SSLtech
Well-known member
Here's what I'm considering, and I'm not certain that I'm at all smart enough to know how to do such a thing and have it work right off the bat:
I have installed and modified a matrix-based intercom installation between two rooms. It's a speaker and omni-mic based affair with the mics usually at arms length, and various speakers in the control room in the console meterbridge (three locations for three operators) 3 flush-mounted mics; one on the console at each master section, a 19"-mounted speaker and gooseneck mic at the outboard rack, and speakers and mics all over the machine rooms (2 machine rooms, one cable room and a couple of other places)
It all works marvellously, and it's set up so that any calls into the machine rooms automatically dim any monitors by a user-determinable amount, and direct the comms into the monitors also. -I like it a lot!
However...
There are times when I need a "Bat-phone" hotline arrangement, so that any conversation that requires some discretion (delays, 'covering' for errors, etc... -use your imagination!) are not overheard or delivered over speakers.
Since our facility is not averse to "kitschy" or "form-over-function" approaches, rather than a modern ugly telephone, I thought it might be nice to use a coulpe of old James Bond-style big-ol' RED telephones with a light on them instead of a ringer. This would be akin to the red hot-line between the Russian and American presidents in the old Bond movies.
I don't want to bring the "real" phone network system into these rooms. It's VERY nice to be isolated and unreachable sometimes. I also don't want clients tying up an important hotline because they want to get an outside line because their cellphone battery is flat or whatever... I want a 2-phone hotline that does only one thing perfectly and is useless for anything else.
I don't want ringers, A light might be an idea, but basically I just want to be able to say "hotline" over the intercom and have a private, non-overheard conversation.
Probably nothing more than a series wiring arangement of the two phones and a DC power sounce would work, but are there any other cool things that I can do, or is there a way to light a light on the phone when the far-end handset is lifted, wich cancels when both handsets are either picked up, or both down...?
Anybody got any great ideas?
Oh, anyone got any cool places to look for cool-looking retro phones?
[edit:] Found the perfect thing at oldphones.com:
Keith
I have installed and modified a matrix-based intercom installation between two rooms. It's a speaker and omni-mic based affair with the mics usually at arms length, and various speakers in the control room in the console meterbridge (three locations for three operators) 3 flush-mounted mics; one on the console at each master section, a 19"-mounted speaker and gooseneck mic at the outboard rack, and speakers and mics all over the machine rooms (2 machine rooms, one cable room and a couple of other places)
It all works marvellously, and it's set up so that any calls into the machine rooms automatically dim any monitors by a user-determinable amount, and direct the comms into the monitors also. -I like it a lot!
However...
There are times when I need a "Bat-phone" hotline arrangement, so that any conversation that requires some discretion (delays, 'covering' for errors, etc... -use your imagination!) are not overheard or delivered over speakers.
Since our facility is not averse to "kitschy" or "form-over-function" approaches, rather than a modern ugly telephone, I thought it might be nice to use a coulpe of old James Bond-style big-ol' RED telephones with a light on them instead of a ringer. This would be akin to the red hot-line between the Russian and American presidents in the old Bond movies.
I don't want to bring the "real" phone network system into these rooms. It's VERY nice to be isolated and unreachable sometimes. I also don't want clients tying up an important hotline because they want to get an outside line because their cellphone battery is flat or whatever... I want a 2-phone hotline that does only one thing perfectly and is useless for anything else.
I don't want ringers, A light might be an idea, but basically I just want to be able to say "hotline" over the intercom and have a private, non-overheard conversation.
Probably nothing more than a series wiring arangement of the two phones and a DC power sounce would work, but are there any other cool things that I can do, or is there a way to light a light on the phone when the far-end handset is lifted, wich cancels when both handsets are either picked up, or both down...?
Anybody got any great ideas?
Oh, anyone got any cool places to look for cool-looking retro phones?
[edit:] Found the perfect thing at oldphones.com:
Keith