network via Dante to the Audio Console in the OB Truck that handles the audio to and from the commentators. 

Commentators talking “ON/OFF AIR”, MUTE or TALKBACK

These units have three momentary/latching buttons RED, YELLOW & GREEN.

The RED “ON AIR” latching ON/OFF button basically sends a MUTE/UN-MUTE command to the TF over the network so our commentators can take themselves “ON AIR” or “OFF AIR”. If the RED button/light is lit RED then they know they are “ON AIR”.

While they are “ON AIR” if they press and HOLD DOWN the YELLOW “MUTE” button they will be temporarily muted as long as the button is pressed down. This acts more like a cough-mute button.

The GREEN TB/Talkback button does several things, when pressed and held down it MUTES their microphone channel (takes them “OFF AIR”) then opens their microphone on a different channel/aux on the TF where we have a talkback channel so they can speak directly to everyone in the OB Truck while being “OFF AIR”. This has been very useful during productions! It gives us two-way communication without the need for the commentators to have a separate intercom headset. It also only uses a single audio channel on the board per each commentator (one channel per commentator/box).

OB Truck talks back to Commentators

Currently how the truck talks back to the Commentators is via a microphone we have setup inside the OB Truck where our A1 Audio Op can talk directly with them through our Talkback AUX on the TF. In the future we are going to either create a button panel inside the truck or just use a StreamDeck/CompanionApp to give us a button that will activate our Intercom System on the Talkback Channel of the TF. This will allow our Director to talkback directly with the commentators through our Intercom System (it has XLR Audio In/Out). This is useful when we have minimal staff/crew on a show. 

These commentator boxes can run on one battery-pack all day long as they use very little power. They connect to our wireless network and so far they have been really solid and reliable. 

Does this peek your interest?

You can either go out and spend several thousand dollars to purchase your own commentator boxes or you could build something yourself!

A more affordable option for you to achieve something similar is by using a Stream Deck, BitFocus Companion App and a plugin for your Audio Console (if it exists). This option is cheaper than purchasing commentator boxes but more than ours costs. I would recommend this option because it is probably the more flexible option and easily updatable route to go. You can program as many buttons as you have on the Stream Deck for other things as well. You could get a Raspberry Pi 4 as a controller and run the BitFocus Companion App software on that and plug the Stream Deck into it. Put the Raspberry Pi and Stream Deck wherever your Commentators are. Most Raspberry Pi’s have wired Ethernet built-in, you will have to check on the Wireless/WiFi capability if you are interested in running a wireless solution. Programming the buttons in Companion App is really easy and there are tons of tutorials out there.  

Or… maybe if you contact us on IG we might share with you how we built ours. I think we spent around $45 USD per/unit to build these. It did take a little time, tools, solder, code and knowhow.