This is Saramonic’s newest intercom system the Saramonic Witalk9 which has a lot of extra bells and whistles. It comes in a simple packaging box, nothing fancy really needed here as what is more important is the case inside, as we get a really nice large hard case with everything inside, there dividers inside, just pouches for each headset, to prevent scratching.
What I really like is this big charger that comes with this set, meaning you can recharge all the batteries in one go and even with 4 headsets I’ve got 8 batteries with it. The battery life of the remote units lasts 15 hours which is definitely enough for an entire day, the Master headset lasts for 10 hours and might be the only one you might need to swap mid day. Recharging time of the batteries is 3.5 hours when fully depleted.
Now to the headsets, though there are many headsets on the market the Saramonic does stand out with a lot of differences. First thing is the earpiece instead of being a leather, this is an aviation grade earpiece and which is quite comfortable. It also blocks sound very well, but maybe a bit too well as often not hear someone talking to me from that side, if they arent wearing a headset, which is either a good or a bad thing depending on the situation. The main pro of the aviation grade earpiece is that it dissipates heat quite well and you don’t get a hot sweaty ear compared to a leather earpiece.
Another difference is an actual volume dial which I really prefer over volume up or down buttons as this is faster and easier to set to the volume you want or need.
There is also a 3.5mm jack on the headset which actually allows it to do multiple things. The Witalk 9 is numbered 9 as this is the amount of headsets you can connect to, but with a smart method you can expand the amount via a cable and enable it to expand up to 30 headsets without purchasing an additional hub.
Another use is to monitor sounds, so if the director wants to hear the sound being recorded, they can use the Witalk 9 headset also to monitor the audio from a monitor device and also use the headset to communicate with the team.
Also an interesting use case is to use the Witalk headset for streaming use and enable using headset with a Zoom meeting, so you could have a director call in and direct what happens on the film set.
Something not visible that is a big improvement over other brands is the IPX5 rating, which means you can use it in rainy weather, without being afraid that it would break while using it in rainy conditions.
The connection of the Witalk 9 is surprisingly good, in real world use we were able to still communicate through multiple walls and buildings. The max range is 500 meters, which is quite enough for a film set.
