OK, so we're using the
system for a musical now. Brief horror when it seemed two of the belt packs didn't work out of the box, but an email got me a response with a fix within 24 hours, so not bad. Here are my impressions so far:
Good:
--7 grand for 8 channels of wireless comm!
Full duplex all eight channels. Pretty amazing.
--Pairing is effortless, you just turn on the transceiver and the belt packs and that's it.
--Range. I've sent people two floors up without dropout.
--Again, the built quality seems top notch. Not tank like, but this isn't touring kit being handled indifferent
stage hands.
--It's truly a complete
system, nothing else to buy. Comes with 8 spare batts and a charging cradle that take all 8 belt packs and the 8 spares at one go.
--Battery life. From some of the reviews I've seen I thought this might be a weak spot, but we've done 8 hours of tech and burned about half? I'll have to test to failure, but 10 hours would be more than sufficient, especially when we have charged spare batts close at
hand
--Audio quality is fine. High intelligibly, which is all I need.
--Integrates with 2
wire and 4
wire installed systems, so we can still use our ClearCom booth stuff.
--Everything comes in a foam lined injection molded
road case with coffin latches-- surprisingly heavy duty.
Cons:
--Not so much
build quality as design. The transceiver seems very robust, and belt pack cases themselves are metal and solidly built, but they feature a couple of stubby little antennas that wouldn't survive a direct hit (although they are user replaceable, I should probably
lay in a supply). Also, the belt clip puts the thing sideways, for some reason, which is no big deal and perhaps has something to do with getting those antennas out of harms way, although I can't see how, really. Just eccentric. Also, they went with a
lemo connector for the
headset which makes me a little nervous, just given the amount of
connector cantilever to metal engaged by
plug ratio.
--As reviews have noted, somewhat aggressive
noise gate that can't be defeated. I believe a software update has addressed this, I'll have to look into it.
--Also as widely noted, the talk
button is latching with no other option, so you
toggle between talk and
mute. Not that big a deal but I would have preferred a
momentary option. Again, seems like an eccentric choice.
--Volume is a pair of up/down buttons, would have preferred a dial which is faster and easier to locate without looking.
At the end of the day, being able to put crew on wireless, and especially allowing myself to stay in touch with everyone as I run around from place to place is totally totally worth any little niggling complaints. I realize a wired
system is always going to be more bullet proof, but since we did not have comm ports in a lot of the places I needed, and since there was no way we were going to pony up for pulling new cable, and since this cost about a third of what similar ClearCom functionality would have cost us (which is why we could get it at all), I'm pretty jazzed. Of course, time will tell how durable this stuff is, but I am encourage that Hollyland had a tech get back to me so quickly when I had an issue. I wasn't sure what the support after sale was going to be like. If anything breaks prematurely I'll report back.