Room Escape Artist: Walkie-talkies are a funny method of hint delivery in escape rooms. A lot of companies use them. More than a few players hate them (and with good reason). There is potential to do some great things with walkie-talkies… if they are done deliberately and thoughtfully (and this is rare).
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Based on experience, all of the issues explained in this article are decently present in the world of escape rooms, and use of walkie talkies in general. It took me to work somewhere that required successful use of a walkie talkie to actually understand what “Turning this changes the channel” meant. However, I think the use of walkie talkies could expand beyond escape rooms, which the article addresses.
In personal use, I used walkie talkies to film a police parody sketch, and both my friend and I had our own device. In the short, the walkie talkies added to the illusion that the world/police department did not just exist in front of the camera. I think the same could be used in theatre. Through the use of walkie talkies (properly used of course), I think a stage production could transform a stage into a more expansive environment.
Via walkie talkies, stage productions could create the idea that there are more people in the world than just the characters on stage. Granted, such a use would need to be appropriate, with a policeman, a soldier, etc. but the illusionary use to create a world beyond the stage, I feel would be interesting.
Across the shows I’ve seen in my life, I’ve never seen a walkie talkie used on stage, but I think it’d be an interesting thing to implement. Granted, I simultaneously do not know if any issues may come of such a use, interfering with microphones and all, but if possible, I could see walkie talkies helping a production’s immersion effect overall.
This article is written by somebody who clearly has experience in the world of escape rooms. I had no clue that there were many different ways to host or facilitate an escape room. This article stays within the topic of walkie talkies and why they should and should not be used in escape rooms. One of the problems addressed in the article with walkie talkies is the improper instruction or difficulty providing proper instruction. Not everybody has experience working with walkie talkies before, and that is expected, but there are ways to be clear in explanation with them. Instructions can be provided as a list of steps to follow in order to make the walkie useful. Other people have provided a list of things to and not to do when operating a walkie talkie. I am a fan of an ordered list of steps. Although the facilitation of proper use of a walkie talkie can be difficult, when used properly, walkie talkies make the system so much easier for the overall goal of escaping the room.
When it comes to escape rooms and communication, I think the article starts to hint at what should be in place all the way at the end: walkie talkies are good, but there is way more that can be done. There is a really amazing opportunity for sound designers to get really creative with sound interaction beyond the cheap sound effects often found in escape rooms. The three dimensional soundscapes that can be created are unique to these immersive environments and can be used as clues or to set the overall mood. In addition, these rooms should be employing the use of microphones and speakers to communicate to the players, since the hard-wired connections are secure and not open to outside interference, and the settings aren't adjustable on the player's end. All in all, walkie talkies are currently sufficient for what they're being used for, but they are incredibly limiting on what is possible in interactive entertainment.
Although I have never been in an escape room, I do agree with this article. Anything that could take you out of the experience should be eliminated. There is no reason to not have a microphone monitoring system for the game master and a speaker system for the players to hear the response of the game master. Hiding the equipment in the room in such a way that its still effective and very much unseen even with player interaction of stuff, would be amazing. Trying to figure out just how to do that and where to put it would make technically designing the escape room just that much more fun. On the other hand, a props person would also have a blast. Taking something and changing its form wouldn’t be all that difficult and could make for a memorable piece. Just think about the typical batman hidden button to open the entrance to the Batcave. Something as iconic as a statue of a bust and having a button under an hinge-able head is very memorable. Make the walkie-talkies the same thing.
Radios are super fun and this is a super interesting discussion. Clear and concise communication over radios is not just an issue in escape rooms, but with professionals who employ radios as a form of communication. Historically, agencies hae use “10-codes” like “10-4” which means “received.” You can have up to one hundred 10-codes and many times agencies would have different one from each other leading to communication breakdowns. Now FEMA requests that personnelle not use 10-codes if multi-agency incidents, but I digress. I do like the idea of the microphone in the room for an immersive experience, but it is always fun to be given a walkie talkie. I’ve never thought before about how escape rooms could be really fun pieces of theater and I would certainly be interested in seeing a piece of theater that encompassed an escape room in some way, maybe with live actors in the escape room. It could be an immersive experience.
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