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a tip and question-
we have passed out thousands of business cards with our theatre address and showtime phone number and have a stack on the counter at the boxoffice. We also have a list to sign up for our showtime email. Both have been huge pluses for us.
Now the question- Does anyone know of (or have an extra) good and inexpensive answer only machine that has a capacity of about a minute for the recording?

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Just go to your local electronics store and get a nice digital answering machine. I think the ones I bought were under $50 each. They are all pretty much the same, you can set them to answer only, or to accept messages etc.

I just went and bought a new one for the office and you'll be amazed that there just are not many out there! I bought a radio shack digital for 49.00 and it works just like I want. Problem is they have a max of 25 minutes message and record time so if you run
5 minute message you're not in great shape for recording.

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Mike Hurley
www.bigscreenbiz.com

I bought a new one recently and it took me awhile to find one that could handle a fairly long outgoing message. I ended up with a Panasonic 900 MHz digital cordless phone/answering machine, model KXTC-1743W and it works great for my purposes. It has a two minute greeting record time.

[This message has been edited by BurneyFalls (edited May 17, 2002).]

Another option would be using the local phone companies "Call Notes" or voice mail. It can be set to "answer only" and most of them can handle up to 25 calls at any given time, so your moviewatchers don't get a busy signal..

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"Building the world's first all digital theatre circuit. Bijou, The Ultimate Cinema Bar & Bistro (tm)"

We are in the market for a new digital machine to replace our older model but are having trouble finding one that will record more than one minute of message. (As you all know I am wordy).

The new Radio Shack ones seem to have plenty of mail boxes but they don't permit a long outgoing message. We don't use ours for taking messages so we only need an outgoing announcement.

Our present model does the job but we wanted a matching pair so that I could make the message downstairs where it is quiet and swap the machines.

Could you guys with new ones supply model numbers and outgoing message maximum time?

Hi again Beckwith!

While I can understand the desire for an answering machine, I really think the phone company voice mail is a good option as it lets multiple callers access the message with fairly minimal expense/investment. Try an experiment. Call your recording during times people are most likely making movie decisions. I think mid-morning and 4 - 6 in the afternoon are those times. How often do you call in and get a busy signal? If you are frequently getting a busy signal, you probably have more callers than a single line can handle. There is also a report about call traffic you can have the phone company run for you, but I have no idea how much it costs.

We use our phone companies voice mail and have a two minute outgoing message. It costs us around $25 per month for the voice box which has it's own direct dial in number which is published. We change the recording weekly and if you leave about 5 - 8 seconds of silence on the end of the recording most people will hang up before the take-a-message beep, which helps keep your voice mail box reasonably empty. Where you can get into trouble with this system is constantly having your voice mail box full because of hang-ups. This will tip the phone company that you aren't really using it for voice mail and they'll want to charge you more because they have a different announce only-product that is designed for this purpose and is way more expensive.

FWIW, I like voice mail, but to each his own.

Ky

We use a Takacom AT-D39R Digital 3 line announcer. It is answering device only but whats good is that you can record up to 5 different announcements and pre-program them for different day and dates in advance so we never forget to change the message anymore. Cost about $400 but we don't loos showtimes (somebody-usually me-was always forgeting to change the message!). On the message we give out the BO voice line which does take messages when were not here.

Most economical one we have found is the AT&T model 1725 digital. Allows for 24 minutes of outgoing recording time. Which can be spread over 4 different selections. Usually priced between $40 and $50.

Just scored an AT&T 1872 on eBay for $10. 23 minutes of outgoing message time and you can split that up between three mail boxes. So, when you call, you get: "Thank you for calling the Avalon Cinema with Dolby stereo surround sound. We accept Visa . . . (movies, ratings, times) . . . Press 3 for a review of this fine film or press 4 for Avalon information like where we are, what things cost, and how to conctact us." We have a voice mail for spill over so if the line is busy, someone will get a 45 second vesion of the above. Works great.

Reviving an old topic...

Besides going directly thru the phone company, does anyone have an outgoing message system (length 3+ mins) that can be recorded/modified off-site?

Oh, and I'm just curious what BECKWITH1 ultimately went with.

- mannooss

Not sure the companys name off hand, but there is a company in PA that makes a nice voicemail system that can be configured to do PRESS 1 FOR Current shows PRESS 2 for next weeks shows etc...

like 99 boxes, and recording time is over an hour...

Simular to the old Voice Logic VP206 except it has flash ram not requiring battery backup or internal battery.

and you can configure each box either record msg or announce only.

Four years is a long, long time in this business. I'm not sure exactly what model we bought but it was a small AT&T digital answering machine with at least 5 minutes of outgoing announcement capacity. Unfortunately, it is packed away in a box somewhere as the theater it was purchased for is closed. We inherited a Bogen FR200 Personal Answering Assistant with the 4 screen theater that we purchased. It is quite old but has multiline capacity and multiple message boxes. It is the system that we use today. As we look at the possibility of cutting out our big city newspaper advertising entirely when we move to second run we are considering other options that can handle multiple calls as we will be relying more on internet and telephone.

I was in the voice messaging business for 10 years, so my theatres pretty much got their answering service for free. Having sold the business, I now find myself cheap and stingy when it comes to buying phone lines.

I use the Vonage internet phone service, and set the line to answer immediately. It only allows for 1 minute of announcement, but will answer as many calls as it gets. I keep my messages pretty much to what's playing, what it's rated, where we are, what our admission is and then mention our web site for further information. I can comfortably get a 3-screener into the 1-minute. However, if I had to put showtimes in, that might be a problem.

Messages from the callers can be deleted on the Vonage web site with a couple of clicks, so you don't have to mess with that much.

It's not as nice as my voice mail was, but it's a LOT less expensive, and does the job.

Ok, hopefully my last post on this topic.

To be specific, I am looking for an outgoing message system that:

1. Can hold at least 1.5 mins of recording time
2. Can accept at least two incoming calls at the same time
3. Is not operated by a phone company (my phone co. does not offer anything like this)

I don't mean this in an angry way but I would appreciate your responses not be generic like "any random Best Buy machine" if you know what I mean. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks as always,

- Mannooss