Adding to wired comms

[Geo23]

Hello from West Sussex, UK.

I volunteer at a local Amateur theatre which has a good wired three way coms between sound, lights and S.M. location in the wings.

4 pin XLR sockets at each location having 2 pins for mics and 2 pins for headsets hard wired to a dedicated monitor amp.

the system works well and has been in use for years. 
There is an increasing need for the S.M. To be mobile but still in contact with ops

My idea was to put a base station in the centre of the desired coverage area, then link that to the existing wired system.

We have already tried a fully wireless system but our venue is an old building with very thick walls so dead spots abound.

Any ideas appreciated.

I am quite tech savvy, but only visit from time to time.

[cedd]

Your system is a bit non standard, so one of the off the shelf wireless solutions isn't maybe going to work for you. 

Given you already have mic and headphones separated, you could just look at radio mic and in ear monitor hardware. SM wears a radio mic in to the mic side of the system, and an in ear monitor receiver, which has its' transmitter connected to the headphones circuit. As long as the frequencies in question played ball, and weren't causing issues to any radio mics in the show, it's probably the easiest and cheapest method. 

[J Pearce]

A lot of the off-the-shelf solutions support 4 wire audio, so could probably work with the system as described, perhaps needing some attenuation or gain.

Expensive solutions will have good coverage, the less you spend the patchier the coverage will be. Something like Freespeak has astonishing coverage in my experience, but is equally astonishingly expensive. Clearcom/HME DX210s might work well for you, you might find a cheaper used package perhaps.

[Geo23]

Radio mics are rarely if ever used so that aspect should not be a problem.(I’ve been a member for 6 years and never known of a radio mic being used).

we are an 80 seat venue and don’t use any amplification for our actors at all.

short range radio mic and earpiece idea sounds good; any recommendations?

[sunray]

if a wireles system didn't give the coverage you required, I'd make the guess radio mics may not do the job.

 

Do you have a local hire service or Public Address company? to hire from to give it a try?

I'd suggest using mic and headset frequencies from 2 different channel groups, basically choosing one each from channel 70, 65, 38 or VHF.

 

[Geo23]

Firstly , thanks for all the interest, I really appreciate all your suggestions.

Just to clarify, the wireless system that had been tried was to cover from one by end of our 80 seat theatre where our control room sits to the stage and also the SM location in the wings.

The theatre is in a very old building in Arundel (famed for its castle) and has thick walls which the system was trying to penetrate unsuccessfully.

My proposal is to use the existing wired coms from control to SM location and then situate some sort of wireless system just to give our SM some mobility around the stage and into the nearby dressing room.

The area of coverage would then be almost line of sight if the base station was positioned with care and hard wired into our existing system.

[sunray]

1 hour ago, Geo23 said:

Firstly , thanks for all the interest, I really appreciate all your suggestions.

Just to clarify, the wireless system that had been tried was to cover from one by end of our 80 seat theatre where our control room sits to the stage and also the SM location in the wings.

The theatre is in a very old building in Arundel (famed for its castle) and has thick walls which the system was trying to penetrate unsuccessfully.

My proposal is to use the existing wired coms from control to SM location and then situate some sort of wireless system just to give our SM some mobility around the stage and into the nearby dressing room.

The area of coverage would then be almost line of sight if the base station was positioned with care and hard wired into our existing system.

So the base units would be located near SM position and without the restrictions you previously encountered?

 

15 hours ago, sunray said:

Do you have a local hire service or Public Address company? to hire radio mic & IEM kit from to give it a try?

 

[J Pearce]

Why faff around with IEMs and mics when you could rent a proved system? 

[Geo23]

Good point,

as we only do 6 shows a year and the need would be for two or three weeks per show, including rehearsals and set-ups it could be the way to go.

ill recommend that option to our committee as I can only make recommendations.

thanks G