> > > First, I would like to state that microphones are evil. They never work correctly, and are a big pain in the neck. I hate them.
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> > I agree - and our stage headsets don't function in the patch room or the scene shop, giving SR ASMs a lovely little communications gap - especially considering that half of their responsibilities take place in one or the other... Not to mention our sound engineer is roughly half as bright as a dead rock - her method of fixing headsets that aren't working properly is to bang them on the counter a lot (she does this even *before* she checks the batteries!).
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> Do you use cordless headsets, then? My high school had those, and while I loved the mobility, the batteries never lasted, and our budget was such that we hardly had $ to buy replacements. My college theater uses headsets with cords, which work much better, but your range of motion is limited. In normal situations, it doesn't become a problem, but when you're an ASM backstage searching for a 'lost' actor who should be ready to go on, you generally have to go off headset, making it difficult to tell the SM when the actor is found.

We have both corded and cordless headsets, and we try to give cordless ones to the ASMs while the booth crew sticks to the corded ones. 'Course, I make a fun ASM - we're not sure why, but proximity with me causes the cordless headsets to drain. I went through two batteries a night last time I was on a cordless - the batteries generally last three or four days apiece. There's one other here who has the same problem...

My high school had *no* headsets of any sort. Not that it mattered much, since we also had no SMS, let alone ASMs. That was some interesting theatre...