Recommendations for Buzzer System

[coisman]

Contemplating starting a middle school quiz bowl and looking for good recommendations for a buzzer system.

Never having run a team before, here's what I think I want ...

1) Ideally one that could support up to six teams

2) I would be happy with one buzzer for each team (as opposed to one buzzer per player)
(Would this work? Or is the standard to have a buzzer in each kid's hand?)

--AC

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[Important Bird Area]

Welcome to the quizbowl community!

You will definitely want a system that provides one buzzer per player (which is the standard for almost all quizbowl formats). "The Officiator" from Anderson Enterprises is a popular choice for a first buzzer system.

[coisman]

Is the standard format to have only two teams compete against each other at a time? When I was in school (admittedly a long time ago ), I seem to remember 5 or 6 teams simultaneously competing.

Thanks in advance to the community for all your advice.

--AC

Parent Volunteer
St Gregory's

[dhumphreys17]

Yes, in standard quiz bowl, two teams of four players apiece compete. We have competed in three-team matches, but only once a year and for a Diocesan function far outside the mainstream of good quizbowl. Long story short, although there are some weird exceptions, two-team matches are the norm.

[tiwonge]

The Anderson system above is the standard (and the cheapest, not coincidentally), but it is restricted to 5 players per team. (Oh, it looks like there's a more expensive one that expands to a total of 32 players.)

If you're looking for something for 6 players per team, there's also Quizco. (This happens to be based out of my town, although I am not associated with it. It is somewhat popular locally because of that, and this is why I'm familiar with it.) It is modular, so you can expand it beyond just 4 players per side by purchasing additional units and connections. It is pricier, though, so unless you know you'll want more than 5 people per team (or 10 players, total), the Anderson should be fine. (The base unit (controller + 2 sets of 4 buzzers + necessary cables) is $100 more, and the extra buzzer units are $25 apiece.)

http://www.quizco.com/

There are also other buzzer systems, but I am less familiar with them.