Intercom systems for the game room?

TheShanMan

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I'd really like to have an intercom type of communication system to go between the game room and the house. We have walkie talkies, but they just don't get used because they either get misplaced, or need to be charged, or whatever. I really need something dedicated, and preferably a system that can be configured to be in "listen" mode all the time by default. In other words, I'd like to always be able to hear what's going on in the game room from inside the house, except when someone inside the house wants to say something.

I did some research some months ago for such a system but came up frustrated (as I recall, I found nothing for a reasonably cheap price). Has anyone here come across the perfect system for this kind of usage? I'd be happy whether it's wired or wireless. A secondary wish would be to have more than 2 stations, but I could happily live with just 2.
 
Baby Monitors, some even have video...they are cheap and can be integrated into almost any electronic item. Or just hang them on the wall, Thats the way I monitor some of the rooms in my shop
 
I'd really like to have an intercom type of communication system to go between the game room and the house. We have walkie talkies, but they just don't get used because they either get misplaced, or need to be charged, or whatever. I really need something dedicated, and preferably a system that can be configured to be in "listen" mode all the time by default. In other words, I'd like to always be able to hear what's going on in the game room from inside the house, except when someone inside the house wants to say something.

I did some research some months ago for such a system but came up frustrated (as I recall, I found nothing for a reasonably cheap price). Has anyone here come across the perfect system for this kind of usage? I'd be happy whether it's wired or wireless. A secondary wish would be to have more than 2 stations, but I could happily live with just 2.

Get a couple of the old Radio Shack intercoms off of eBay. They are cheap, most can be locked on transmit, and you can certainly talk-back as needed.

http://shop.ebay.com/sis.html?_nkw=RADIO+SHACK+REALISTIC+FM+wireless+intercom+plug+n+talk
 
For the systems you guys are suggesting, I have a question. I assume that if you "lock" it in monitor mode, that means locking it in the room being monitored, and results in NOT being able to override that from the other room. In other words, I would want to be able to generally have the system monitoring the game room (by default), but from in the house I would want to be able to take it out of "monitor" mode and start talking to the game room. Can that be accomplished by these units??? My assumption is I would have to walk over to the game room and take it out of monitor mode in order to start using it in 2 way communications mode. Hope I'm wrong though!
 
With the nutone system, you'd press monitor in the house to listen to the game room. The house would have control and be able to take it out of monitor mode and speak over the intercom.

I know the panasonic phone systems allow for room monitoring as well. Still not a cheap way to go however.
 
I'll have to look it up but when I used to be in the tower for tank gunnery they had this simple thing that hooked up two phones. When you picked up one the other rang. I always joked about putting that system in my bar and painting the phones red like the batphone. I'll see if I can dig that up.
 
A lot of wireless intercoms don't work. They are plagued with noise problems from dimmers, neon signs, computers, motors, etc. Best bet is hardwired "master-slave" intercoms. Put the slave in the gameroom and the master in the house. The master can listen to the slave at all times (if desired) and immediately interrupt when you want to talk to the slave.

We used to have a Bogen brand hardwired intercom at the drive-in theater I used to work at 30 years ago. The master station was in the projection booth and there were slave stations in the boxoffice and the snack bar. We usually kept the master set to monitor the boxoffice in case of trouble (like a robbery).
 
For the systems you guys are suggesting, I have a question. I assume that if you "lock" it in monitor mode, that means locking it in the room being monitored, and results in NOT being able to override that from the other room. In other words, I would want to be able to generally have the system monitoring the game room (by default), but from in the house I would want to be able to take it out of "monitor" mode and start talking to the game room. Can that be accomplished by these units??? My assumption is I would have to walk over to the game room and take it out of monitor mode in order to start using it in 2 way communications mode. Hope I'm wrong though!

The one listed "RADIO SHACK 43-3105 FM WIRELESS 3 CH INTERCOM SYSTEM" says that when you lock it to transmit you won't be able to talk to that station. You might want to look at baby monitors with the Talk Back feature. The good ones are not cheap. I will check some of the others, but they are probably the same.

Manuals....

http://support.radioshack.com/productinfo/ProductResults.asp?Name=Intercoms&ID=002006002
 
Spent a little time looking into baby monitors with talk back, but the ones I saw seemed to have low ratings with regard to reception, as Ken suggested.

So I started investigating intercom systems some more, and found what looks like the perfect solution. The brand is Aiphone and for the most basic master/slave configuration (LEM-1/LE-B) it would run ~$60 at salestores.com. Then you can go up in price if you want to do a master/master system, or multiple slaves, so we need to decide how far we want to take this, but it looks like we have a winner.

Anyone happen to have opinions on the Aiphone brand?

Thanks for the input everyone!
 
Their products do work. Let me relate a story of my experience with them. Keep in mind this was from 1989 when this happened.

We had one of their hardwired "telephone" style intercom systems in one of our theaters (a 3 plex). One day the intercom in the upstairs main projection booth got knocked off the table and hit the concrete floor. The intercom case and one of the circuit boards inside shattered into a million pieces. This left us without a working intercom system. Employees had to run up five flights of stairs to contact the projectionist and vice versa. Damage to the one station knocked the entire system out.

I contacted their (Aiphone) headquarters in Bellevue, Washington (about 60 miles from me) to order a service manual and the parts needed to repair this unit. It took six months to get the parts! This was after badgering them too. We did not want to switch to a different brand of intercom because it would have involved running a thousand feet of all new multi-conductor wire everywhere throughout this large building (some of it near and in asbestos-laden spaces. Because of my bad experience with Aiphone's parts handling and customer service (lack of service), I vowed to never ever buy/recommend their products.

Granted, this was in 1989, so maybe things have changed?
 
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