Clear-Com FreeSpeak Cell

What is all the fuss about?

At this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, Clear-Com officially launched FreeSpeak Cell. This groundbreaking technology changes the way we can deploy wireless intercom, moving from user-deployed infrastructure to utilising existing public cellular networks for connectivity.

Imagine being able to use full-duplex wireless intercom along a street parade route, to communicate between the start and finish of a fun run, or simply to establish a full-duplex chat between an event or broadcast site and the office or studio, all without setting up an antenna or any other infrastructure. The possibilities for enhanced communications that are opened up through this technology are as broad as your imagination.

The P.A. People are a long-term user of Clear-Com’s FreeSpeak full-duplex technology. They were an early adopter of the original CellCom system back in 2004, and in 2016 delivered the largest FreeSpeak II system at that time for the Opening Ceremony of the European Games in Baku. In 2021, they were the first to break the ’64-pack in a system’ barrier with a significant deployment of FreeSpeak II using Clear-Com’s new IP antennas and IPA cards for the UAE’s 50th National Day celebrations on Hatta Dam.

Now, in 2026, The P.A. People are excited to embrace the new paradigm offered by FreeSpeak Cell.

Marco Lopez, CTO for Clear-Com, recently penned the following article regarding the FreeSpeak Cell journey, which we present below with permission:

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Wireless intercom has historically relied on a familiar model: dedicated spectrum, carefully coordinated frequencies, and infrastructure built on-site to support each production. It’s a model that has worked well, but it’s also one that’s becoming harder to sustain.

Across the industries we serve, the pressure on RF spectrum is increasing. UHF availability continues to shrink in many regions. DECT and Wi-Fi bands are more congested than ever. At the same time, productions are getting larger, more distributed, and more complex.

We’ve reached a point where simply refining traditional approaches isn’t enough. The environment has changed.

That reality is what led us to develop FreeSpeak Cell. Field trials have already proven the concept at scale, supporting communications for some of the world’s highest-profile live broadcasts, including a major international film awards ceremony, championship American football games and a half-time show, several premier golf competitions and the largest cultural festival in Brazil, demonstrating the key tenets for FreeSpeak Cell of scale and range while maintaining the audio quality and reliability that customers depend on Clear-Com for.

Rethinking the Foundation

With FreeSpeak Cell, we stepped back and asked the question: what if intercom didn’t depend on local RF at all?

Cellular infrastructure (both public and private LTE and 5G) has matured into something far more robust than it was even a few years ago. It’s now widely available, highly reliable, and already deployed at many of the venues and locations where our customers operate.

Instead of building temporary RF systems for every production, we saw an opportunity to leverage what’s already there. What if you did not need to install dozens of antennas with all the permissions, rigging/masts, power, fibre cabling and networking that goes with them? Wouldn’t that be a huge saving in resources and time?

This isn’t just a technical shift. It’s a structural one.

From Coverage Limits to Coverage Potential

Traditional wireless intercom systems are inherently constrained by geography. Coverage is defined by where you place antennas, how you coordinate frequencies, and what spectrum is available.

Cellular changes that equation. With FreeSpeak Cell, communication is no longer tied to a single venue footprint. It can extend across campuses, between buildings, or even across entire production zones, wherever cellular network coverage exists.

That opens the door to a different kind of workflow. One where distributed teams can operate as a single, connected unit without the usual RF constraints.

Simplifying the Complex

Anyone who has worked large-scale productions knows how much effort goes into RF planning… frequency coordination, equipment placement, troubleshooting interference and more.

By shifting to cellular, much of that complexity moves out of the production layer. There is less temporary infrastructure to deploy. Less spectrum to coordinate. Less time spent solving RF conflicts. That does not eliminate planning, but it changes where and how that planning happens, especially when you consider the benefits of 5G SA along with the new abilities carriers have to prioritise certain traffic over spectators’ cell phones.

Designed for Where the Industry Is Going

We’re also seeing a broader shift in how venues and organizations think about connectivity. Private LTE and 5G networks (CBRS spectrum in the U.S. and n77/78 in Europe) are becoming part of core infrastructure. They’re being used for everything from operations to video transport to access control.

FreeSpeak Cell is designed to fit into that reality, working alongside other networked systems rather than competing for limited RF resources.

Not a Replacement, but an Expansion

It’s important to say: this isn’t about replacing existing wireless intercom systems. Technologies like FreeSpeak II remain the right solution for many environments, especially contained venues where traditional RF performs well.

What FreeSpeak Cell does is extend the toolbox. It gives our customers another option when scale, geography, or spectrum constraints make traditional approaches more difficult. As such, FreeSpeak Cell connects to the same Clear-Com ecosystem, allowing the use of different FreeSpeak family products simultaneously.

We see cellular intercom as part of a broader transition in our industry, one that moves communications beyond fixed infrastructure and into more flexible, network-based models.

Clear-Com’s goal with FreeSpeak Cell is to help our customers navigate that shift practically, reliably, and on their terms; because, at the end of the day, the objective has not changed: people need to communicate clearly, instantly, and without friction, no matter where they are.

Marco Lopez, CTO, Clear-Com

As a significant provider of traditional architecture FreeSpeak II systems, The P.A. People hold almost 400 FreeSpeak II beltpacks in their rental inventory, along with a fleet of priority-enabled SIM cards and a presence in a local data centre for over five years. The P.A. People are excited to invest in this exciting new FreeSpeak Cell technology from Clear-Com.

Get in touch with the P.A. People team to discuss how they might be able to incorporate FreeSpeak Cell into your next event workflow.

For sales and rental enquiries, contact the Event Communications team at The P.A. People at event.comms@papeople.com.au.

Clear-Com is distributed in Australia by Jands: www.jands.com.au