Clear-Com Powers Global On-Air Student TV Broadcast

Clear-Com® recently provided its award-winning Gen-IC® virtual intercom solution to support real-time communications for On-Air Student TV, a 24-hour global student broadcast led by media innovator Carrie Wootten under the Global Media and Entertainment Talent Manifesto.

The world-first broadcast connected 913 students, staff, and industry volunteers across 17 locations on six continents, attracting more than 10,000 YouTube viewers during the live 24-hour stream. Using Gen-IC, program directors at Ravensbourne University in London coordinated with participating universities from Brisbane to Los Angeles, via São Paulo, Mumbai, and across Europe — all without dedicated intercom hardware.

"Each participating university was provided with Clear-Com's Station-IC™ virtual desktop client, allowing teams to easily coordinate their contributions," explained John Sparrow, Clear-Com's Technical Support Engineer for the project. "Once installed on a PC or Mac, all they needed was a headset to achieve perfect communications. Gen-IC reliably linked all Station-IC instances via the cloud, giving teams full real-time connectivity wherever they were."

Some universities went further, integrating Station-IC with local wired intercom systems. Students at Mulberry UTC, for instance, worked with Rise Academy to link a Stream Deck controller using the latest Station-IC update, creating a physical interface for operating communications.

"I stayed up for 36 hours straight to support the initiative, and it was very much worth it," Sparrow added. "With contributions from 17 locations on six continents, the buzz in the temporary MCR was incredible."

The broadcast also made history as the first live event to incorporate the Time Addressable Media Store (TAMS), an open-source API specification developed by BBC R&D. More than 30 industry partners, including Sky, AWS, ITV Studios, SMPTE, Vizrt, Levira, and Techex, collaborated under Wootten’s leadership to deliver a global showcase of student talent and media innovation.

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