Anyone Using Wireless Buzzers for Practice?

[ValenciaQBowl]

We often have 12-15 people at our Valencia practices, and we use Quik Pro Buzzers http://www.quikprosystems.com/ , as do nearly all the CC teams in Florida. Our practice system only has 12 lights, and rarely are all of them working anyway, so we usually have some number of people slapping the table. On top of that, due to the configuration of our cruddy practice room, the players are at long, four-person tables in front of the desk from which I read, meaning wires run in rows where people walk, leading to numerous yanking of candles of the table because my players don't seem capable of paying attention to where they're stepping.

Anyway, I'm curious about buying a wireless system just for practice. We've looked at the Zeecraft http://www.zeecraft.com/all-in-one.html, but it's pretty expensive, while the "Affordable Buzzers" version http://www.quizgamebuzzers.com/ seems pretty lame (apparently it requires the moderator to hit the space bar to allow players to buzz in, so I guess you'd have to just do so at the beginning of every toss-up or something?).

So I was wondering if anyone has advice on these or other systems. I'm not interested in using a wireless set for tournaments, just for practices to avoid wear on our Quik Pro systems and to make set up and take down easier.

[Cody]

VCU uses the Anderson Officiator Elite. Not only because it has a super exciting name, but because you can start at a lower tier and buy extra components as you might need them (i.e. start with 16 and move to 24 if you need it). Doing so is a cost adder of $159 (plus shipping) vs $140 for doing it at the start, so it's not a killer cost-wise.

[ValenciaQBowl]

I like that system, especially the option for "Junior Bible Quizzing," a quiz bowl category I want to get into, for sure! But . . . I know I'm pretty technologically challenged, but isn't that a wired system? My hope is to find a way to get rid of the wires between our tables.

Meantime, I think we're going to buy this one, cheesy though it appears:
http://www.trainerswarehouse.com/Me-First-v2-Wireless-Game-Buzzers-12-user-set-facilitator/productinfo/GAMFWB/

[Cody]

Oh, woops, I misread your last paragraph as saying you weren't married to the idea of wireless buzzers for practice, not being about tournaments. My bad.

[Snoopy]

My school uses the Zeecraft wireless system. For practices, it is a very good set, but I definitely wouldn't use it for tournaments. Anyway, it works very well and as advertised. My gripes with it are that:
- The buzzers eat batteries, just like all wireless systems. They have to be changed for us ~once per year, and it can get mildly annoying to change them all
- They can't interfere with any other electronics, but they can interfere with each other. They all have to be set to the proper channels or that can cause issues like 2 lighting at once
- In addition, if you buy multiple sets, they can interfere with each other (unless you change all the channels on one of the sets)
- On occasion, during a massive buzzer race, everyone will be buzzing and it will take a long time to figure out who buzzed first
- They're fragile; if you drop one, that's the end of the cover

But, initial (first-time) setup aside, those are all pretty minor frustrations, and I think it will work better than any other wireless system you own or can buy. You shouldn't expect it to work as well as a wired system, however.

I would buy one of their hard cases, too. They work nice

[ValenciaQBowl]

Good stuff, Joe. Thanks!

[Snoopy]

No problem! Hope I helped.

[jonathanluck]

Shameless plug for my own online buzzer system.
forum post
qbbuzzer.com
We are working on pushing out our latest (and hopefully last major) update/bugfix to the server within the month. The rooms are capped at 25 people, meaning everyone at your practices can use the same room (think of rooms as individual buzzer systems). We found that it works reasonably well for practices (we still do not recommend tournament use). And of course its free

[the return of AHAN]

My school uses the Zeecraft wireless system. For practices, it is a very good set, but I definitely wouldn't use it for tournaments. Anyway, it works very well and as advertised. My gripes with it are that:
- The buzzers eat batteries, just like all wireless systems. They have to be changed for us ~once per year, and it can get mildly annoying to change them all
- They can't interfere with any other electronics, but they can interfere with each other. They all have to be set to the proper channels or that can cause issues like 2 lighting at once
- In addition, if you buy multiple sets, they can interfere with each other (unless you change all the channels on one of the sets)
- On occasion, during a massive buzzer race, everyone will be buzzing and it will take a long time to figure out who buzzed first
- They're fragile; if you drop one, that's the end of the cover

But, initial (first-time) setup aside, those are all pretty minor frustrations, and I think it will work better than any other wireless system you own or can buy. You shouldn't expect it to work as well as a wired system, however.

I would buy one of their hard cases, too. They work nice

They're not cheap, but we've been happy with our Slam-In system wireless, and I purchased enough positions that we can accommodate 20 players at a time. (www.slammersystems.com).

[ValenciaQBowl]

So brief epilogue on this if anyone cares: we did indeed buy the "Me First" buzzer system I linked to in my second post above, and so far they've been nothing but great! Granted, no one's using another wireless system near us when we're practicing, but we've seen no signal interference, and they ease in set up and take-down has been a real pleasure (it's gone from 5-10 minutes to basically one minute). Not having players trip on wires and pull down candles is good, too.

The only minor drawback is that, since my players sit in horizontal rows in front of me, I can't usually see the light on the individual buzzer, and there's no indicator on my desk, so I have to remind them sometimes to buzz and hold up their signaler, so I can tell who's in. But they're already used to that, and things are swell. Thanks to all of y'all who offered advice!