What's a good, relatively cheap system? The cheapest thing I can find is battery powered & has automatic reset, which seems like it would be awful for competition. I've also looked at the Officiator and SVBZ's systems, but we're a few fundraisers away from being able to afford those so I thought I should check with the community here to see if anything else is reliable/cheap/available.
(Forgive me if I'm throwing this in the wrong forum, but as I'm looking to buy the first buzzer set for my new(ish) collegiate team, I figured this would be the place to go. (I also couldn't find a recent discussion - the most recent seemed to be from 2006, so I'm not sure how much of that information is applicable))
"Best" First Buzzer System?
- The Diapir King
- Lulu
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 5:02 pm
- Location: Cowville (Davis, CA)
"Best" First Buzzer System?
Minda Moe
They/Them/Theirs or He/Him/His, whatever floats our collective boats
freelance Old
UC Davis '18
St. Monica Catholic HS '14
They/Them/Theirs or He/Him/His, whatever floats our collective boats
freelance Old
UC Davis '18
St. Monica Catholic HS '14
Re: "Best" First Buzzer System?
You might want to take a look at PACEBuzz: viewtopic.php?f=123&t=18407&p=313451&hi ... zz#p313451
Mike Hundley
PACE Member
Virginia Tech
PACE Member
Virginia Tech
Re: "Best" First Buzzer System?
If you want to bring your buzzer to tournaments - and not just practice - you'll need to shell out the money for at least an Anderson (SVBZ's are not very good). The Andersons with a hand-held box are the holy grail of buzzers, imo.
Cody Voight, VCU ’14.
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6466
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
- Contact:
Re: "Best" First Buzzer System?
Yeah I am a big fan of the Anderson buzzers. They're cheap, easy to set up, and pretty reliable.Cody wrote:If you want to bring your buzzer to tournaments - and not just practice - you'll need to shell out the money for at least an Anderson (SVBZ's are not very good). The Andersons with a hand-held box are the holy grail of buzzers, imo.
But for practice situations PACEBuzz can be a good option (it's what we use at UW practices).
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Re: "Best" First Buzzer System?
Another vote for Andersons here. We have five of them, and have had really good response from them when we've needed replacement parts.Cody wrote:The Andersons with a hand-held box are the holy grail of buzzers, imo.
Somehow I missed the table-top box sets in the past (http://www.andersonbuzzersystems.com/tabletop.html). We have the handheld buzzers. The table-top box would eliminate the issue of "who buzzed in first" because of the light on the box. But why are they cheaper? Do the table-top boxes tend to break or malfunction?
Michael Joy
Faculty Advisor/"Coach"/Travel Agent
Northern Michigan University Quiz Bowl
Faculty Advisor/"Coach"/Travel Agent
Northern Michigan University Quiz Bowl
Re: "Best" First Buzzer System?
Nope; those are the ones we have four of!mjoy wrote:Another vote for Andersons here. We have five of them, and have had really good response from them when we've needed replacement parts.Cody wrote:The Andersons with a hand-held box are the holy grail of buzzers, imo.
Somehow I missed the table-top box sets in the past (http://www.andersonbuzzersystems.com/tabletop.html). We have the handheld buzzers. The table-top box would eliminate the issue of "who buzzed in first" because of the light on the box. But why are they cheaper? Do the table-top boxes tend to break or malfunction?
Cody Voight, VCU ’14.
- Good Goblin Housekeeping
- Auron
- Posts: 1105
- Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 10:03 am
Re: "Best" First Buzzer System?
These are the best. Easiest thing in the universe to set up!Cody wrote:Nope; those are the ones we have four of!mjoy wrote:Another vote for Andersons here. We have five of them, and have had really good response from them when we've needed replacement parts.Cody wrote:The Andersons with a hand-held box are the holy grail of buzzers, imo.
Somehow I missed the table-top box sets in the past (http://www.andersonbuzzersystems.com/tabletop.html). We have the handheld buzzers. The table-top box would eliminate the issue of "who buzzed in first" because of the light on the box. But why are they cheaper? Do the table-top boxes tend to break or malfunction?
Andrew Wang
Illinois 2016
Illinois 2016