# Innovative intercom system



## NewChris (Dec 7, 2013)

I am currently a sophomore in high school. Our tech director isn't the most helpful guy. Next week we have a production of Harvey happening. I asked him if we could rent headsets, and he said no because the follow-spot operators (students) should be able to remember all their cues. I thought this was wrong but there was no changing his mind. I started looking into other ways to make an intercom. I found an app called mumble. Its for gamers to talk to each other. It also have an IOS app. We found an extra router and set that up with not internet access and using an old laptop have set up a LAN server and will have people connect to it with their iPod touches and iPhones. This system has cost us $0 and works pretty well. It may not work as well, but it is a lot cooler then just renting a system and it is even wireless.


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## cpf (Dec 7, 2013)

Works pretty well... with two clients? Have you tested it out with the full number of users? What about with however-many-hundred smartphone-bearing audience members in the same room?


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## NickVon (Dec 7, 2013)

That is some great problem solving there. Most professional industries probably wouldn't trust a IP based com system, but i think such a solution would absolutely work in many high school settings. God knows, you kids all have cell phones now.

There are many other computer based programs that can be adapted to work as partyline/PTT. 

Skype (requires at least one account with a premium membership)
Ventrillo, Usually requires a server to host it. The program is freely licenesed up to 8 people though i believe
C3: a free but Internet required voice comms. You create a private lobby on there servers.
TeamSpeak: usually requires a server rental backbone.


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## 2mojo2 (Dec 7, 2013)

I agree that NewChris has demonstrated first-rate problem solving skills. I would add that any member of the audience who fails to turn OFF a smartphone deserves far worse than a series of messages detailing technical cues. I will eject then from the theater.


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## techieman33 (Dec 7, 2013)

Make sure your router is password protected, maybe even hide the ssid. The last thing you want is a bunch of people trying to get on your network and slowing things down.


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## NewChris (Dec 7, 2013)

It is password protected. We have tested it with 5 people on the network which will probably be more then during the show. The router also isn't connected to the Internet. We just use the router to connect everyone.


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## NewChris (Dec 7, 2013)

One of our other ideas was to name it Free internet-talk to tech crew or something. When they asked us for it, we would give them a form with prompts for their credit card number, social security number, address, and other things.


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## Amiers (Dec 8, 2013)

I wouldn't go that far with it. Name it something simple like Alpha password it and hide the ssid. The last thing you want is to have personal information floating around plus with a long name like that it would be a hassle. Keep it short and sweet.


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## NewChris (Dec 8, 2013)

Yup that is the plan. The router has a random password and the server is password protected. 


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## Mwchris (Dec 8, 2013)

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster . . . 

Interesting your bring this up. I just completed a run for a show and we used Murmur (Murmur is the server side application, Mumble is the client side.) it was for a small community theater, about 150 seats, and we didn't have any problems once it was password protected. 

The software is free, just need a computer and wireless router. I used an old laptop and newer router. Before we put the password on during testing we had trouble keeping connections of more than 8 people, but after the password it was fine. 

As someone else mentioned, it is exactly like TeamSpeak, but free. There are some companies that will offer internet based mumble servers for a pretty low rate, which would be great for multi-site. 

What I really liked other than cost was that the app runs in the back ground and had very low latency (23ms on average, which is much better than Skype). 

Only issue was people losing access to the internet during the show since the wi-fi was not connected to the internet. However, in my opinion, that is a benefit.

I think Mumble/Murmur is a great low cost comm system. You could pick up some older Andriod devices for little or nothing and be good to go!


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## NewChris (Dec 8, 2013)

Wow that's really cool. Today i got murmur working on my raspberry pi ($35 computer). We are going to use that for the shows since it is smaller. One of the kids had an old router that we are using. All of my friends but one have IOS and the one kid who had android couldn't connect because we couldn't find all the information the app wanted.


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## SteveB (Dec 8, 2013)

NewChris said:


> I am currently a sophomore in high school. Our tech director isn't the most helpful guy. Next week we have a production of Harvey happening. I asked him if we could rent headsets, and he said no because the follow-spot operators (students) should be able to remember all their cues. I thought this was wrong .



