Airtagging Comteks/IFBs?

[soundtown]

I recently worked a 4 day commercial and had 20 comteks on hand.  We were using 16 (12 of them agency).  There was a lot to shoot and we had 2-3 company moves per day.  At the end of day one we had 2 comteks not come back.  At the end of day 2 , another 2 went MIA.  We were letting the producer know, but they didnt seem to be able to track them down.   Producer wasnt worried about paying for new ones, but still I hate leaving without having all gear accounted for.    On day 3 , a 5th comtek went missing, so at this point, its just absolutely ridiculous, and thats when I started thinking man... I need a system to keep track of these things.  Im not sure how this would work but was brainstorming slapping an airtag on the comteks.  In theory, this seems like it could solve many issues with locating "lost" comteks but I speculate that the airtag BT/wifi whatever it uses,  would most likely interfere with the comtek audio .  

 

Question:  Has anyone ever tried this, or have any other ideas

 

I have numbered stickers on each comtek, so, for the key players, Director, Script, AD, etc I know which number I gave to them, but its the agency where things get messy as I cant keep track of what those children are doing

 

 

[Johnny Karlsson]

Yeah, where to begin…? Those company moves… sounds hectic, and difficult to collect 100% of them before leaving each location under that kind of (assumed) time pressure. They end up in agency peeps’ purses, cars, and sometimes with the walkies (yeah some people just don’t know the difference). I had one show up a month after a job when the walkie rental company called me saying an IFB with my phone number on it had come back with their returns that day - obviously from a completely different shoot, that I had nothing to with.

So yeah, not sure about air tags, but I mark everything with my name and number to make it easy to get ahold of me if someone finds a lost one.

Maybe someone else can chime in, but how would the AirTag get attached, and how reliable would it be to not get separated…? 
Tagging 20x Comteks = $500.00 worth of AirTags….

[Philip Perkins]

The only thing I ever did that helped this issue was to have a very obvious place for the "creatives" to get and return the Comteks, like some sort of multi-bag thing like a closet shoe holder set on a stand right next to their monitor.   Having a very visible place for them to return the equipment to when we moved seemed to help a lot, and also pretty much took care of the hassle of passing them out one at a time.  This thing didn't 100% prevent loss, but it cut it way down and speeded up the location moves.  Comteks are a form of expendable, just like lav mics put on talent: sooner or later you are going to lose a few and you want to be ready to charge the production for what a replacement costs.

[Derek H]

The problem with AirTags specifically is that they have a feature (that is always on) where they start to jingle randomly when near someone’s phone too long. It’s an anti-stalking feature actually to alert people that someone else’s air tag has been near them for awhile. 

[JesseF]

Ah yes... giving me sound utility PTSD for sure.  On shorter jobs, large comtek counts are an absolute nightmare.  Creatives take them home and forget to return them.  On TV shows/movies, they are usually going to the same people so they're easier to track down.  Just handing out 12 comteks to randos inevitably leads to losses.

 

On all the shows I've worked on, the solution has been: L&D.  The film industry burns money and comteks are just more kindling for the fire.

 

Sorry to not be very helpful, just in my experience no one uses air tags.  Presumably there is a reason.

[Rory Reshovsky]

On 5/25/2024 at 7:02 AM, Derek H said:

The problem with AirTags specifically is that they have a feature (that is always on) where they start to jingle randomly when near someone’s phone too long. It’s an anti-stalking feature actually to alert people that someone else’s air tag has been near them for awhile. 

 

It's not too difficult to modify AirTags to remove the speaker coil, but that also compromises their water resistance. That's the only way I can see them being viable for Comteks, but it would also prevent finding them using the audible ping, although you could still use the direction/distance finding if your phone supports it.