As an event planner, you are only as good as the tools that you use. Walkie talkies can be an excellent investment in your business, especially when you get the best walkie talkie for event planners. Knowing what to look for and which options are the best choices for you can help you get the right walkie talkie for your needs. This article will take a closer look at everything that you need to know about walkie talkies.
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Ultimate Buying Guide to Choosing the Right Walkie Talkie for Event Planners in 2022
There are plenty of things that you should be looking at when choosing a walkie talkie, including the best walkie talkie for loud environments. This section will take a look at some of the top features to look for.
Location of Your Events
If you primarily hold your events at a single location, you will want to consider whether or not you hold events outdoors or indoors. If any part of the event is indoors, you need something that is powerful enough to penetrate the walls. If you are doing events both inside and outside, you would like a versatile option like the UHF or a dual-band VHF/UHF option.
Battery Life
Another major consideration is battery life. If you tend to through longer events, you want to make sure that your battery power can hold up for the entirety of the event. Think about how long your events tend to go, from setup to breakdown, to determine how much battery life will work for your specific needs.
Durability
Do you do a lot of outdoor events? Do your walkie talkies tend to go through a lot during an event? If so, you want to make sure that you get a walkie talkie that is durable enough to stand up to everything that your team can put it through.
Range
Range is the most important consideration when you do a lot of outdoor events. When you primarily do indoor events, range isn’t something that you really need to consider. Find walkie talkies that have a range of 2 miles. You shouldn’t need much more than that for most events.
Emergency Features
Anything can happen during your event, which is why having features like an emergency alert can be extremely helpful to you. This will allow your team to just hit a button when an emergency hits, allowing you to quickly come to their aid.
Budget
Lastly, it’s important to consider your budget. Walkie talkies can vary greatly in price range, which is why you need to think about how much you are willing to spend on the walkie talkie. Keep in mind, with items like walkie talkies, you usually get exactly what you pay for.
Best Walkie Talkie for Event Planners
When talking about walkie talkies for event planners, it’s essential to look at which walkie talkie is the best walkie talkie for loud environments. Events can sometimes get very loud, so having a walkie talkie that works in these environments is the best choice for you. In this section, you can learn about the top 3 choices for walkie talkies for event planning.
Motorola CLP1080e
This is a 2-way radio that is both durable and small enough to fit right into the palm of your hand, with an easy-to-access push-to-talk button.
What keeps this walky-talky so small is the absence of an internal speaker which the Motorola engineers designed out of this radio for customers who traditionally use a headset to ensure private communication.
You will also notice a “Smart Status Glow”, which can not only change color to let you know that you are sending or receiving messages but also display battery life, scan, and channel.
You can use this with a Motorola Repeater for an even longer range and you get the benefit of nice earpieces to wear with these walkie-talkies.
- A proper business walkie-talkie designed for the hospitality and retail sector.
- Clear, strong audio to cut through background noise.
- Convenient to wear and use with the supplied headset.
- Exceptional 18 hr battery life for such a small device.
- Specifically designed to work with a headset, there is no internal speaker.
Midland BR200
If you want or need a walkie-talkie with an internal speaker, then the Midland BR200 is a good fit.
Although Midland position the BR200 walkie-talkie as entry-level business two-way radio (rather than a consumer walkie-talkie), it’s a great choice for Event Planners and Coordinators who need a robust and reliable two-way radio to manage their operations.
The Midland BR200 offers high performance. It has 2 watts of power and offers 16 different channels for you to operate on as well as privacy codes to ensure safe and secure communication.
It has a great range and an impressively long battery life, with its Lithium Ion technology offering up to 20 hours of use, and a tough and sturdy yet easy-to-use design.
A headset is optionally available.
Overall, the Midland BR200 walkie-talkie is a great choice for schools, construction sites, retail shops, restaurants, and other small businesses looking for an affordable and dependable walkie-talkie with solid range and battery life.
Read our full review of the Midland BR200 and BR400 business walkie-talkies.
- Powerful 2W business radio provides excellent range.
- Impressive battery life - 48-hours in our tests.
- Lightweight yet robust and durable design.
- Decent audio from the internal speaker.
- Requires an FCC business radio license.
- Headset is optional and not included.
Arcshell AR-5 Rechargeable Long Range Two-Way Radios
The Arcshell walkie talkie is ergonomically designed and intuitive, which makes it a great option for staff that need an easy to use means of communication without the ‘bells and whistles’.
The Arcshell AR-5 is small and fits nicely in your palm and offers decent range for what is a budget business radio.
You’ll see these radios sold under many different brands (Baofeng and Ansoko to name just two) which makes sourcing accessories and replacement parts and batteries easier than a proprietary brand.
We found the audio quality to be ‘OK’ rather than exceptional. And according to the manufacturer, the battery life should be good for even the longest events, although we found that some batteries just didn’t hold their charge.
But on the plus side, you can easily charge this walkie talkie with a standard USB charger which will extend the operating time.
Overall, this is a budget business radio that will suit some users where event communications are a nice to have – for example, we wouldn’t want to give these to first responders or security personnel at an event where clear, reliable communications are essential.
- Value - Six-rechargeable radios for less than $80
- Decent coverage across a property of around an acre.
- Sold under various brands which makes accessories/replacements easy to obtain.
- Batteries didn't hold charge making long-term testing difficult.
- Antenna breaks off easily, although this only affects the look not operation of the radio.
- Supplied headsets were uncomfortable to wear.
Why Every Event Planner Needs a Walkie-Talkie
Communication is crucial to the success of any event. You can easily pass along and receive instructions in real-time so that you can easily get information to your staff without a lot of effort. The walkie talkie also allows you to find the staff member that you are looking for, without having to stop what you’re doing to look for them. Lastly, walkie talkies are great for security and emergency purposes, ensuring that help gets to where it needs to as soon as possible.
In short, walkie talkies make you more efficient and offers additional security and safety for your events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some commonly asked questions about walkie talkies.
What is the Most Powerful Walkie-Talkie?
The Midland BR200 walkie talkie is probably the most powerful option that you can choose. Not only is this a durable walkie talkie, but it also has a range of up to 3 miles and can last up to 48 hours on a single charge.
What is a 3-Way Walkie-Talkie?
There is no such thing as a 3-way walkie talkie. You can have multiple walkie talkies all sharing the same channel or frequency, but they will always be 2-way walkie talkies.
Conclusion
When you get the best walkie talkie for loud environments and event planning, it can transform the way that you run your event planning business. You can become more efficient, getting messages to your team faster. This is a great investment for your business. This article offers you the advice that you need to help you choose the right option for your needs.
