VOX Headset Help!

At our church, we are running into the problem of me (video tech) communicating to th eaudio tech, and sometimes needing to communicate to the lead guitarist in the front during worship or the sermon. I know some use the normal family push-to-talk radios but I would really like to have a radio that was VOX (voice activated) with a nice headset. If anyone can help me out here, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

[Allan Lester]

Disclaimer: This is a very low end solution and does not fit the criteria of "a nice headset." Much better solutions exist.

In the past, we have used Radio Shack wireless headsets for the stage crew for drama productions. These have both push-to-talk (PTT) and VOX capabilities. They also have multiple (I think 5) frequency choices in case you have interference on one channel.

The biggest problem we had was that any moderate to loud volume from the stage or speakers during the performance would trigger the VOX setting causing unwanted traffic on the headsets. Raising the VOX threshold made it so the techs had to talk loud enough to trigger the VOX that it was distracting during soft passages.

We eventually outlawed the VOX setting and made every go with PTT. Since most communication is really one way (director/stage manager to techs) this was never a problem. The few times the techs needed to talk back they simply reached down, pushed the button and talked.

If anyone knows of a headset system with VOX capabilities that does not have the problems I described above I would be very interested in hearing about them.

My church is using In Ear Monitors on stage for about half
of our musicicans. I don't know what kind of board you are using, but I am able to commnunicate to my band through their headphone mixes. I can talk to them from the board by simply plugging in a mic at the mix position and then talking to them through a monitor send. In turn I can take their voice out of the mains and they can talk back to me through their mics as I listen
on my headphone mix at the board.

On the other hand, I agree with Alan, PTT is the way to go, as Voice activated is not gonna work in a loud environment.

Again, I don't know if you have this a capability with your current equipment. If your not sure how to do it, I would be glad to explain if you wanna call me. Send me a PM if you need help.

In His Service

Steve M

[stevegoad]

I have to also agree. I have never found VOX to work, because there is too much sound going on in the worship service. Essentially, VOX makes the headset useless because of the problems.

For what's its worth...I've had poor experiences with the Radio Shack gear.

You get what you pay for...and 25 (I think) bucks for a headset isn't much.

If you want quality, you're gonna have to spend a little (okay..a lot) cash.

[[Director] drew ryan]

I very much agree with the you get what you pay for commenet. I really liked the in ear soulution proposed earlier. It is a little more expensive than even the Intercom solutions, but is a lot lowere profile. I would check out Sennheiser Evolution gear. Great bang for the buck.

For intercom gear, I like Telex. It is a little less expensive than Clear Comm. Also check out Production Intercom Inc. here.