Riedel Supports UGA Bulldogs

Riedel Communications supported the University of Georgia (UGA) Bulldogs as they won back-to-back College Football Playoff National Championships since switching to Riedel's intercom systems three years ago.

Supplied by MV SportsCom, a value-added reseller and Riedel partner, Riedel's Bolero wireless intercom system is a highly portable solution that deploys easily, even at away venues, and performs reliably to ensure clear communications among the team's booth and field coaches.

"Communication is vital to the game — for coach and field comms to the booth, and ultimately from coach to player," said John Meshad, Director of Equipment Operations, UGA. "As we travel from stadium to stadium, we need to know we're bringing an on-field communication system that will set up easily and just work. The quality of the Riedel comms equipment speaks for itself, considering how well the Bulldogs performed in the recent National Championships. Switching or upgrading to MV SportsCom and the Riedel system was one of the greatest changes/advancements I made in my 17 years as the director of football equipment at the University of Georgia."

Because Riedel's Bolero wireless intercom system in stand-alone mode supports up to 10 beltpacks per antenna and up to 100 antennas in a single system, the UGA operations teams don't have to manage multiple base stations. A smaller support team can handle deployment quickly, and even nontechnical members of the equipment operations team can manage setup effectively. Thanks to this ease of use, the Bulldogs rely on Bolero during both practices and games.

Each venue UGA travels to for football games has a different infrastructure to support on-field and booth communications. Riedel's Bolero intercom system can traverse the different connection options to booth controls and with third-party gear, allowing the UGA operations team to connect effortlessly at any stadium. This is true even when other teams or the in-venue production are using Bolero as well. For instance, at the National Championship game, the frequency coordinators reported that between SoFi Stadium and UGA's Bolero packs, there were 75 beltpacks in use inside the venue … without issue.

"We were fortunate to meet Riedel back in 2019, after we got UGA through the Sugar Bowl using their previous system combined with some gear we lent them," said Vincent Vaccher, President/CEO of MV SportsCom. "Riedel was more than willing to help us make the changes necessary to turn our concepts into reality. Thanks to Riedel, UGA and our other clients can easily make changes to the beltpack via computer, or we can dial in and assist them remotely to configure any of the six audio channels available on each beltpack."

MV SportsCom began working with UGA about five years ago, and the university's existing intercom system at the time lacked the reliability and support UGA needed. Both Riedel and MV SportsCom were willing to meet those requirements, and together they helped the university deploy the Bolero and Artist digital matrix intercom system in 2020 and then move on to the Bolero stand-alone wireless intercom system the following year.

"We have enjoyed partnering with MV SportsCom over the past few years, using their feedback and making any necessary feature changes in Bolero," said Dave Caulwell, Regional Sales Director, Riedel Communications, North America. "Communication among coaches is so important to team strategy and performance in elite college sports — and football, in particular — and it's been great working with MV SportsCom to support one of the nation's top athletic programs."

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