Radio Cans

[weazel91]

Hi guys,

 

I am looking to purchase a set of probably 4 wireless radio cans and a wireless base station for our theatre group. Every year we run 2 performances and always hire in a set at around £400 for the week and we are now thinking of just biting the bullet and purchasing a set of our own.

 

Short of the usual suspects e.g. stage electrics and the like who knows of the best place to buy 4 packs and master station?

 

We at present are using altair WBP-210's with base station to great success. We are Glasgow-ish based.

 

Any thoughts or recommendations?

 

Thanks,

Chris

[jonathanhill]

Looking at the Altair website, Stage Electrics seem to be the sole UK distributer. So you may be stuck with them.

 

As an alternative, you could look at the HME DX-210 system, which is available from a number of suppliers. I believe that Orbital are the main UK distributers.

[empyfree]

Give Bruce at "Show Comms" a call, they sell a few brands and he knows the pros and cons of them all.

[Ynot]

Not to pour too much cold water on your plans, but do you REALLY want to buy these in for just two weeks' use a year?

 

For the WBP-210 you're looking at (list) around £1400-£1500 per bltpack/headset and another £1500 for the base station, well over £7000 for the setup you want.

Of course there are cheaper options, though not sure how much so, but looking at the pricing, you could potentially still hire in for 8 to 10 years before making any saving on buying in...

Is there a particular reason you want to buy?

 

[Dave m]

Do you need wireless?

I have been in the business 30 odd years and only needed wireless a few times

[weazel91]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for all the links. I'll chase them all up.

 

I understand the costs but it's something to consider once I have a quoted figure.

 

Our crew like the freedom of wireless cans and they have always had their set cues called and will always continue this way so I can see it going long into the future hence the thought of purchase.

 

Cheers again guys!

[gareth]

Do you need wireless?

I have been in the business 30 odd years and only needed wireless a few times

 

It doesn't matter how long you've been in the business - once you've experience the convenience of a decent wireless system you'll never be completely happy with being tethered to the wall with a length of XLR cable. Our current comms installation (about three years ago) has, in addition to a comprehensive wired system, eight wireless beltpacks shared between the two venues. It felt like a real luxury at first, but now we'd really struggle if we had to go back to an entirely cabled system again.

[ImagineerTom]

Our crew like the freedom of wireless cans and they have always had their set cues called and will always continue this way so I can see it going long into the future hence the thought of purchase.

Do you actually need proper 2 way talkback then - if it's predominantly crew listening for cues then a walkie-talkie based system would cost you a fraction of the price. We use the Motorola TLKR T80's a lot on our shows where the SM needs to call cues that everyone can hear and only occasionally do individual members need to communicate back to the SM or other members of the group. The headsets they supply look cheap but surprisingly practical and durable, battery life is good and everything is configurable (you can turn off the PTT bleeps & pops, lock to certain channels, monitor one channel whilst using another, etc) and touring all over the country with them the range of frequencies/channels they work on is so good we've never had a problem with other signals cutting in.

they're also about £50 each with battery, charger and headset so when they do go awol it really doesn't hurt.

[Dave m]

I agree that wireless are the icing on the cake but they are an amdram and it's the heck of a lot of money

Most theatre crews are tied to a bit of kit anyway, so the ability to wander is fantastic but hardly a need . I work mainly now in a to studio and only the floor manager would benefit from the flexibility.

I use Motorola radios for my own wireless, but use clearCom wired or a stone wood wired rigOne is in/out and one is a simple sytem with a separate cable for each headset to the box (4-6)

It's like the radio mic over wired argumentI use wired every time in preferenceLess to go wrong

What exactly are the crew doing that needs wireless?

[Ynot]

Do you actually need proper 2 way talkback then - if it's predominantly crew listening for cues then a walkie-talkie based system would cost you a fraction of the price.

<snipped>

The problem with using walkie-talkies for any cue-based setup is that it only takes one person to hit the PTT either to question something or even to lean against something inadvertently and you've los the ability for the SM/DSM to get their message out for that time.

In a properly disciplined pro theatre it's less likely (though of course not impossible) but in an am-dram situation the chances of it happening can increase with lesser experienced bodies.

 

One of my guys at my venue has been trying desperately to come up with a system using various different 2-way radios and interfaces into our Techpro system, and some of the crew do like what he's done, but personally I'm not sold on it for various reasons.

 

 

 

[ImagineerTom]

The problem with using walkie-talkies for any cue-based setup is that it only takes one person to hit the PTT either to question something or even to lean against something inadvertently and you've los the ability for the SM/DSM to get their message out for that time.

As I said, you can lock out features, monitor more than one channel and the units are physically designed so that it's very hard to "accidentally" push buttons. We've used them in theatre shows, circus shows, arena, studios, and they survived all manner of users without any problems. Obviously it's up to the OP to asses whether any technology is the correct solution for them but I just wanted to put it out there that there's a possible solution that is a lot more cost effective and relatively tried and tested.

[paulears]

I have some spare repeaters, and seeing this topic has prompted me to consider knocking up an interface - I have a spare 19" Tecpro station that would easily connect to the base station, letting me output the wired comms onto the repeater, and then I could feed the receiver back to the comms system. Having some suitable radios in stock, I could have a semi-duplex system up and running for no cost. Maybe I'll put it together and see how it goes. Most of the time, the people using them just need to listen, but being able to talk back on the PTT would do the trick?

[J Pearce]

I've used a system that I believe used one frequency for cans to radio and another for radio to cans - the outcome being that you could always hear the DSM and any conversation on either wired or wireless, but only one radio could talk back at a time.

It worked very well.

 

At Birmingham School of Acting we've recently invested in two setups of the Altair wireless - they've been serving us well, and we've even managed two separate rigs in the same building (main house and studio) without issue. The only nag for us is that the packs are rather bright and full of flashing lights, and that the buttons can get knocked if you bump into something.

[paulears]

That's what I was suggesting, Jon - a semi-duplex system. I think Raycom actually make one with a clearcom /canford style interface, which works the same way - constantly transmits the comms audio, but listens somewhere else for the replies.

[Tom]

Many years ago when I worked in events this was the system we used. All the show critical people (who were, as suggested above, tied to their kit ) were on hard wired cans with everybody else on the floor able to listen in on a semi duplex radio system.

 

Are these systems available to hire anywhere?