Communications

[JPSTechie]

I help out with the technical side of productions at my school and am looking into getting a hardwired communication system for our main hall. As we are at a school we don't have much money to spend and that puts buying a system out of the question as the ones that I have found are usually very expensive.

 

I have :( the possibility of trying to build a system but it has come up with no plans or ideas. This is the same with trying to find a cheap system.

 

What I am asking the BR is if anybody has any plans or ideas about how I can over come this problem. At the minuet we are using small walkie talkies which consume a lot of batteries and do not give good results.

 

Thanks for any help

 

I AM NOT IN THIS ON MY OWN AND DO HAVE A TEACHER SUPERVISOR BEFORE I GET ALL OF THE USUALLY STUFF ABOUT UNSUPERVISED PUPILS.

[MarkPAman]

If you want to turn this into an electronics project then this could be a good place to start. :)

[Chris Beesley]

Can you give a little more information? ie how many call stations etc do you need etc

[Bobbsy]

There are sites offering circuit diagrams etc. to help you build your own intercom systems which are clones of/compatible with Tecpro and Clearcom systems. If you have basic electronic skills, it could make an interesting and educational project.

 

I've heard positive things about the results, but stress that I've never used them myself.

 

One such link is HERE though I'm pretty sure I've seen others too.

 

Bob

[JPSTechie]

Thanks for the idea's so far, just to answer a few question.

 

I'm looking at about 6 Stations all on the same system so no need for different systems i.e. 1 for the sound, 1 for lights.

 

I have seen the Com clone page before but don't understand some of the things on it for example RV2, the Null valiable resistor I don't understand what it controls. I also don't know about all of the different capasitors needed. Although the power to the circuit is explain I do not know if only one power surply is enough.

 

Thanks for all the info so far and please keep coming up with ideas

 

Cheers Mark

[matt freeman]

just a thought, but it is possible to link telephones together in parrallel, with a power supply and use them as a communication system, to make this useful as a proper comms system, you would need to also buy telephone headset's which are about £40 I think, but not certain.

ive made a system like this (I only use it for really low budget shows, and dont have headset's) and you can use any type of normal house phone, im not certain about the digital ones used by some internal phone systems, but you can also connect cordless phones in and use them aswell.

if you would like info on how to make the power supply, PM me, its really simple took me about 10 mins.

 

matt

[Paul TC]

keep coming up with ideas

 

Mark

 

Suggest you look at this link Intercomm circuits, as well as the Com Clone, it points to a lot of other pages with other solutions you might find easier (and cheaper) to implement.

[bruce]

I was talking to someone the other day who had "lashed up" a very simple system for amdram followspot ops, using bits and pieces he had lying around the studio. Basically just a mic preamp and a headphone distribution amplifier, combined with a number of walkman-style headsets! OK, it's only one way - there's only 1 mic and no "talkback", but it did the job for him, and the only components that he had to buy were a few 20m 3.5mm headphone extension cables, which were about 4 quid from CPC....

 

Of course, it's not a proper comms system, being only one way, but the chap made a very interesting point. He's an experienced cameraman - ex-BBC - and said that in all his years of studio work, the "back" channel was hardly ever used during production, although it was there - the cameraman couldn't talk, cos they were in the studio. The director didn't need acknowledgement; they could see from the preview screens that the instruction had been received.

[Ekij]

Still need more clarification as to what you need.

 

6 Stations, is that any one talk all hear or individually able to 'dial' any of the other 5 stations.

If so, do you need to be able to support more than one connection at a time.

Do you need full duplex (both people able to talk at the same time, like a phone) or half-duplex (must take turns to talk like a walky-talky).

 

Do you need it to be wireless?

 

An FM transmitter and personal stereo at each end if you only need one way is the simplest, it's illegal to use in the UK without a licence but not to make or own.

[simploerob]

this is a bit off the wall but is the a local treatre company around that might have some you could borrow?

 

thats all we do when we need them.