Great things sometime spring up out of humble beginnings. And a good example of that is Kaltman Creations, a business that began in 2006 to market the Kaltman Cable Coiler™, a device to speed the coiling of microphone cables after a performance. Yet early on, company founder Mark Kaltman, a musician and studio/touring engineer who also held positions at various pro audio and broadcast companies, including Klotz Digital, Aeta Audio, Denon and Sabine — recognized a growing need in the industry. He applied his keen entrepreneurial sense to eventually develop a line of RF and EMC test and measurement devices that provided practical and cost-effective wireless solutions at the right time and place.
Today, Kaltman Creations offers RF test and measurement equipment to major public safety, government and industrial entities throughout North America, yet the company’s passion is serving the pro audio industry with products like the Invisible Waves RF Command Center, the RF-id SOLO and Station, RF-intermodPro and the high-performance CPA antenna.
It’s Complicated
Wireless is a fact of present day life. At concerts, broadcasts or theatrical event, dozens of wireless microphones, in-ear monitors and intercom beltpacks are deployed in critical positions — and compete with DTV, smart phones and myriad other wireless devices for the available spectrum. With this already overcrowded finite resource, having powerful intuitive tools to visualize the wireless landscape can make the difference between a flawless performance and disaster. And with the FCC’s recent (and upcoming) changes in frequency allocations, working within the confines of those jammed airwaves gets more complicated every day.
“I’m not one that likes to prey on people’s bad luck, but our whole company is kind of founded around the FCC’s re-allocation that goes back to when the company started in 2006,” says Kaltman. “But even if the FCC didn’t go through with all this re-allocation, with the exponential use of wireless in pro-audio, with wireless mics, wireless in-ear monitoring, wireless intercoms and wireless remote-controlled related equipment, there would still be a call for solutions for RF. Because, everybody’s going wireless. And it’s just compounded by the fact that the spectrum that the pro-audio people are allowed to use is so narrow.”
As the old saying goes, timing is everything. “Right now we are the only company that addresses solutions for pro-audio wireless, with a full broad spectrum product line. We have our RF analyzers, we have our frequency counters, we have intermod calculating software and a unique circular polarized antenna,” Kaltman says. “And nobody offers a product like our RF Command Center that has features and functions specifically for monitoring your wireless equipment during a live performance, with low-level alerts and rogue interference alerts and open RF space finders. Our positioning has been great and our timing ‘s been perfect. It’s been a good ride so far.”
The core product in the line is Kaltman’s Invisible Waves RF Command Center, which provides a total solution for wireless coordination and show planning. The system combines radio spectrum analysis with the ability to select and monitor your own wireless channels — as well as other frequencies of interest. Users can visually color-code RF signals, detect and identify potential interference, hear signals with Click-to-Listen, seek clear spectrum, and set up alarms to warn of impending RF problems. For handheld applications, Kaltman’s RF-id SOLO instantly reads the frequency of any wireless transmitter. The innovative CPA circular polarization antenna greatly extends the range and reliability of your wireless systems, assuring that the Tx/Rx pair will never be out of phase.
Over the years, Kaltman Creations products have been field-proven on numerous tours including Peter Gabriel, U2, Prince, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Neil Diamond and Cirque de Soleil, networks such as CBS, NBC, FOX and sports events throughout the country. But this engineering-driven company shows no signs of slowing down, and at InfoComm 2013, will expand its offerings with the official launch of RF-Vue, its latest innovation.
Enter the RF-Vue
“As the name implies, RF-Vue is a full command center with features that allow you, not only to set up your wireless but, also to monitor it during a live performance or live theatrical production,” Kaltman explains. “And it has lots of unique features, specifically for monitoring. The RF-Vue is handheld and tablet-based. We are providing a 10-inch touch screen tablet, with a window that is already pre-loaded on it. You will actually be able to walk around with that 10-inch tablet in your hand, although it can mount on a mic stand, set up next to your mixing position.”
