Constellation compatible Talkback systems

Hello,

We're considering changing the equipment from an old Atem 1 M/E Production Switcher to a new ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD.

At this moment, we have own external Intercom system, completely independent of the Blackmagic Studio camera system. With the Constellation HD, the talkback are integrated with the cameras, but we need an additional headset. I saw that the Constellation have a RJ45 for talkback, but i can't find at the manual too much information about it.

Do i need an (expensive) extra hardware to get only one more headset or can I make it work with a simple RJ45 to XLR adapter? Can I know which specific hardware can do this?

Thank you!

All depends on your current intercom system.

The Talkback connector of the Constellation is a Dual 4Wire analog balanced audio in and output.

1 for Engineering and 1 for Director.

This is just normal line level 4 wire. So it's not a party line and you can not just hang any system to it. But if your system can interface with 4Wire then it should be oke.

All depends on your current intercom system.

The Talkback connector of the Constellation is a Dual 4Wire analog balanced audio in and output.

1 for Engineering and 1 for Director.

This is just normal line level 4 wire. So it's not a party line and you can not just hang any system to it. But if your system can interface with 4Wire then it should be oke.

First of all, thank you for your reply!

I have seen the pinout in another thread, but, sorry for my total ignorance:

Can the 4 Wires of the RJ45 of each intercom be soldered directly to the XLR connector?

All depends on your current intercom system.

The Talkback connector of the Constellation is a Dual 4Wire analog balanced audio in and output.

1 for Engineering and 1 for Director.

This is just normal line level 4 wire. So it's not a party line and you can not just hang any system to it. But if your system can interface with 4Wire then it should be oke.

First of all, thank you for your reply!

I have seen the pinout in another thread, but, sorry for my total ignorance:

Can the 4 Wires of the RJ45 of each intercom be soldered directly to the XLR connector?

That's what I've done and it works fine.

I connect the XLRs to Dante converters and I can feed anything I need into comms via an audio mixer

Perfect!
Thank you all so much.

It would help to know what intercom system you are trying to connect to.

As others have mentioned if you are using an intercom system that works with 4-wire audio (where the talk and listen audio is handled separately), then you can typically just use a simple wire converter to connect things. Most matrix intercom systems and intercom systems based around digital audio (such as Dante) work with 4-wire audio.

If instead you are using a 2-wire analog party line intercom system (where talk and listen audio are combined in a single audio signal), then you would typically need a 2-wire to 4-wire intercom audio interface to connect the two systems. These interfaces typically have some kind of nulling capability in order to deal with the feedback issues that could otherwise result when passing bidirectional audio between a party line and 4-wire system.

Also plugging your 4Wire into a 2Wire Party line will result into an instant damage of your intercom port of the Constellation. Which is not coverred under warranty.

So make sure you are absolute sure what you plug it into