As comment to the TD's answer I would pose 2 questions for him/her. 1) How does he/she expect the spot operator to communicate to the SM that the spot lamp just died and that Spot X is now non-operational ?, and 2) The professional theater world rellies on good quality headset systems for communications among the crew, when required and that the proper use of a headset system should be encouraged in a learning environment.


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## NewChris (Dec 8, 2013)

We don't have a stage manager. Tech crew would figure it out ourselves. Our tech advisor is being cheap and believes we can remember cues. I think it's ridiculous, my sister who did tech crew before me and my parents all think its ridiculous.


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## techieman33 (Dec 8, 2013)

NO STAGE MANAGER? WTF! Every theater production should have a stage manager, and an assistant stage manager in a high school setting. Nearly every professional production will have a stage manager calling out cues for lighting, sound, spots, people on the deck, and everyone else. Occasionally one of the spot ops will call the spot cues, but only well into the run when they have them down cold.


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## zmb (Dec 8, 2013)

"Figure it out" has never worked well in any school theater and never will.


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## NewChris (Dec 9, 2013)

techieman33 said:


> NO STAGE MANAGER? WTF! Every theater production should have a stage manager, and an assistant stage manager in a high school setting. Nearly every professional production will have a stage manager calling out cues for lighting, sound, spots, people on the deck, and everyone else. Occasionally one of the spot ops will call the spot cues, but only well into the run when they have them down cold.



Yup it's weird. Tech crew only does lights and sound. Set crew only does the set and the actors only act. Each group is separate. It's been like that for a very long time and I don't think it could be changed easily.


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## NewChris (Dec 9, 2013)

zmb said:


> "Figure it out" has never worked well in any school theater and never will.



We would also probably talk to our tech director. It also probably wouldn't be the bulb as much as the entire spotlight catching on fire...


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## DuckJordan (Dec 9, 2013)

Honestly not having an sm actually helped me when I started working in a road house. Anyone can follow a go, few can go without someone telling them.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk


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## TheaterEd (Dec 10, 2013)

zmb said:


> "Figure it out" has never worked well in any school theater and never will.



I would modify that to say: An unsupervised "Figure it out" has never worked well in any school theater and never will


Figure it out is the number one direction I give to my students. However, I then supervise and guide them to the correct solution, or better yet, they surprise me with an innovative idea that I hadn't thought of yet. My students love to problem solve. I honestly feel like if I just told them how to do things, they wouldn't come back.

For example, I never would have thought up this comm system, I would just rent the additional units. I think Chris learned a heck of a lot thanks to this project.

One year ago I took over a floundering crew that hadn't had any real adult leadership in years, they love figuring things out, and I love challenging them. Combine that with my knowledge base, and we have done some amazing things in our first full year.


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## JDH (Dec 12, 2013)

That's a pretty clever solution, I've heard of small venues contemplating something like Ventrillo or Mumble, nice to hear you got it working.
There are actually a lot of very high level tours that use a production network for setlist/cue management, as well as production-wide chat and other database management. Usually the actual audio is either carried on another network or ran analog, but there are also professional IP based comm solutions, look at VCOMM.


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## NewChris (Dec 12, 2013)

We sadly aren't using it because we don't have any spotlights in the show. We got it working for the first rehearsal but we found we didn't need it. I think the best part was figuring it out more then using it.


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## techieman33 (Dec 12, 2013)

Now you have another tool in the toolbox that you can quickly use down the line when you need it.


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## lwinters630 (Dec 17, 2013)

NewChris said:


> One of our other ideas was to name it Free internet-talk to tech crew or something. When they asked us for it, we would give them a form with prompts for their credit card number, social security number, address, and other things.


I think some of the readers missed the great humor newchris used here. Gotta love his creative mind.. 

Great solution to the com problem.


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## zmb (Dec 17, 2013)

lwinters630 said:


> I think some of the readers missed the great humor newchris used here. Gotta love his creative mind..
> 
> Great solution to the com problem.


Could also finance some other things as well. Until people get those calls from their banks and realize some there are some unexplained charges on their statements.


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