RF-Vue is essentially a scaled-down version of the RF Command Center. Yet at its core, it’s still a spectrum analyzer with touch screen controls for fast pinch/expand/zoom and sliding through the RF spectrum with ease. As a true handheld RF spectrum analyzer, users can enter any frequency sweep range (within the range of the analyzer), and look for open RF space for channel selections, interference avoidance or interference troubleshooting — all in real-time. The unit features current, average, and peak spectral traces also has an RF Congestion Scale™ to gauge the severity of local RF, customizable screen markers and insta-save custom profiles.
The RF Command Center’s popular Click-to-Listen feature is also carried over into the RF-Vue as Touch-to-Listen, according to Kaltman. “You put your finger on the screen in the waveform and can listen to your transmitter or interference or someone else’s transmitter. If you need to identify whose transmitter it is, just touch it and listen to it through the audio output, either through the speakers in the tablet or through the audio output. You can also catalog your Touch-to-Listen. Once you’ve created a list of them, a panel opens up and as fast as you can click from one to the next, you are listening to them.”
As an added option, the recently released Invisible Waves RF-intermodPro also integrates right into the RF-Vue for simultaneous intermodulation calculations based off of the real-time spectral display. At the same time, Kaltman was quick to point out the differences between RF Command Center and the new RV-Vue. “The RF Command Center is full-featured, for monitoring during a live event, while the RF-Vue is more of a handheld unit for walking around. So, besides being ideal for the touring audio engineer-type, it is also ideal for the contractor-installer, who needs to walk around through a facility or walk around in a plant or a venue — wherever that installation is taking place.”
RF-Vue will be offered in several versions. The flagship RF-Vue T10 ($1,750 MSRP) is integrated into a 10-inch touch tablet with the full Windows 8 operating system. The RF-Vue T10 covers the standard wireless microphone and IEM frequency range of 470 MHz to 700 MHz. The $1,995 RF-Vue T10X is an extended frequency version that covers 40 MHz up to 2.5 GHz and therefore covers all VHF and UHF microphones, IEM’s, assisted listening and remote control equipment, including the 900 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands.
Also planned is the RF-Vue NT (starting at $1,095), an electronics/software only version for USB connection to the user’s own tablet or laptop computer; and the $1,350 RF-Vue NTX, which covers 40MHz to 2.5GHz covering VHF, UHF, cellular, Wi-Fi, etc. Options include a carrying case, mic stand mount, foldable desk stand, and the Invisible Waves RF-intermodPro software as a plug-in. Shipping is slated to begin in late August.
The Next Step
Even though the original Cable-Coiler was discontinued four years ago, Kaltman is still surprised to continually get calls for it. And today, with the surge in demand for RF products, the company has definitely moved on. Even before the business began, Kaltman was in search of affordable RF analysis products.
“Typically, traditional RF spectrum analyzers are tens of thousands of dollars, — way out-priced for most audio-related people,” Kaltman explains. “It’s hard for pro audio people to justify those kinds of expenses, unless they’re true power wireless users, doing major theatre or doing frequency co-ordination for some really large sporting event like a Super Bowl. I finally sought out a company in Germany, called Aaronia (aaroniausa.com), which had very limited distribution in the United States. So I started bringing in one of their products, specifically for pro-audio, which was relatively inexpensive, under $2,000. We still sell that same analyzer today, primarily into the contractor-installer AV segment.”
And from that point, the rest is history. Kaltman Creations then expanded out in many different directions, addressing varied markets such as law enforcement, utility companies, as well as audio contracting and the pro audio industry with its Invisible Wave product line. That line includes the RF-id series of frequency identifiers, the RF Command Center, the new RF-Vue series and a range of low-frequency test and measurement antennas called LoWavz. Kaltman Creations also sells RF shielding products that are primarily intended for personal and commercial use, addressing RF health and environmental safety (RFSensitiveSolutions.com).
“We eventually came to the realization that we were offering solutions for pro-audio people,” Kaltman concludes, “and now our tag line is ‘Offering Solutions for Pro-Audio Wireless.’” Seems pretty appropriate to me.
For more information, go to www.kaltmancreationsllc.com
