Hollyland collaborates with Mesa Public Schools to deliver and test Hollyland’s newest wireless intercom system, the Solidcom SE Pro 

“The fact that I can give direction to so many students and have them all hear and understand me, no matter where they are in the building, was a game-changer for this performance. I am very much looking forward to using them during our Spring musical.”

Mesa Public Schools

Recently, Hollyland had the pleasure of working with Mesa Public Schools to test and help decide whether the Hollyland intercom systems were the best solution for what they needed. With the help of some of their faculty, we were able to send their team the Solidcom SE Pros, the newest wireless intercom system from Hollyland. 

Mesa Public Schools is the largest public school district in the state of Arizona, serving over 55,000 students across more than 80 schools, including elementary, junior high, and high schools. Located in Mesa, Arizona, the district is recognized for its commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and inclusive education.

With a diverse student population and a focus on personalized learning, Mesa Public Schools strives to provide a well-rounded education that prepares students for success in college, career, and community life. The district emphasizes the integration of technology in the classroom, offering students access to modern tools and resources that enhance engagement and learning outcomes.

Hollyland and Mesa Public Schools were first introduced after the AVL Expo, Arizona’s largest audiovisual technology event. This event brings together companies from all over the AV industry and provides attendees with sessions to learn how to be more efficient, which products to purchase, and how you always improve your current set-ups. Hollyland had the pleasure of speaking with Brandon T., the District Auditorium Director for Mesa Public Schools. He mentioned the districts need to start looking into intercom systems for their students and staff to use for their auditoriums and performing arts centers across the district. Hollyland jumped on the opportunity and started conversations immediately. 

Project Overview

In collaborating with Brandon and the team at Mesa Public Schools, it quickly became clear that the most effective way to evaluate the capabilities of the Solidcom SE Pro systems was through real-world application across a variety of live production environments. To ensure the systems were thoroughly tested and pushed to their marketed performance limits, Hollyland worked closely with Mesa to implement the gear across multiple school campuses and live event scenarios. Over the course of the testing period, the Solidcom SE Pro systems were rotated between three different schools, supporting four choir concerts and a full dress rehearsal, offering a comprehensive view of how the systems performed under varying conditions and technical demands.

Each of the participating schools presented unique communication challenges, creating the perfect proving ground for the SE Pros. One school already had a traditional intercom infrastructure in place, providing a point of comparison in terms of audio clarity and system flexibility. The second school had no communication system at all, requiring a full setup from the ground up, while the third had been relying on basic consumer-grade walkie-talkies, which had proven unreliable and limiting in high-pressure production settings. This diverse range of environments allowed Brandon and his team to evaluate the Solidcom SE Pros not only for performance and ease of use, but also for adaptability across different production scales and technical readiness levels.

Throughout the process, Brandon shared valuable feedback with Hollyland, emphasizing that the district was actively seeking a reliable, all-in-one communication solution that could elevate the efficiency and professionalism of their school productions. With growing student interest in performing arts and technical theater, the need for a system that was intuitive, robust, and scalable became even more pressing. Although the team had explored other intercom options in the past, many proved to be either technically insufficient or financially out of reach for public school budgets. Mesa Public Schools was searching for a system that could deliver professional-grade performance without compromising on affordability, and in the Solidcom SE Pros, they saw the potential for a game-changing solution.

“Before I found Hollyland, I was not able to justify purchasing even 1 wireless com system, now I am looking at outfitting around 12 of my schools with Hollyland com systems. I think every K-12 institution should be looking at Hollyland products.” 

How did Hollyland help during your project?

While testing the Solidcom SE Pros across three different schools, it was difficult to share because each school wanted to keep them. Having gone from outdated systems to new ones, Brandon says that the students were not used to having spare time to get things done since using the Solidcom SE Pros. 

One of Brandon’s biggest concerns was whether they had to change the settings or re-pair the headsets each time they moved schools or when they were powered off. The Solidcom SE Pros are ready out of the box, and for Brandon, that was perfect. He instructed each school that used the products to contact him if they needed assistance during rehearsals and practices, if the products stopped working. As the manager, this made his job a lot easier since each school had no issues with setup. 

During the performances, the Solidcom SE Pros were used in indoor facilities, two of them having 1000 people and another having 500. For many of the performances and events, they were led by students and limited faculty members. Everything from the production side and FOH was all run by students. Each performance, the crews arrived at least one hour before the show and wore the headsets from set-up till they left at the end of the night. One of the events that involved the most students and crew was the Mesa Public Schools Winter Choir. With so many students and families in attendance, there was a lot of need for communication between the members on the floor and the ones in the “spot booth.” Having 1,100 ft. of range and the environmental noise cancellation is a game-changer when it comes to production communication. In environments like concerts with over 1000 people present, having the Environmental Noise Cancellation(ENC) technology helped the students communicate while trying not to miss a cue. 

Takeaways

Brandon manages 20 auditoriums across the district, most of them having some sort of communication, but most have died or stopped working since being introduced. Initially, looking for a solution for just one auditorium, it has now turned into wanting to incorporate the Solidcom SE Pros into all their schools. The students and faculty involved loved having more stable communication through the Solidcom SE Pros. With the ability to have the mics down and a push-to-mute function, students felt that the headsets really set them up for success on productions. 

Each school that used the SE pros reported that their Winter holiday concerts (some of the most elaborate performances of the year) ran smoother than their much smaller-scale Fall concerts. They reported that communication between FOH, stage manager, and backstage crew members has never been as efficient as it was when using the SE Pros, all while having no dropouts between video village, catwalks, or places behind the curtains in communication. Crews involved raved about the clarity in different environments, ease of use out of the box, and the ability to be mobile while filming. Moving forward, Hollyland wants to continue to support schools at every level who are looking for communications solutions. Hopefully, we can work with Mesa Public Schools again soon and get their auditoriums set up with wireless video and microphone solutions, too! Thank you, Brandon and your amazing schools that make up the Mesa Public Schools!

“I’ve never been able to hear very well from my position, and I heard every word loud and clear with these. Can we keep them?”