How to have an automated switcher for radio and in ear mix?

[Briguy90]

Simply I do a lot of A2 jobs. I want to be able to hear the mix in an in ear and when I get a radio call have it over power the mix. In other words I need a way to be listening to the band from a better prospective but still get radio calls.. Any suggestions?

 

[Thefoxygranpa]

Radio call as in comm(clearcom,telex)? Could always get a dry feed of the comm system, throw it on a channel of the desk, then put a gate to duck the band level whenever cues are called on comm and feed this to your in ear mix.

 

[Footer]

A2 as in monitor engineer? What kind of radio call (clearcom, RF)? How are you currently driving your in ears? What kind of desks are you working with? It is possible to drop a feed onto your solo bus that is always there on some desks. I always set up my solo bus to listen to the L/R bus if nothing is soloed. I then drop everyones VOX mic into LR. It really helps during sound check so I can hear everyone... but when I select a mix or input that goes away and i just hear what I want. Some solo buses will alow the solo mix to pile on, so that might work for you... if you can get the communication channel into the desk.

 

[themuzicman]

I just wear my radio fist mic and my in-ears because that is the simplest - but it that's too simple or you don't need the ability to talk back, you could always take the speaker output of your radio (assuming you mean something like a Motorola CP-200) and you simply build an 1/8" to XLR-M and input that in the console. Then have your cue mix duck when the radio input channel kicks in. It's fairly simple - I do this on theater tours for SM Page so the SM can do backstage paging from their walkies as opposed to a fixed mic in an inconvenient location.

 

[JDH]

If you mean RF radio, you can take the headphone out portion and plug it straight into the desk. If you mean something more like comm/clearcom/RTS, then you'll need to either get a dry feed (usually the basestation will have an "Audio out" which can be plugged into the desk). Otherwise, you will need to strip the DC voltage from the comm line before going into the desk. There are schematics online for doing this with some pin swapping and a transformer, but some companies also make an XLR-barrel type all-in-one solution.

I'm still unsure if by A2 you mean you're mixing (monitors?) or like a stage/backline tech with a IEM mix? If you're at the console, you can set up a specific mix bus for yourself. I generally take a loop out of the monitor channels and go back into a standard input, then route that to a bus, so I can also then route things like comm or other talkback mics into that bus. Just make sure you don't solo the "cue" input channel. There are a few different ways to do this, entirely up to you on how you like your workflow.

If you're not the one behind the board, you might be able to ask nicely and see if they can spare a channel for the radio/comm input, and maybe other people on the crew would be interested in being able to hear it through their IEMs as well if there are more techs with iem packs.