gareth Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 in the past I've found that normal radios are not too bad for crew communication, but they are rubbish for cueing / FOH jobs - especially where you are not totally isolated from the auditorium soundwise. as soon as there is any ambient noise, you cant make out anything anyone says through radios either.So get some headsets, then! Any decent two-way radio (e.g. Motorola GP300) will have a connector for your choice of style of earpiece/headset, from a discreet 'covert' style earpiece to a set of full-sized closed-muff cans. analog all the way!And exactly what aspect of ordinary two-way radios is not analogue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Console Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 I have seen both at the same time, just set the mic of wireless cans to earpiece of wired cans, and vice-versa and bingo, those who need wireless have it, those stuck behind a desk don't. Simple! ;) I prefer wired cans, perhaps they can make the tecpro range with a radio tx/rx inside the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P. Funk Posted January 10, 2004 Author Share Posted January 10, 2004 oh.. I was under the impression that radios were digital.. bt thinkin about it.. thats stupid.. I think.. :S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 Most radios are still analogue, frequency modulated. It probably won't be too long before we start seeing digital systems coming into the market place in larger numbers. personally, I'd rather use a wired system for anything "show-critical", but radios can be hugely useful too. Particularly in large venues they can save hours of walking around trying to find people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drew Posted January 10, 2004 Share Posted January 10, 2004 I would definatly vote for both... What I/We often do is have everyone on radio (analouge, hand held, no handsets - purely for cost reasons) before the show. Then during the actual show, only mobile people are on wireless headsets. I find this is the perfect balance for my size venue / budget... Especially since the radio handsets occasionally pick up a screaming baby called John who lives down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Console Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Ah they'll be on the 49mHz range then! My realistic ones do that. Anybody been to the Finbourgh Arms, near Earls Court? That theatre has a baby monitor as its stage relay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James C Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 ... Especially since the radio handsets occasionally pick up a screaming baby called John who lives down the road.Are you sure it's baby John? Just sounds as though one of the actors might have picked up a handset :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 The Telex BTR 900 is a fully duplex radio comms designed to work with either 2 or 4 wire systems. Used it on numerous shows and have never had any problem with it. Uses standard Beyer comms headset (DT 108/109 etc) and body pack is a reasonable size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 I would agree with Gareth in saying that radio cans are good for people on the move, however I would say that I would think that flys should be on wired cans, as I have seen radio cans be affected by interference which could cause a break in communications (same could be said for pyro and automation positions). I have also seen a show ruined when it was all called on rather cheap radio cans and all communications were lost just as the show went up - it resulted in smoke drowning stephen Fry and causing clouds to block the BP screens projections, while the automatic doors refused to open at the right time - as no one could hear the SM.. I have also seen a tendency for people to buy the cheap £30 radio headsets from Tandy or whoever, which shouldn't be allowed near a theatre as they will fail on many occasions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris512 Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 we recently looked into purchasing some Stonewood Audio wireless comms for our building (to be integrated into our current comms set-up), we thought it would be good if the SM and perhaps one other member of crew could be wireless (obviously so that they have mobility around the stage, rather than using potentially dangerous lengths of XLR!). however once we had a quote for this system, we quickly re-thought our plans! just a little too much for our budget! :D but I think still given the option of fixed or wireless comms, I think that the SM and members of crew are the only ones going to benefit from wireless as for board-ops and spots no real point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stagey Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 My college has got in radio sets tied into the Ring Intercom this year. I was SM (on the book) for a dance show last term, and with my single ASM on radio cans. She could be onstage, in her wing or mine or out by the dressing rooms (our show relay is intermittent) and I could call on her. Also in-house technicians are usually on cans but wander around the building, so if something goes wrong beyond students abilities to put them right, they are aware and can help out. But for various reasons I view it as pretty much essential for people calling to be on wired cans. - They can cut out- You can't listen and speak at the same time (so you can't tell if you're being heard).- You don't move that much anyway- Don't have to PTT constantly in busy sections. Also have experience of using radios at an event where there were far too many people trying to communicate a lot of stuff on a single radio channel! Not too fun, I ended up calling people on mobiles instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucy_ironside Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Just to pull you up on a technicality: you can actually hear and speak on radio cans if they are duplex ones rather than simplex. I have done shows with both and it took me ages to get used to duplex - I was used to waiting for the person on radio to take their finger off the button before I acknowledged them... I do, however, agree that the person calling the show should be on hard cans. Indeed I also think it helps if everyone who is static is on them owing to the much better quality of sound - and indeed this is normal practice on large shows anyway. It is also helpful for the showcaller to have a big old head set which will completely cover one ear rather than the small ones which come with radios - particularly on noisy shows such as musicals, where you need to process info coming in from different channels. On most largescale shows the radio cans are only fed into one of the channels on the DSM's master station on the prompt desk. This is normally the one which also has the head flyman and any hard wired cans on the stage feeding into it. LX(and possibly spots) will go into another and MD and Sound will go into another. Often there will be another channel between LX and spots which the DSM bypasses (handy for big shows where the spots are called by LX rather than DSM). Sound and MD may also have another channel which bypasses DSM as well. Sound and LX may also speak to their number 2 ops on radios, but they will usually use another radio channel. So there's actually not that much of a problem with crosstalk if the system is well put together and cans ettiquette is observed. The occassional growl from the DSM usually means that cans ettiquette is observed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Techie Posted February 4, 2004 Share Posted February 4, 2004 When the CANS work they are brilliant, I have found in my experience that most people dont know how to use the radios and you will find you get a SHHHHHHSHHH when the PTT button is held in and that is all you get, no actual message. I am all in favour of CANS, however a Radio is useful if you are out and about on a site and you are needed to be contacted. In the depths of a dark stage underneath looking for an old light or a piece of costume then sometimes even the radios dont work !! :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daoops Posted February 4, 2004 Share Posted February 4, 2004 Just be sure that the wireless system work together with other wireless systems like in-ear, wireless headset and gitar-things. Would have been nice to interferr and kill all the other wireless things on-stage, ** laughs out loud ** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted February 4, 2004 Share Posted February 4, 2004 Just be sure that the wireless system work together with other wireless systems like in-ear, wireless headset and gitar-things. Would have been nice to interferr and kill all the other wireless things on-stage, ** laughs out loud **Most of the duplex wireless cans are using DECT technology on DECT frequencies, so away from radiomics and IEMs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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