Wireless Purchasing Wireless Com

[dcetech]

My theater is looking on purchasing a wireless com unit. We would like to be able to have our technical staff running lighting or sound able to communicate with our stage manager and crew backstage.

The manager and crew would require the wireless com units as they are moving around, but the unmoving light operator(s) and sound operator(s) are just fine with our current wired econocom system.

Is there a decent wireless com unit out there that could connect with our current wired system and transmit wirelessly? If so, what would you recommend? (given that we would like to stay at or under $3,000)

 

[Footer]

3,000 is a bit low to get a decent system. Telex and Clearcom both make wireless systems. Its about 4k to get into a decent system with either company. Stay away from the Eartec stuff. Its a 1/4 of the price and an 1/10 of the quality. Invest in a quality base unit first. Most base stations allow 4 units to be out, so if you can only afford 2 now, you can by two more later.

 

[dcetech]

Alright thank you. So do you really think that spending that much on a wireless system is worth it? Or are there other ways of establishing a cheaper way to communicate to our stage crew?

 

[mbenonis]

I've never *needed* wireless com to make a show happen. It would have been nice, but it was never necessary. I'd suggest that perhaps a bit of staff reorganization might fix the problem. The PSM (who is presumably calling lighting, sound, and other cues) should stay fixed where he or she is on headset. Assistant SM's can have headsets as well, perhaps with 50' XLR cables on them so they can walk around. They really shouldn't need to venture all that far. The stage crew should not need headsets at all (especially since they are walking all around the stage).

 

[venuetech]

I recently purchased a telex btr300 system getting the base-station and two units last season
it did my equipment budget in for the year..
I was able to get two more transceivers/headsets/rechargeable battery packs out of this years budget. It was all money well spent as far as I am concerned.

 

[fx120]

HME's offerings are also pretty solid, and at a slightly lower price point that Telex and Clearcom (even though HME owns Clearcom now...)

 

[MarshallPope]

Alright thank you. So do you really think that spending that much on a wireless system is worth it? Or are there other ways of establishing a cheaper way to communicate to our stage crew?

We do not have any wireless, and it works just fine, Sure, it would be nice, but we get along. This is what we do:
SM at SL - base station, headset on 6' cord.
Sound - phone headset, 4'cord
LX - Headset, 6'cord
ASM at SL - beltpack, 20' XLR
Flyrail head - beltpack, 50' XLR
Followspots - beltpack, 20' XLR

For the last musical (Seussical, ended Sunday) I was fly head. Our PAC only does a couple of the Theatre dept. shows each year, and they bring in their own SM & ASM. The house crew is used for lights/sound/spot/flies/some backstage work. As the only backstage crew member with a headset, I assigned all the rail cues, running my share of them and cueing the rest, except for those where I was busy doing something else, and the ASM would cue those. I really don't mind dragging around a 50' cord. I can reach all linesets, and make it just over halfway across the stage. I just have to be careful not to twist up the cable too badly, and pay attention to which obstacles I walk around so I can retrace my steps later to free myself. A few tricks I have learned:
-If the comm jack is not at floor level, Velcro it to the conduit or something so that it is. This is to help keep people from tripping over it.
-Give yourself a couple of loops of XLR around the beltpack. It is nice when you find you need just a couple more feet of line to reach something, and someone is stepping on it.
-Pay attention to the cable from the pack to the headset. Especially when doing flies, you don't want it flopping around in front of you. My method is to give it a wrap or two around the beltpack, give myself just enough slack for normal range of motion at the neck, gaff it to the small of my back, and then tuck the rest under my belt in the back. It makes it MUCH easier.