cans

[Rich newby]

hey guys

 

I work for a small amature theatre company. we have hired the cans off stage electrics for many yeaars now but we dont have the budget for it any more. we obviously dont have the budget to buy one so I have been set the task of building one. I have all the plans drawn up but I need to know how to power the headsets. if anybody has any ideas on how to set it up pleaze share. so far I have came up with using the belt packs as the main sorce. in there I will have the controlls and the small amp to power the headset. they will then just be pluged into a junction box. Im just not sure if this is the best way to run it. do I need to power the mics on the headsets or just the headphone. can anyone find any matches between a certain headset and amp it would be most helpful, and experiances would be great.

 

thanks

rich

[Modge]

Our home made set uses 3 pin XLR: signal +, dc + and common 0v. A thought we had one time was just adding the DC to the signal and stripping it off at the other end, but that thought was had after the system had been made. Ether way it's powered from a base station with plugs into the mains and looks after transforming, and rectifying. They're compatible with exactly nothing though (aside from the fact the signal is at line level, should we ever want to send it anywhere other than to the cans), so you might want to look into making it so you can add common headset at a later date. I've seen the bloke who designed and made it post on here all of about twice (his long since moved on to bigger and more professional things) so he may enlighten you further.

 

(for those who know what I'm on about, yes this is ollycom and yes it does still work, with fairly minimal repairs)

[Paul TC]

For details of a self-build system look at

 

http://www.epanorama.net/links/intercom

 

scroll down to the "clearcom clone"

 

Lots of links off the page should give you the info

[danburns]

For details of a self-build system look at

 

http://www.epanorama.net/links/intercom

 

scroll down to the "clearcom clone"

 

Lots of links off the page should give you the info

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Try http://www.epanorama.net/links/intercom.html (with.html at the end) and it should work - I couldn't get Paul's link to work first click.

 

Dan

[Yogi Bear]

hey guys

 

I work for a small amature theatre company. we have hired the cans off stage electrics for many yeaars now but we dont have the budget for it any more. we obviously dont have the budget to buy one so I have been set the task of building one. I have all the plans drawn up but I need to know how to power the headsets. if anybody has any ideas on how to set it up pleaze share. so far I have came up with using the belt packs as the main sorce. in there I will have the controlls and the small amp to power the headset. they will then just be pluged into a junction box. Im just not sure if this is the best way to run it. do I need to power the mics on the headsets or just the headphone. can anyone find any matches between a certain headset and amp it would be most helpful, and experiances would be great.

 

thanks

rich

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I built a system for our local theatre using ex-portable gramophone amplifiers (although most headphone amplifiers should work) with a single transistor preamp to boost the microphone signal.

 

The output of each amplifier was fed via a 33 ohm resistor to the headphone earpieces (paralleled) and also to the headphones of all the other units so they were all in parallel. I connected the units via XLR plugs so the fixed wiring could be used with Tecpro units which some societies preferred and were prepared to hire.

 

A volume control set the level of each unit onto the system. Sidetone was automatically incorporated and by using identical headsets, the volume in each was the similar.

 

I've since modified some units so they will interface with Tecpro units including the signalling feature.

 

This is my first post which I had to edit as I managed to send the quote on it's own without any warning.

[erroneousblack]

A theatre I once worked at had a very strong, "why waste money when we can build it ourselves attitude". Accordingly the cans system when I arrived was a home made affair. Unfortunately the volume controls were wired incorrectly and controlled how loudly everybody heard you! What was more worrying, was that the person who wired it up wrong's day job was wiring up weapon systems for Tornado fighters!

[mac.calder]

A theatre I once worked at had a very strong, "why waste money when we can build it ourselves attitude". Accordingly the cans system when I arrived was a home made affair. Unfortunately the volume controls were wired incorrectly and controlled how loudly everybody heard you! What was more worrying, was that the person who wired it up wrong's day job was wiring up weapon systems for Tornado fighters!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have delt with some weird cans like that. The worse one I have used is where the volume controlled both mic and phones volume. That meant that if someone was almost deaf, everyone else lost their ear drums when he spoke.

 

That said, I am tempted to build my own canford compatable cans - I have a few venues I frequent where home made cue lights are the only form of cueing (often a makeshift one made from a car battery, a series of switches with car lamps and black wrap).