Berni Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 I have had a bad experience with cans with a crew member getting the lead ripped out of his cans by a cast member standing on it and taking out the prompt side communications with it. As SM, I had to go up to the fly gallery and finish calling the show from the spare set of cans up there <_< Have used radio's quite sucessfully, especially the duplex ones. Only dramas we seem to have is occasional truckers traffic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dweeks Posted February 10, 2004 Share Posted February 10, 2004 I'm going to have to change my opinion actually -we're using radios now in our current production (I'm lx op) and to be honest they're working crappily. Stage crew are on one channel whilst LX, Que'er and Sound are on a different one ... However they're still interfering, pickups are awful, and ques are missed because idiots are wittering over them. Sigh. So yeh, Cans will be a positive move for us next year, tho I still dislike their unmovability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted February 11, 2004 Share Posted February 11, 2004 we're using radios now in our current production (I'm lx op) and to be honest they're working crappily. Stage crew are on one channel whilst LX, Que'er and Sound are on a different one ...What's the point of giving expensive radio cans to three people who pretty much sit on their arses barely moving a muscle for the whole show?! :D And on the basis that modern lighting desks are essentially computers with customised interfaces, the wisdom of keying up a radio transmitter in close proximity to a piece of equipment like that in a performance situation is slightly questionable to say the least ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P. Funk Posted February 11, 2004 Author Share Posted February 11, 2004 well basically... I wanted to hire sets of cans for the show (as LD), but as my LX op, and entire stage crew, were against it, I gave up. Just saves the show £200 or so, which, by the looks of how the run is going, will be really needed. Gareth: these are not radio cans. These are half duplex radios with headset that the ASM and others provided for the show. They are absolute s**te. also Weeksy: its Cue not Que, and DSM rather than Cue'er :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dweeks Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 well basically... I wanted to hire sets of cans for the show (as LD), but as my LX op, and entire stage crew, were against it, I gave up. Just saves the show £200 or so, which, by the looks of how the run is going, will be really needed.Yeh, sadly got to agree with that :). This show will not be a huge financial success, as others have been but never mind. Its been fun, last night tomorrow and get the fun of taking movers down before we can party. Oh well. Just found a nice bottle of JD :** laughs out loud **: :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.henderson Posted February 12, 2004 Share Posted February 12, 2004 Whenever I stage manage a show I like to have both. I like ASM's, DSM, LX/Sound opperators, Pyro and VT/AV all on cans and then I like Stage Crew and Stage Door on radios. I normally have both. I also like radios for Get-In communications and general communication round the theatre pre and post production. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 We have SM, Pyros and Flys on Radios and ASM, DSM, LX and Followspots on cans.this is primarily for safety reasons as it allows the SM, Flys and pyro operator to move freely. while everyone else has no reason to move. We use motorola XTN446's and have had no problems to date. These can also be linked into the cans system with an extra piece of equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalmatthew Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 I have used, standered radios, cans and wireless full duplex cans.I like using mainly wired can with one or two sets of wireless cans for a SM/DSM and maybe one other. This allowed us the flexibility of wirless and the reliability of wired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.henderson Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 We have SM, Pyros and Flys on Radios and ASM, DSM, LX and Followspots on cans.this is primarily for safety reasons as it allows the SM, Flys and pyro operator to move freely. while everyone else has no reason to move. We use motorola XTN446's and have had no problems to date. These can also be linked into the cans system with an extra piece of equipment.I was in one theatre and flys used cans on a sort of zip wire. Along the edge of the fly gallery they had a zip wire with the talkback unit (is that what they are called??) attached to it. The headset cables were really long and this allowed the Fly ops to operate safly. So the Wires didn't get crossed Fly Op 1 Did Bars 1-20, Fly Op 2 did bars 21-40 and Fly op three did bards 41-60. It worked like magic! Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellis Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 I was in one theatre and flys used cans on a sort of zip wire...Was that a counterweight house or a hemp house? I have had experience of getting the cans cable caught up in the ropes of a hemp house and recently, while stage crewing, I heard an almighty clang as he conduit in the botttom of a cloth hit the stage because flies had caught the cable up in the ropes dropped the bar! Come back cue-lights - All is forgiven! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 I've just done a tour where the onstage LX and stage crew wore ASL radio cans. These are still ridiculously expensive, but they performed very well. These are full-duplexcans, although there is a PTT button that you have to hold down. Quality was very high in general with most wired house cans, although we did get some noise when interfaced with an RTS house system. The buttons on the beltpacks are by far the worst feature of these cans, and serously let them down. The 'call' button is right next to the PTT button, but slightly proud of the casing, whereas the PTT button is flush. Both are crappy rubber buttons pushing on tiny bubble switches on a circuit board. The problems are that a) you tend to push the call button first when reaching for the PTT, and b) The PTT button gets trashed really easily. By the end of 9 weeks of touring mine had practically disappeared completely inside the casing, and actually getting it to work proved almost impossible at times.Given the obscenely high price of the beltpacks, this is something that they need to sort out sooner rather than later.But apart from that, I thought they were very good quality. ~Grahame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.henderson Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Was that a counterweight house or a hemp house?It was using a counterweight system, The zip wire system was really effective Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.henderson Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 I've just done a tour where the onstage LX and stage crewLX Crew Onstage???? For such a expensive product how could they be so foolish as to not sort the buttons out- it's not like its an expensive conponant for them to manufacture. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 LX Crew Onstage????Quite a common occurence with larger shows and musicals. There are often things like stands and groundrows to set and strike during scene changes, practicals to deal with, cables to page during truck movements, etc. for which there needs to be a stage electrician on the crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.henderson Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 Quite a common occurence with larger shows and musicals. There are often things like stands and groundrows to set and strike during scene changes, practicals to deal with, cables to page during truck movements, etc. for which there needs to be a stage electrician on the crew. Ahh, On productions I've worked on stage crew have normally done that sort of stuff, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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