Comms

[EustaceM]

I have a few questions regarding intercoms (clear-com, telex, etc)
Do you prefer to have the system wired to the green room/dressing rooms differently than that of control booth and tech? Different channel or something. (I know most actors disregard what's said on comms cause they mostly hear cues being called

Do some systems (especially telex. That's the one I'm most familiar with) have an option to function like a god mic if connected to soundboard or PA speakers. If you can then is everyone that speaks over headset can be heard over PA speakers. How can it be done so only Stage Manager can be heard over PA speakers (only when desired)

Can you wire speakers (temporarily) for green room/dressing rooms to call actors separate from calling cues.
Do non-professional and professional theatres all have permanent systems?

If a company has to bring their own system do they just simply run cable all the way to the booth and green room/dressing room for everyone to hear the calls

 

[chausman]

I prefer having a show feed to the dressing rooms, and the dressing room(s) on a second channel. Mostly because, I don't want to hear the SM giving actors cues, and in our case, the dressing rooms have call buttons, so during one of our shows, someone was playing with it, the ENTIRE TIME.

Of all the venues in my area, I don't think any are actually set up to use the stage announce feature.

 

[EustaceM]

Thankyou!

Do you know if telex has that stage announce feature or something so I can patch it to dressing/green room or house PA?

 

[zmb]

The one venue I work in that has an intercom system has the Clearcom announce feature connected to backstage speakers in the hallway, dressing rooms, and green rom. The speakers are the same ones as the monitor feed runs through, I'm not sure how it all connects together. A god mic through the sound board is required for announcements elsewhere.

 

[DrPinto]

I prefer having a show feed to the dressing rooms, and the dressing room(s) on a second channel. Mostly because, I don't want to hear the SM giving actors cues, and in our case, the dressing rooms have call buttons, so during one of our shows, someone was playing with it, the ENTIRE TIME.

Of all the venues in my area, I don't think any are actually set up to use the stage announce feature.

I eliminated the dressing room intercoms entirely. Actors are naturally attracted to the call buttons and find that they must play with them!

I run show audio (and sometimes video too) into both dressing rooms. It's up to the actors to know when they need to be on stage.

 

[chausman]

I run show audio (and sometimes video too) into both dressing rooms. It's up to the actors to know when they need to be on stage.

The CYT kids, as great as they are, are quite terrible at entertaining themselves in a quiet way, that they can easily put down to be onstage. Therefor, we have to be able to communicate with them somehow. And, in this venue, even with a show feed (through the clearcom, I might add) is barely audible, with the stage manager being the only clearly audible voice.

 

[DrPinto]

The CYT kids, as great as they are, are quite terrible at entertaining themselves in a quiet way, that they can easily put down to be onstage. Therefor, we have to be able to communicate with them somehow. And, in this venue, even with a show feed (through the clearcom, I might add) is barely audible, with the stage manager being the only clearly audible voice.

That's what's nice about a video feed. The actors who are waiting for their turn tend to pay attention to the monitor to see how the show is going. I'm not sure how old your CYT actors are, but if they're too young to be paying attention to their cues, it helps to have a parent nearby. Just one parent in the area has quite a calming effect on the kids.

 

[museav]

I commonly include ceiling speakers with a volume control getting program audio (or a monitor with speakers if video is involved) as well as a wall mount comms station without program audio for dressing rooms, green rooms, etc. That way people can adjust the level of the program audio as they see fit without affecting the comms audio. In some cases the BoH program audio is a dedicated aux send from the mixer that includes ambient mics, God mic, etc. I also like to provide a dedicated comms channel for BoH when possible or even better, a digital matrix system if justified and feasible. But the reality is that budget and how a venue will operate often dictate different approaches.

 

[tdeater]

We are setup with a 2 channel clear com system. The production is on channel A (booths, rail, SM etc) and the dressing room areas and green room are on channel B. We send a show audio feed into the com system only on channel B, and the headset wall stations in the booth and at the SM positions can switch between channels A and B for paging back stage. The dressing room, etc. stations are all hard wired into channel B so they can't switch over and listen in to us on channel A, not that techs would ever comment about actors on com......