cordless phone suggestions?

[nuggetman]

So at school we're planning to build our own theater communications system... essentially it's a telephone jack connected to a power supply, which creates an always-live line that you can just pick up and talk on. Now if it works, we're gonna need about 6 or 7 cordless headset phones. Here's what I'm looking for.

1) Good range that I can go fairly far away from the base station (say the length of the gym plus out into the hallways of the school). Communication is critical on the stage and we can't have the phone crapping out cause we're not close enough to the base.

2) Cordless headset. A dedicated cordless headset is preferred (or headset w/ the small dial pad), but if I have to carry a phone handset and plug in a headset that's fine too). Either way there has to be a headset.

3) A mute button <~~ESSENTIAL (and I don't mean hold to mute, I mean press and it mutes, press and it unmutes)

4) Ability to stop the unit from beeping when you press a button or hang up/pick up. If it just beeps into the headphones, that's fine, but it can't be beeping out loud for everyone to hear.

5) Low cost. We need six so we cant be spending $150 per phone... maybe no more than $50 to $60

[David Prahl]

I understand that this would be used for techie-to-techie talking, but why not just get a few nice radios? I've used good quality radios with a headset and VOX while doing camera work, and it worked out beautifully.

[nuggetman]

I understand that this would be used for techie-to-techie talking, but why not just get a few nice radios? I've used good quality radios with a headset and VOX while doing camera work, and it worked out beautifully.

There's a few reasons. One is that we only actually own two of the radios we use, the rest we have to borrow from the office (approx 6). These ones aren't compatible with our VOX headsets, so we wind up w/ two people on VOX and the rest w/ headphones reaching to take the radio off their belt to talk.

Another is the common problem with radios that they aren't full duplex, as well as the fact that if one person is talking and a second tries to talk, you can't hear either.

This phone solution would give us a full duplex system, the ability to hard-wire two speakerphones/handset phones into our light and sound control booths, and make the units easy to replace.

[David Prahl]

Now I get where you're coming from. But won't you hear a dial-tone the whole time?

[Steven Cedrone]

Now I get where you're coming from. But won't you hear a dial-tone the whole time?

It doesn't sound as if they plan to tie it into the school phone system...

Steve

[nuggetman]

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/telecom/telephone_intercom.html bottom one (theater intercom circuit)

it's just some phone jacks wired to a power supply, so it creates an always-live line