Kief’s previous comms solution comprised walkie-talkies and a legacy wireless system that operated in the crowded 2.4 GHz range, delivering less-than-ideal audio quality and suffering from interference, short range, and poor battery life. The Riedel Bolero has changed all of that, first by eliminating walkie-talkies completely, and next by allowing a more natural way of speaking: giving multiple users full duplex communications instead of forcing them to wait for a walkie channel to be clear before speaking. In addition, audio quality is superb — resulting in far less ear fatigue – and the system's multiple party lines give each crew member the ability to choose and change who they need to monitor throughout the day.

Kief said that the Bolero system has gotten him out of the 2.4 range, so now all of his other 2.4-compatible gear works better.

“Wireless lighting control, focus control, and other gear is functioning much better now, and the main difference is that we're no longer using the 2.4 GHz system,” he said. “One big advantage of Bolero is that everyone leverages the intercom's Bluetooth capabilities by using wireless earpieces. The freedom of no wires results in far fewer tangles as crews move around with cameras. It’s made my crew so much happier after a long day.”

On Kief’s sets, the Bolero antenna is powered from a 12VDC battery. The antenna is mounted in a cart that is moved often over the course of a shoot. On battery power, there is no interruption of Bolero's comms while the cart is repositioned, and just two small Anton Bauer Dionic batteries will run the system through the longest of days.