/intercom

A githubbed version of DIY intercom system based on Mumble voice chat server and headless client running on Raspberry Pis.

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intercom

A githubbed version of DIY intercom system based on Murmur voice chat server and headless Mumble client running on Raspberry Pi 3 based beltpacks. It has been originally developed by Niclas Hallgren of Institutionen för Kultur och Media, Arcada UAS, Finland and funded by the university fund for technical education and research, TUF (Fonden för teknisk utbildning och forskning).

For more in-depth information head to https://inside.arcada.fi/kultur-och-media/made-in-arcada-an-open-access-diy-intercom-system/ for a writeup by the author himself.

Since this project is based on unlicense license I thought saving it for future generations is worth 10 minutes of my time. I'm not the author nor am I in any way connected to the development (yet!).

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What it's for

Providing communication for event production teams large and small with limited budget. Pro intercom solutions are very reliable but at the same time very expensive. Walkie-talkie PMR or UHF radios are OK and inexpensive, but they lack full-duplex partyline communication. And full duplex audio communication is a must for live TV production teams and for coordination teams on medium and large events.

How does it work

The soultion allows multichannel live full duplex communication over wifi networks utilizing Mumble communication protocol. The system has been tested with 12 beltpacks and 4 base stations, but should work with larger networks. A single endpoint needs ~60 kb/s bandwidth, beltpacks are known to run for +18 hours on a single charge. Latency of 10-100 ms is to be expected.

Room for improvements

  • MPTCP and/or dual interface networking with gracefull failover (3G/4G + wifi)
  • vibration alarm on call
  • screensaver mode preventing OLED screen burn-in
  • 'unlatch all' master base station button for rapid 'radio space' cleanup
  • tally integration (vMix & ATEM)