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rosetto

Intercom System on the TOS Enterprise

Does anyone have any input as to what Lt. Uhura did as far as the ship's intercom system; h

was it a voice-recognition driven system? There was ONLY one button on the wall units and station interfaces...

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It would have to be a dual system. There are many examples of someone just hitting a button, saying a name, and that person gets the message (very much like TNG comm badges). Maybe best case example is from Balance of Terror. Kirk calls for phasers to fire and they don't. He hits another button and kicks in ship wide which is when Spock hears and rushes back to save the day. (Note: Uhura is manning the Nav station at this point)

 

There must also be a system to confirm the right person responds. Kirk is always being called and whatever intercom button he pushes answers. It would be too easy for someone else answer the call if it just took someone hitting a button to answer the latest call. Also, everyone else who was about to call would have to wait. I can't think of an example where someone hears a comm for someone that isn't in the area so the system may follow people around and only announce near their location.

 

But Uhura could also manually direct calls to wherever they were needed. Kirk probably as often asks her to get someone on the horn as he just hits the button and calls their name.

 

NOW, my theory about TOS Comm is that it is the origin of the Ops position of TNG. They wore Ops Red. They relayed much of the action commanded by the Captain. They confirmed all decks reporting in during alerts. While many might argue that Ops would come from the Nav post, the nature of Ops has more to do with comm. TNG Ops in my opinion is TOS Comm with some of Nav's buttons. The one argument against this is that Tac many times handled comms... which never made sense to me besides giving them something to do.

 

But it really all boils down to... It's a show and was really inconsistent with Comm in both TOS and TNG. From a simming point of view a comm officer has to chart their own waters and find out what works for them and the crew.

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As far as the intercom system went, Uhura appeared to be more of a supervisor. Mostly she would monitor traffic and filter out reports coming into the bridge, especially during battle conditions. Otherwise, the Intercom system appeared to more or less run itself - recording an incoming instruction and re-routing it to the directed individual.

 

There also appeared to be a passive monitoring system watching where people were, so that intercom signals were routed directly to their intended recipients. Otherwise, you'd have chatter all over the ship constantly.

 

The Communications Officer appears to be mostly for external communications and system maintenance.

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Very interesting replies. Both seem to assume that it must all be automated somehow. Yes. It was a TV show. I completely understand that. And as for SIM, well, as long as the rules remain subjective then indeed one must 'feel around' for an answer.

 

Currently I have a concept that I am building on where the system 'does' recognize certain verbal commands (LOCATE), crew members' names (Capt. Kirk) and associated Rank/Assignments (Chief Engineer). It was the 1960's though and THAT's what they had back then for intership communications. So, it must have been thought to work similar to an intercom system of the era I would think, eh?

 

My aim, of course, is to implement a system that works for the intercom, ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, etc. as well as verbal communication within a specific room. All traffic would be ported through the same 'chat' window but only traffic for that particular individual (e.g. A message coming in on YOUR intercom at YOUR station would not be visible in MY window even though we are both in the same virtual room and would both see the general chatter within that room.)

 

I have been thinking about this for a couple of days now and it 'really' seems interesting to me how this will all work...

 

Thank you both for your comments....

 

I welcome more...

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I can think of occasions where Kirk shouts "Uhura, clear up those channels!" which suggests that the intercom was a kind of shipwide "party line" (if anyone is old enough to remember what those are). I guess bandwidth on the TOS Enterprise was expensive and they hadn't installed wifi.

 

I've always imagined the TOS wall units as being a single ship-wide channel. But Jorahl cites some good examples to think otherwise.

 

It is interesting that in 1st season TNG, Picard chastizes a civilian passenger not to use the wall panel comms to summon him because they're "for official ship's business only". Which seems odd since the official business seems to be conducted by commbadge. And without a comm officer to filter things, it looks like anyone can call straight to the captain at any time. (Which happens in STSF Academy a lot, actually.) And there's no voice mail, vibrate, or reject call features, as far as we've seen. So 21st Century cell phones seem to have some advantages over old and new Enterprises.

