CALLING: Headset Etiquette

[damjamkato]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I had an experience in my last show that really annoyed me.
It was at my High School, and I was running the light board.  The SM is a nice guy, but he had one really annoying thing he did.  While on headset, he would eat, continuously, throughout the entire show.  AND THE MIC ON HIS HEADSET WAS ON! You have no idea how annoying it is to hear someone chewing in your ear the entire night.  Sorry, just needed to vent.

[gNat]

While on headset, he would eat, continuously, throughout the entire show.  AND THE MIC ON HIS HEADSET WAS ON!

I've run into a problem with people humming along to the Nutcracker and leaving their mics on.  GYARGH.

Also, I just finished a run of "Anything Goes," and my SL ASM had a broken headset -- her light didn't work, so she couldn't tell if her mic was left on unless someone told her.  One night, Act 2 begins, and she starts singing along to "Public Enemy"!!  I was NOT happy -- first of all, that she was singing backstage (and had been doing so every night), and secondly that she was doing it so loud she couldn't hear me or anyone else telling her to stop!  Even the mic kill button didn't help.

[Cat J. Hunt]

While working at an outdoor drama, we were using walkies during tech.  We later added headsets to the walkies.  During a particularly BAD night of tech, the PSM said some very inappropriate things over headset.  Little did she know that all of the technicians backstage (about 10 of us) had our walkies turned up, with no headsets.  Every cast member heard everything she said for hours.

[Aerial]

Every cast member heard everything she said for hours.

I'm curious as to why someone who is in a position to be on headset would let something like that go on for hours.  Why didn't someone either tell the PSM that the com was essentially broadcasting backstage, or turn it down?

[maximillionx]

During the tech and run of a show, my friends at school had the unfortunate experience of being on a team with an SM who loved to talk over headset.  I was invited to listen in one night...and boy was that fun.  She was particularly fond of describing her sex life and bodily functions with the crew.  It mostly, and by mostly I mean hardly, stopped when one individual spoke up, raising the point that this might be a tid-bit unprofessional.'

We often use this example when talking to new ASM or SMs about backstage and headset etiquette.  A for my personal opinions, I think an occasional comment or joke is okay to liven a dull show and help moral.  However, the PSM in charge should be able to stop the chatter if need be.

[Mac Calder]

We have a simple solution to the overhearing problem - especially with 2-ways - a simple, quick call of "Open coms" indicates that you have an open speaker in an area where conversation could be damaging to the person speaking, or when in a room with clients and professionalism is required... You have to look after your people.

We say the same when the topic of a conversation may be walking into an area with a squawk box etc.

Look after your colleagues. For example, when we were doing corporate work, during setups we would often have rather random conversations, quoting movies etc over 2way. When one of us walked into a room, we would call "Open Com" and radio silence and business calls were the only calls that would be made until "Clear coms" was called.

[ManageThis]

Eating on com is one of my biggest pet peeves. Unlike Dam, though, it was my ME during a show. He had no reason to have his mic keyed, but every night after repeated requests for him to stop it continued until one night I went into his booth and took away his chips.

At our school, it's really important for clear com to be very formal. For some reason, they designed our theatres with clear com panels in the dressing room and the green room. There is no built in mic in these panels, but anyone can turn on the panel and listen in to the conversation. This came up when one of our light designers was using com to communicate with his ME, and started complaining about sex with his girlfriend. That was mighty interesting.

Even with the importance of formality, its still hard for many of the crew members. During one of our musicals, the stage manager forced a quiet com during her favorite song, and she would sing along and cry with it. (She also seemed to have a lot in common with Max's stage manager -- except she liked to talk about her "female problems") During our production of The Marriage of Bette and Boo, the stage manager would remove her com when there were no cues due to crew members refusing to stop telling dead baby jokes.

Like Cat's outdoor, I work one where we have walkies, and unfortunately the company is too cheap to buy headsets for all of them. During our tech last summer, we ran into the similar problem of the SM bad mouthing certain people, but she continued even after we informed her about the open mic problem.

One problem I had on the other end of the spectrum was an ASM who never was on com when I needed her. Through out the run I asked her to be on com at certain points, and I always seemed to have to send a crew member to run off and find her. She was a wonderful ASM in all other aspects, but I had no idea how to get her on com when I needed her. And then, when she did finally come on com, she never announced it. So frustrating!

