curtis73
Well-Known Member
I work for a non-profit community theater. Budget is always tight, so we've never had clearcoms. We usually come up with some hand signals or DMX a signal light backstage. We did have walkies with earbuds for a bit which works well for before and after curtain, but it's a 50 x 60' blackbox with an exposed booth. Even whispers can be heard, so using talkies to make performance calls is a no-go. For a while I even had a "now serving number" sign backstage which I could advance so crew knew what scene shift we were doing next.
Let's get creative on a very small budget. If I need anything small-ish I can probably sweet-talk a board member for a donation. I need at least two of them to be wireless (me and SM) and I need them to be cheap. I don't mind fabrication and soldering.
Assets:
- more xlr than I know what to do with
- a 500' spool of cat5 cable
- a soldering iron
- a crap-ton of old lav condenser mics from some old Shure body packs (no longer legal frequency)
- soon-to-have a dedicated 8-node cat5 network in the theater for ArtNet and digital snake (praying for grant approval)
- an old telephone punch-down interface
- access to a used wifi router
The only thing I don't think I can do without buying something is the wireless part. I think I need to pony up cash for that, but $10k for a complete wireless system is not in the cards. I don't need to have TX and RX simultaneously, I can do PTT like a walkie.
What about something like an old cordless telephone system that isn't hooked up to a phone line? Just everyone turn on their phone and have earbuds with cupped mics for booth folks?
Let's get creative on a very small budget. If I need anything small-ish I can probably sweet-talk a board member for a donation. I need at least two of them to be wireless (me and SM) and I need them to be cheap. I don't mind fabrication and soldering.
Assets:
- more xlr than I know what to do with
- a 500' spool of cat5 cable
- a soldering iron
- a crap-ton of old lav condenser mics from some old Shure body packs (no longer legal frequency)
- soon-to-have a dedicated 8-node cat5 network in the theater for ArtNet and digital snake (praying for grant approval)
- an old telephone punch-down interface
- access to a used wifi router
The only thing I don't think I can do without buying something is the wireless part. I think I need to pony up cash for that, but $10k for a complete wireless system is not in the cards. I don't need to have TX and RX simultaneously, I can do PTT like a walkie.
What about something like an old cordless telephone system that isn't hooked up to a phone line? Just everyone turn on their phone and have earbuds with cupped mics for booth folks?