 

As for a software implementation of internal comms, wouldn't PMs already cover it?

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I can think of occasions where Kirk shouts "Uhura, clear up those channels!" which suggests that the intercom was a kind of shipwide "party line" (if anyone is old enough to remember what those are). I guess bandwidth on the TOS Enterprise was expensive and they hadn't installed wifi.

 

I believe that in a battle/damage control situation, that would be where the intercom becomes a single-channel system, especially to get damage/casualty reports up to the bridge

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I believe that in a battle/damage control situation, that would be where the intercom becomes a single-channel system, especially to get damage/casualty reports up to the bridge

Which is where PM steps in.. However with this software, screen space is at a premium, hence a single view is used...

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as well as verbal communication within a specific room. All traffic would be ported through the same 'chat' window but only traffic for that particular individual (e.g. A message coming in on YOUR intercom at YOUR station would not be visible in MY window even though we are both in the same virtual room and would both see the general chatter within that room.)

 

Scooter, et. al:

 

The above quote identifies how your status reports are relayed coming in from different parts of the ship. These people ARE literally 'not in the same room' (i.e. chat room). They should be elsewhere on the network and a 'sub-net' of sorts would be used to send & receive messages from them. Make sense? :P

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As Jorahl said: there's enough inconsitency about to allow you to define whatever you wish. The important thing is that you work with it enough to make it believable.

 

It was pretty clear that the Communications station was primarily an external-use station. Uhura rarely put herself into the mix unless it was something that had come from outside the ship, or the ship's natural system was taxed in some way ( in short - her job was to add plot points and drama ). Enterprise did a great deal more with the position, expanding the Comm Officer to one of ambassador and linguist in addition to signaling officer.

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T'Aral:

 

Most insightful. Like I have said, I never watched Enterprise on a regular basis; was excited at first but fr whatever reason became disenchanted. I don't even recall what I was doing while it aired.

 

Yes, Lt. Uhura's job was always focused on external communications and for the most part that was 'plot' oriented. The 'boring' part of her job would not be something that would warrant precious air-time. Still, as I look at the 'button asignments' as described by Franz Joseph's original drawings there is indeed an intercom system controlled from her station (and others). It is one out of four control panels in front of her so we can assume that it was not a major part of her job. She most likely just managed or overseen its operation interjecting only when necessary.

 

Still, what I am talking about (implementation-wise) is how communcation in general would work within a network like this one where it could closely approximate how this system would work shipboard. And I feel that simple isolated command words could be recognized (i.e. BRIDGE, SICKBAY, Botany Lab, etc.) by the system as instructions to automatically route a communication to a specified location. In this way, a single 'chat window' could be incorporated in conjuction with the single button intercom interface to provide communication outside of the immediate 'room'. The simulated system would automatically route what you type to the appropriate 'chat window' as long as the channel was opened. It would not show up on anyone else's 'chat window' who may be in the same room as you.

 

Does THIS seem natural? That is my goal here. What seems natural... What is realistic and workable...

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Sounds about right, especially given what I remember of TOS.

 

I must say: I admire the thought you're putting into this ... even if I'm not exactly sure why.

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T'Aral:

 

Thank you.

I know I'm being obscure. I was asked to. I just think this little project of mine has matured enough (technology has caught up) for it to actually be done and done well. To do so takes dedication. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

 

I would like to discuss many more topics in detail with you (and others) but that will have to be conducted elsewhere...

 

But we can keep it light here... :P

 

pete

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I would like to discuss many more topics in detail with you (and others) but that will have to be conducted elsewhere...

 

?!?!?

 

We can't discuss Trek Tech in Trek discussion?

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As for a software implementation of internal comms, wouldn't PMs already cover it?

 

Sorehl...

 

I was just reviewing some of the comments here concerning the onboard ship communications and your comment does seem to 'nail' it to a certain extent. PM's do provide isolation, however, as someone else had mentioned elsewhere, many storylines are developed by participants who may or may not be in the loop (same room or privy to PM). Hmmm... interesting... I love to solve puzzles!

