Clearcom Vs. Multiple Cordless Phones: The ideal Headset Intercom System

For a small theatre using headsets gives a sense of professionalism beyond yelling from the booth to the stage. Clearcom makes a party-line system which is expensive but reliable and tough. I found on google this idea of using telephones for an intercom system. Consider the cordless phones that sell 3 handset packages - that in itself is a nice intercom system: wireless, cheap, and sounds good.

They would need some nice headsets too.

A base-station landline phone would finish the 'telephone-intercom' completely, the landline is used by the soundboard where no wireless device need be near to for sake of interference in the way of hum from the transmitter. Another benefit of the landline is it not needing recharging like the cordless phone handsets. Talk time of about 1-2 hours can be expected from a cordless phone, then it needs to be switched out with a freshly charged handset. As far as a headset for the landline, that involved a brief foray through novelty phones at The Source (formerly known as Radio Shack). It was then I struck my perfect landline intercom phone in feature phones.

To bridge two phones, a clean, noise-free DC voltage is needed. This I found in my old Sony Vaio power supply which was 16v DC, but 12v will do. If your power supply is noisy, you will hear it on the line. Then, connect your power supply to a 330 ohm resistor (5w) and in parallel to both the landline and the cordless phone base station. Because they are both 600 ohm you will have a perfect impedance match and hear each other across the bridge. Trying to add a third line to the bridge will upset this impedance and probably cause loss and reflections maybe even a stsanding wave. God knows. Two phones bridged together work well. The 16v DC wakes up the amps in each phone, like the 48v DC provided in a standard telephone line from the phone company.

So, Clearcom headsets run about $250 each, wireless headsets cost even more.

These improvised telephone devices cost about $177 + $120 + $40 = $337 total, and at the end of the day you still have a very nice cordless phone set. Or 3 wireless and 1 wired intercom party line for a small theatre!