Our founder, John Cave, brought over two decades of experience leading the Football Technology team for the NFL. During his tenure, he spearheaded the development of the current Coach-to-Coach (C2C) communication system and the development of a new Coach-to-Player (C2P) system. Now, he's extending this expertise to make the same cutting-edge technologies, proven in the most challenging environments and on the grandest stages, including the championship games and internationally, accessible to professional, college and high school programs.

How we got here

In preparation for the 2015 season, our founder, John Cave, and his team encountered a significant challenge. The existing 'Lombardi' system, supplied by Telex, had reached its end-of-life, and Telex had discontinued its wireless product line. This system operated in what's known as TV whitespace, which represents channels or frequencies not in use in a particular city.

The system required 40 frequencies (two for each coach: one for transmit and one for receive) for just the two teams' coaching staff and was limited to just 10 coaches per team. Moreover, hundreds of other frequencies were in use for various needs such as referee microphones, wireless cameras, and more. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was transitioning traditional analog TV broadcasting to digital and auctioning off many frequencies, rendering the Telex system obsolete due to its reliance on soon-to-be-unavailable frequencies.

The turning point arrived during the opening game of the 2015 season when the Pittsburgh Steelers played in Foxboro on a rainy night. They experienced interference so severe that they could hear the Patriots' radio broadcast on their headsets, making effective communication impossible. The Telex system was analog and highly susceptible to various radio frequency interference (RFI) issues, as well as hum and grounding problems. This high-profile incident expedited the urgent need for a new system.

Cave realized he needed to deploy a new system by the 2016 season. After evaluating all available intercom vendors, he discovered none that offered security or encryption features, and all were still reliant on old-school analog communication methods. Drawing inspiration from the IP phone on his desk, he proposed the idea of attaching a laptop-like device to a coach's hip, an idea that initially met with skepticism from his team. However, he was also determined to address the radio frequency interference issue while also solving for military-grade encryption.

Many wireless intercom providers operate on unlicensed frequencies, which means anyone can use these frequencies, and devices must accept interference. These providers often use frequencies in the 900MHz, 1.9GHz, 2.4GHz, and 5GHz bands, which are susceptible to radio frequency interference (RFI) due to widespread use by the general public of cell phones, WiFi and other conveniences of the modern era.

The solution was to develop a system that operated on frequencies designated by the FCC for CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service). The initial system, deployed in 2016, was fully digital, encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption, and used CBRS frequencies, even though it wasn't yet CBRS-compatible because CBRS wasn't commercially available at the time.

With help from Green-Go Digital, Cave subsequently modified the system to be fully compatible with the CBRS specification and deployed it to all teams in time for the 2021 season. Since adopting this system, coaches have reported significant improvements in user experience, full-field coverage, belt pack size and weight, and, most importantly, reliability.

We’ve now perfected this technology and packaged it so that it’s a small and simple turnkey operation for you and your team.

Coach-to-Player Communication

When the college football rules committee decided to allow experimentation with technology allowing coaches to communicate with players electronically, we leveraged our decades of experience to build a new helmet speaker product that improves upon all of the shortcomings of the existing systems.

• Helmet manufacturers don’t want any modifications to their helmets

• Equipment managers want to monitor the performance of the system and change volume without having to touch a player’s helmet.

• Coaches demand a system that is secure and extremely reliable.

• Players need a system that provides clear and reliable communication in the loudest stadiums.

Our in-helmet speaker systems are fully compatible with any Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) system implementation (e.g. Motorola Walkie-talkie). Please visit our Coach-to-Player page for more detailed information.