At NAB 2023, we put Sennheiser on the spot, and they delivered.
If you haven’t seen our NAB 2023 coverage, you can find all that here. If you don’t know what NAB even is, well, let’s have a chat about signal interference.
The National Association of Broadcasters (or NAB) puts on a trade show every year that brings practically all the world’s video and audio (and video and audio accessories) manufacturers into one place.
As you can imagine, that crams a whole lot of WiFi, radio, cellphone, and Bluetooth signals into one space. So what does that have to do with Sennheiser?
Getting Our Audio To Work
Covering such an event is hard work. The more mobile you are, the better you can run around the massive convention center and the more interviews you can get. This year, our team attempted to get wireless audio to work, as having a mic attached to the camera via an XLR cable just wasn’t safe.
We purchased two options—The MW-1 from Lekato and the XSW-D XLR from Sennheiser. Both of these XLR wireless transmitters worked like a dream during testing. So how did they fare on the show floor?
They didn’t. Remember all those signals crammed into one space? They caused so much interference that none of the audio was usable, and we had to go back to our tried and true (and a bit unsafe) audio option. The good ‘ol XLR cable. Since our audio was going into the camera and immediately up to the cloud using Frame.io, we couldn’t sync audio in post. It had to be baked in.
So that’s how we shot our first two days. Running around the convention center floor wired to the camera. Until we got to the Sennheiser booth, that is.
The Sennheiser Booth
At the Sennheiser booth, the company introduced and previewed some really cool stuff. You can read about it here and here. Here’s the video of our booth visit.
In the end, our host Raafi Rivero told Chris Phillips about our interference issues and put him on the spot. Could he solve our problem? Well, turns out he could.
The Sennheiser EW-DP 835
After a quick swap, our team shot the rest of the booth interview using the Sennheiser EW-DP 835 wireless mic. Not only did it work, but it provided a noticeable quality bump in audio.
But this was at the Sennheiser booth. We wanted to test the wireless mic all around the convention center, and Sennheiser gave us the EW-DP 835 to shoot with on Day 3.
And let me tell you, no matter where we went, the Sennheiser EW-DP 835 worked without any issues. It didn’t matter if we were between DJI, Aputure, and Hollyland, swimming in the mix of wireless video and radio signals. The EW-DP 835 delivered clean audio. Not once did we lose our audio.
For $699 for the handheld mic unit, having such a dependable tool, especially in a place like the Las Vegas Convention Center during one of the biggest tech trade shows, is a steal.
The Sennheiser EW-DP 835 is available now in three different frequency bands. There’s also a body pack version if you need that LAV-style workflow. In addition, a plug-on transmitter will be added to the series in October 2023. With +48V phantom power on board, the EW-DP SKP will be able to turn any wired XLR microphone into wireless. The plug-on transmitter features a locking 3.5 mm mic input for lavaliers – making it a really versatile audio tool.
Is this something you want in your kit? Let us know in the comments!
