Clear-Com has long been the industry standard in wired, party-line intercom devices. The company has always made good, reliable products that last for years. Building on this legacy, Clear-Com has recently released its 700 series of wired beltpacks.
Many of you may remember the old-school RS100A Clear-Com beltpacks that were made out of silver metal and had the bright orange light and a two-position toggle switch. Those things were built like tanks and did the job well. They can still be found at some theaters around the world. Replacing these tanks were the well-built and smart 500 series beltpacks. These became ubiquitous and just about anybody in entertainment today has used one. They were well built (although made from pastic), relatively small, and quite tough. If you rent a beltpack today, chances are it’s a 500 series.
Then, Clear-Com took a little step backward, in my opinion, with the 600 series. The units felt less durable, made from weaker plastic, with flimsy buttons that gave the feeling they weren’t cut out for heavy wear and tear. These never caught on, and I think the only people who own them are people who really needed new beltpacks at the time.
Well thankfully, Clear-Com has gone back to its roots. The 700 series beltpacks are tough. They feel tough, and they’re a pleasure to use, or as much of a pleasure as a beltpack can be. The good-looking gray case is well made and has significant amounts of metal in it, with rubberized corners. They are a tad heavy, but that too contributes to the feeling that they can take abuse. In fact, Clear-Com demonstrates this in the video below, in which a Jeep drives over a beltpack.
The layout of the interface has been flipped, from the 500 series so that on a single-channel unit, the talk button and volume control are on the right side of the beltpack. This means that, if the unit is clipped to your right side, the button and volume control are more forward, which makes life easier. The button themselves are rubberized switches that I found easy and satisfying to use. Unlike the 500 and 600 series, you have to select a talk-button latching up via a dip switch. Latching is either enabled or disabled, so it’s not something easy to select on the fly. I’m not sure this is a great thing, as we all know the more party-line mics that are on, the worse intercom life becomes.
Other dip-switch options include picking a dynamic or electric mic type, adjusting the headset output level to low or high, setting the minimum volume to be silent or not silent, setting all of the LEDs to be on or off (for stealth operation), and enabling or disabling the call light from turning on when the talk button is engaged. There is also a rotary screw control for adjusting the sidetone level. Finally, the RS-703 has an additional dip-switch where you can select if the unit is Clear-Com-compatible or RTS-compatible, if using the beltpack on an RTS network.
A new improvement is a small LED that tells you if the unit has power. It’s just nice to see an "on" light from a distance and know you’re set. It also will help with troubleshooting. The XLR jacks are secured in the metal frame of the pack in a way that the whole unit feels like a tank. And the metal belt clip is massive, meaning the unit will stay with you as you maneuver.
The 700 series beltpacks come in three models. The RS-701 is the single-channel beltpack. The RS-702 is the two-channel beltpack (input via a 6-pin XLR). The RS-703 is a two-channel unit, but instead of the 6-pin XLR input for the two channels, it has two 3-pin XLRs. This means that with this unit, you don’t need the traditional YC-36 adaptor cable (two 3-pin XLR to one 6-pin XLR). That’s quite handy in many circumstances as those Y cables are often the first items to be lost or forgotten. Both the RS-702 and 703 can have a program signal injected into them. The RS-702 can receive program down pins five and six of the six-pin XLR. The RS-703 also has a 3.5mm TRS input for program, whose level can be independently controlled from the intercom level.
As I mentioned, the beltpacks are more like the popular 500 series and less like the 600 series. This is true in their shape as well. The units mirror the shape of the 500 series, except that they are a little bit wider, coming in at 4.5” wide. All three varieties allow a connection of a typical headset with a 6-pin XLR connector. The audio quality is quite good, as is usual with Clear-Com equipment. They boast a dynamic range of 130db and a low noise headphone amp and high headroom mic preamp. Clear-Com says this adds up to the "Clear-Com Sound," and I suppose that’s true.
As you would expect, accompanying these new beltpacks, Clear-Com has updated its Main and Remote base stations as well, and both have a few new features. I didn’t get to use these items, but they look to be smart units.
Even if your 500s are still going strong, with the RS-701, 702, and 703, if you need to get new Clear-Com beltpacks, you have a great product to buy. For that, I’m quite pleased with the 700 series.