Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Walkie Talkies

This is topic Walkie Talkies in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 09-03-2005, 03:19 PM:

What kind of walkie talkies does everyone use in their theatres? We have Kenwood Business Band walkies that all managers and the doorman, ushers, and box office have. We also have a set of FRS radios (the cheap ones from Wal-Mart) that I brought from home since I don't use them anymore. These are designated "managers only" so that we can relay messages that we don't want the employees to hear. Although the employees could just go to Wal-Mart and buy one for $10 or less, most of them just don't care enough to do that.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 09-03-2005, 03:32 PM:

What don't you want "the employees to hear"?

(are managers not employees?? [Confused]

)

At my theatre we use one channel, staff members, supervisors, managers, projectionists, security guards - all hear the same.

Posted by Cory Isemann (Member # 2517) on 09-03-2005, 03:42 PM:

Sometimes it's best when the employees can't hear you.. like when you want to tell the other managers what a poor job they're doing.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 09-03-2005, 04:14 PM:

I beleive that the mainstays are Icom F3S and than Managers have Motorola CP 100. We have some much older Motorola Radios that used to be the mainstays, that we rarely use.

3 Channels are utilized one for Floor, one for Booth and one for Managers.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 09-03-2005, 04:59 PM:

So, what about when the employees want to talk about how bad a job the managers are doing? [Big Grin]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-03-2005, 05:01 PM:

Motorola CP200 UHF 16 channel

***Be sure and order "privacy programming" so your radios won't pick up any other nearby radios on the same frequencies! It's free, you just have to request it.

You will want to also upgrade the battery to a model Q651. That is a 1800mAh Li-ion battery with quick charger. It's only $21.50 extra and your batteries will last a LOT longer than when using the default batteries.

I have dealt with this company linked to above and they are reliable.

[ 09-03-2005, 07:08 PM: Message edited by: Brad Miller ]

Posted by Cory Isemann (Member # 2517) on 09-03-2005, 05:11 PM:

quote: Bruce Hansen
So, what about when the employees want to talk about how bad a job the managers are doing?

Most of the time, they have no room to talk..

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 09-03-2005, 06:54 PM:

Hey Grand-Poo-BAH, your walkie-talkie link doesn't work. You need to delete one of the *http://'s

Perhaps you should read the FAQ & Rules page on how to use the many great features of Film-Tech...

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-03-2005, 07:09 PM:

This makes me think of another great password PhilizaC@@T!
[Big Grin]

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 09-03-2005, 07:41 PM:

We are using ICOM F-11S radios... Took a long time to get them, as my home office kept thinking FRS were ok...

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 09-03-2005, 09:04 PM:

We ditched our walkie-talkies in favor of a phone connection between the box and booth. Its much better, but floor employees hardly ever call. Many of the young kids working here have never seen me and I like it that way.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-03-2005, 11:42 PM:

Funny, I pitched a similar idea to a couple of theaters, but they didn't like it. Here's the pitch.

Go to a cellular store and sign up for a "family plan" where you can get half a dozen phones. Be sure and purchase the insurance for a few extra bucks a month. Make sure the plan (like they pretty much all do) has "unlimited mobile to mobile minutes". Then select the cheapest plan. You won't be needing any actual airtime minutes, as those calls would be made from the land lines.

Now program in "BOX OFFICE" and "MANAGER 1" and MANAGER 2" and "PROJECTION", etc into each phone's speed dial and just issue the phones instead of radios! Communication would be directed SPECIFICALLY to the person desired, vibrate feature for when inside auditoriums, and the communication would be private between those two people since other radios couldn't listen in.

The reason for the insurance is so if a phone broke you just get another free one through insurance.

Really, is it such a ridiculous idea? Given the average lifespan of a radio in a theater environment, I think the cell phone would probably be a cheaper and superior solution. Mark G will surely disagree though. [Razz]

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-04-2005, 12:04 AM:

is there a way to keep the phone from being used for personal use?

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 09-04-2005, 02:05 AM:

Or just purchase phones with the "click-to-talk" feature.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-04-2005, 02:30 AM:

You would think the phone company could block all numbers except the few you wanted them to use. Worst case scenario if someone used them for personal calls the date, time, number dailed, and length of call would all be on the monthly bill. Simply having people sign a log sheet whenever they took a phone would pin the culprit pretty quickly.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-04-2005, 02:50 AM:

quote:
Now program in "BOX OFFICE" and "MANAGER 1" and MANAGER 2" and "PROJECTION", etc into each phone's speed dial and just issue the phones instead of radios!

