Wireless Tally Lights

It’s project time! We’re shooting a project right now in which many of the crew end up watching a monitor in a room separate from the shoot. This often means that the crew doesn’t know when tape is rolling and when it’s not. Now, wouldn’t it be convenient if there was a tally light that could be placed anywhere within reason to alert the crew?
Read on…


It amazes me that nobody seems to make a wireless tally light. About the best I’ve found is a wireless X10 kit that you could plug a light in to, but that would require an AC jack. So, new project.
I’ve been shopping at qkits, and here’s what I’ve ordered:
A 2 relay wireless receiver (at least one relay is latching, I’m hoping they both are)
A 2 channel wireless transmitter
A pack of LEDs
An LED flasher kit
A project box
and some assorted parts
The hope is that I can just tie the standby and on-air LEDs into the relays on the receiver, throw it all in a box with a 9volt battery, and then place it anywhere within about 30meters of the little key-fob transmitter. I’ll post pictures as it comes together…

4 thoughts on “Wireless Tally Lights

  1. Hey I just noticed three crazy comments on your
    April 26 blog spot. Are these new? Do you know
    how they got there or who commented?
    How is that new macbook doing?
    chEryL
    p.s. Have you heard from Adam?

  2. Hey Colin,
    Did you have any luck with your tally light system? I am part of a small campus TV station that is looking for a system exactly as you suggest. If you have any luck, please let us know.
    Thanks,
    Louis

  3. Hey there – I ended up buying some wireless relay kits, assembling them and tying them to some LED flasher boards. They work ok, but because the wireless receiver has to listen all the time, it’ll suck down two 9volt batteries pretty quick.
    It was something like this:
    http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/K8057
    It ended up working OK, but wouldn’t be worth the trouble for a permanent installation – you’d be better off buying wired relays and running cable.
    -Colin

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