[loebtmc]

OK - I have a question for you. Preface this with: I didn't go to school to learn stage management but learned by doing.

From my earliest ASM days, I was always trained that the person calling the show left their headset open (unless they were coughing, eating or drinking, of course) but everyone else kept it off except for confirmations and specific sections where communication was needed. Of course, this is in addition to headset chatter on certain shows, but that is not of concern.

I recently worked with a young ASM who went to college to learn SMing, and also who has done some impressive work in her former community. She was terrific, but one night said something sarcastic abt leaving the headset open and that it was always supposed to be closed unless cues were being called.

I have no issues either way, but I have never had the PSM (or person calling the show) NOT have an open headset throughout (again, unless they coughed, ate or drank). So I thought I'd ask the peanut gallery here if anyone had thoughts on this.

[lauria]

In college, I was trained to turn off my com when not in use - the TD there used to bother others by breathing into the mic (accidentally, of course) and so trained us all to turn off our coms so that we wouldn't bother others. It was good practice for all the techs. I never had a problem with someone accidentally having an open com and dropping their headset (ow) or eating.

In my opinion, the only person who Could/Should have their com open is the SM. Generally, I'm inclined to leave it open most of the time if calling from the booth so that if there's an emergency I don't have to deal with pushing buttons to get things moving. If there is a long stretch without cues or much action, I'll sometimes turn it off, but always keep my finger on the button. I breathe a little easier not worrying that someone can hear me breathe!

If I were doing a show in which there were automation, I think I would ALWAYS leave it open. There's too much that could possibly go wrong and too quickly to be fiddling with buttons.

[EFMcMullen]

I personally keep my headset off unless I am in a stand-by and calling cues or cues are running.  My main reason: nothing drives me more nuts than listening to others breath in the headset and so I assume I sound just as bad and I would prefer to spare them.  Personally, unless cues are happening why do you need to keep it open: you can accidently bump it, react to something verbally on-stage that others need not hear, etc.

But that's me...

[GalFriday]

I prefer to turn my headset off whenever I can. In general I do not think anyone needs to hear the loud fans in the booth for the entire show. Not to mention all of the other noises (Talking artistic staff, typing up show notes, etc.). I have called shows with pretty intense automation and some pretty big emergencies (technical and medical) and I have yet to have a problem getting to the call button in time.

[Mac Calder]

It largely depends on the quality of your coms and the headsets and how much noise there is around you.

If you are hearing breathing, there is something wrong with how you have possitioned your mic, or your beltpack has the microphone over-gained. I delibrately ask my followspot operators to leave their coms open - why? Because I am in a booth with 1/4" glass and a heap of fans, and a monitor that is not correctly delayed to the house. The followspot operators microphones pick up a certain amount of the area noise because of the nature of where they sit. I never hear breathing, and if there is an issue, they don't have to fumble arround for their beltpacks (I should mention that from my control possition, I cannot see the appron of the stage without standing up and leaning over my console). I leave my microphone open too - I am in a relatively quiet environment, my headset is a light weight headset, correctly gained on my user station. When I am silent, then my coms are silent.

There are certain people who keep their headsets off - deck crew mainly, because they work in high ambient noise areas...

In a correctly designed coms system, there is no reason why the SM, LX etc etc cannot leave their coms open.

[thelovelyLIZ]

The thing about head set is you never know who is on... I've heard many stories about someone talking about someone else on head set, only to later find out that they were listening the whole time.

I think, in general, you should always be polite and respectful to you crew, even if they miss a cue or mess something up. Never forget they are actually the ones implementing what you're doing, and they can make you look bad! Plus, everyone is much happier when there's less tension!

[Libby]

 I do agree with loebtmc that if there is one open mic it should be the sm's mic. Typically I find I will leave my mic open when I first start calling a show, but once I get comfortable I will try and keep it off unless I am in standby/calling mode.

As to being careful what is said. A lot of the theatres I have worked in have a squawk box, usually in the SM or PM office, so someone can be working in the office and still in ear range. The safest assumption is that whatever you say will be heard by the one person you would never want to hear the comment.

[FEMontesa]

Potty mouth Stage Manager equals not much of a future.  A Stage Manager's reputation is always on the line but an actor's ass is on stage.  A disrespectful stage manager has no business being a stage manager.  There are productive ways to give notes.