..kinda what the company that I work for did: signed up on a family plan with Verizon so that a bunch of us could get on a "network" so to say to have free calls between the ones who were issued phones (mainly the office people, managers, and myself in the technicial dept.) and others on the Verzion network.

Before hand, we had NexTEL phones with the "direct connect" thingey (which I thoroughly loved),but a couple of managers were using their NexTELs as a personal phone and racked up the minutes horribly making the rest of us have to suffer.

And with a couple of other people in the company having Verizon, was the main reason for the switch from NexTEL to Verizon (which I now can't stand due to dropped calls and no "direct connect" feature...) to get on this so-called "family plan" BS.

Now, I have to watch my minutes during the day or get a whining out from the office on excessive phone usage if I go over.....(go figure..about ready to throw the phone back at them at times..)

Plus, thinking about dumping land line connection to save money due to the packages that celphones now offer (family has Cingular). Probably do that when we get ready to move sometime in the future.

quote: Brad Miller
Given the average lifespan of a radio in a theater environment, I think the cell phone would probably be a cheaper and superior solution.

Got that one dead right. Seen so many Motorolas - the better, multichanneled ones - be all busted up within a year due to massive abuse from the employees since the employees love to think that they're important or something else.

My big problem with those big Motorolas that, with being clipped on the side, I'd sometimes brush against a console or something and knock that silly thing off and watch it hit the floor, knocking the battery cover and battery pack out. Thus, I would just have the damned thing in my pocket so it wouldn't fall out.

Kids, on the other hand, would toss them from one individual to another who needed one and would miss catching it, thus seeing it splatter on the floor quite often.

-Monte

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 09-04-2005, 09:02 AM:

I had Six Motorola units and one Icom. The Motorolas lasted over 8 years! [Smile]

When you keep on top of your staff, things go better... Sure, I'd have to replace a 'pl' board twice a year ($100), but, given the effectiveness of the units, I'd say the cost was WELL worth it!

Now, only five months after leaving, ther are two functional radios.. from what I heard, the HO says the units are too costly to repair and will be providing telephone units that have paging capabilities built in.. Who knows...

I like the cell phone plan myself... I thin that's about the smartest thing I've heard in a LONG time!

Posted by Jon Morgan (Member # 3059) on 09-04-2005, 10:35 AM:

I just use cheap Motorolas from Best Buy. They're not the best walkies ever, but for the price they're definitely worth it.

The cell phone thing wouldn't work well everywhere. The theater's I've worked in get terrible signals on the inside.

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 09-04-2005, 12:43 PM:

Businesses that employ large amounts of teenagers, like theatres, need to be careful about having nice or expensive electronic equipment for the employees to use. Like Jason said, you've got to keep on top of your staff. If you work for a chain, your company's discipline form should have a category for "abuse of equipment" - we recently put an employee on his final warning using this, because he left 2 walkies unattended and they got stolen. You can also make them pay restitution when a piece of equipment gets broken or goes missing on their watch. That will get the message out fast.
The FRS radios are designated "managers only" for 2 good reasons. First, as I previously stated, we can use them to communicate things we don't want the employees to hear. For example, if I counsel a concessionist for not greeting the customers properly, I can notify the other managers on duty who might not be near a phone about this, and use the employee's name, so that they can keep an eye on him/her. Also, Cory can communicate to me that he just watched so-and-so do a walk through improperly or auditorium # whatever wasn't cleaned right or something like that. It's also because we know they'd be gone after a day or two if we let the employees use them! They can fit in your shirt pocket, so they can be easily heisted from the building if they fall into the wrong hands.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 09-04-2005, 12:49 PM:

We used motorolas at Lakeville for years, then somebody in upper management decided to dump them & go for these POS Cobra FRS radios. After a good four months with those, most of the buttons were useless & the batteries had started to lose their charge, then they used the Motorola FRS radios, to no improvement. As of the time I left, they struck a deal with a wireless company in the area to lease these kenwood radios & charger bases, along with the hands free kits. Those were the quietest, but they were nowhere near as durable and chargeable as the original motorolas.

Posted by Alexander Smith (Member # 1769) on 09-06-2005, 02:13 AM:

We also tried Motorola radios (wasn't my idea), within 12 months the batteries were "worn" (they are NiMH chemistry), due to people not taking the radios off charge from the dumb trickle chargers bought by the [dumb] manager.

Naturally, no-one listens the technician when he talks about maintenance of company gear, ho-hum. Now the radios are never used and we have reverted to relying on the internal telephones. The manager and projectionist each have a DECT radio telephone which work fine in all parts of the building.

The system fails once in a blue moon when one of the other projectionists neglects to take the phone out of his pocket before leaving at the end of the day. He knows who he is. ;-)

Alex.