Radios

Using Radios at MATCH

Front of House Radios

Each theater has a radio assigned to it which is located in the booth next to the lighting and sound consoles.  Please always return radios to the appropriate location on the charger.  There is also an earpiece available for each of the radios in a small box in the sound rack of each booth (on the table next to the lighting console in MB 4).  Please be sure to coil and neatly store them in the box when not in use. 

House Managers 

-The House Manager arrives 1 1/2 hour before the show starts. They will generally check in with the theater shortly after that.  

-The House Manager will try to reach someone on the radio shortly after checking in with the client, so it's a good idea to be on the radio an hour before the show.

-Identify yourself by Matchbox number when communicating with front of house. The entire facility is on the same radio channel, so it's important to be clear who you are trying to reach when calling front of house. example "Matchbox 3 to front of house"

-The house manager will want to know when they are clear to open  house, when the house should be closed and then will want heads up when the intermission and end of show is coming up. Generally a 5 minute warning is sufficient. 

Radio programming and basic operation. 

The digital radios have the ability to do direct communication with individual users which have been programmed in to the radios.  They are as follows –

HM 1 – House Manager Box 1

HM 2 – House Manager Box 2

HM 3 – House Manager Box 3

HM 4 – House Manager Box 4

HM 5 – House Manager Gallery or Dennis

MB 1 – Stage Manager Box 1

MB 2 – Stage Manager Box 2

MB 3 – Stage Manager Box 3

MB 4 – Stage Manager Box 4

PM – Production Manager (Brian, Jon, Michelle, Rachel B., Rachael F, Jon E.,  Nathan or Dani )

MOD – Manager on Duty (Kirk)

SEC – Security

You can either communicate with all radios by pressing the black “group call” button on the left of the radio, or you can press the small orange button and then scroll up or down to the radio ID you want to communicate directly with. This will help reduce excessive chatter on busy nights.

Be sure that the base radio channel is always set to Digital 1.  If it’s not set on Digital 1, you won’t be able to communicate with the group of radios.

When calling front of house on the group call button, identify yourself by Matchbox number.  If using the private button, you can simply say “backstage to front of house”.

Backstage Radios

MATCH now has some basic Motorola radios available for backstage communication (to supplement the wired comm system)

When using one of these radios for backstage communication, please change the channel to the appropriate Matchbox number. 

To change the number, press and hold the large button in the middle to unlock (if locked), and then press the button again until the large number blinks. Using the bottom two buttons, change the large number to the appropriate theater number.  When the large number is set, press and hold the large button to lock it again.

Headsets are provided but may not be reliable depending on use and abuse by other clients.  If a radio does not work properly when using a headset, try changing headsets, or not using it at all.