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INTERESTING-THEORY by ALL.......as for the intercom system on the enterprise-it evolved as the show evolved..<Remember uhura was eye candy of the 60,s>> I LOVED HOW ZOE did Uhura in startrek 2009-she ws no dummy

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Little TOS intercom infos I've noted:

 

In "Space Seed" Khan tapped the Enterprise intercom system and was listening to the chatter from Engineering. Tapping's not a normal function, so I suppose it really doesn't count, but it was interesting that PM intercoms were listenable on a single channel. Of course, most everyone was knocked out w/ nerve gas, so it would probably be more confusing normally.

 

After almost every battle you hear continuous chatter over communications. I suppose one of Comm's jobs is sorting out all the messages, though I believe other stations around the bridge were recieving messages as well.

 

Jorahl pointed out the "Balance of Terror" incident, were Kirk tries PM to phasers, and then goes shipwide when they don't reply.

 

I've also seen Kirk push different buttons on his chair to get different sections on comm. E.G., engineering, security, sickbay. This also applies to personal screens in quarters. One button always asnswers.

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Little TOS intercom infos I've noted:

 

In "Space Seed" Khan tapped the Enterprise intercom system and was listening to the chatter from Engineering. Tapping's not a normal function, so I suppose it really doesn't count, but it was interesting that PM intercoms were listenable on a single channel. Of course, most everyone was knocked out w/ nerve gas, so it would probably be more confusing normally.

 

After almost every battle you hear continuous chatter over communications. I suppose one of Comm's jobs is sorting out all the messages, though I believe other stations around the bridge were recieving messages as well.

 

Jorahl pointed out the "Balance of Terror" incident, were Kirk tries PM to phasers, and then goes shipwide when they don't reply.

 

I've also seen Kirk push different buttons on his chair to get different sections on comm. E.G., engineering, security, sickbay. This also applies to personal screens in quarters. One button always asnswers.

 

Leila:

 

You've made some interesting points here. Basically, the single button concept to which I refer has to do with 1) the com panels found in corridors and 2) the smaller com units that were found at most bridge stations, offices and quarters, and Briefing Room. All of these units had a single button. It was assumed that the routing was contolled elsewhere; the button was simply to open or close the channel.

 

The purpose of this thread was to explore methods that seem more realistic to the SIM participants, so that their screens are not cluttered with traffic that they couldn't hear or actions to which they would have no knowledge.

Edited by rosetto

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Leila:

 

You've made some interesting points here. Basically, the single button concept to which I refer has to do with 1) the com panels found in corridors and 2) the smaller com units that were found at most bridge stations, offices and quarters, and Briefing Room. All of these units had a single button. It was assumed that the routing was contolled elsewhere; the button was simply to open or close the channel.

 

The purpose of this thread was to explore methods that seem more realistic to the SIM participants, so that their screens are not cluttered with traffic that they couldn't hear or actions to which they would have no knowledge.

 

 

Except that part of the fun of a Sim is to watch from 3'rd person POV and see what other people are doing.

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Except that part of the fun of a Sim is to watch from 3'rd person POV and see what other people are doing.

Thank you, T'aral, that's exactly right. Of course the people on the Bridge don't know what's being said in Sickbay (and vice versa), but it's more fun for all players to get to see the multiple discussion threads going on. It enhances their enjoyment, especially because you can't be talking all the time, every sim, so it gives you something to read/watch. The same goes for intra-ship comm.

 

This means that players have to parse out what their characters really hear and what they don't. People have to be aware of what lines to focus on, as the chat scrolls by, if it gets busy (hey, it's also why I like chat colors). It takes some practice, but everyone enjoys it this way.

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Thank you A9, T'Aral.

Who am I to dispute the masters here. Afterall, I am but a pawn. Here to observe and learn. I, too, have found enjoyment in the 3rd Party POV. And as A9 has said, "Practice! Good fellow, P R A C T I C E !"

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