The Deity Connect is Deity’s new wireless microphone system for lavaliers and XLR microphones. It runs on 2.4Ghz, lets you control your transmitters remotely, and can keep recording even if your transmitter and receiver lose connection. We stopped by the Deity stand at IBC 2019 to find out more about it and how it all works.
Billed as a “professional grade” 2.4Ghz wireless system, the Deity Connect system consists of a range of different devices which will become available in several kit combinations. The heart of the system is the DUO-RX dual-channel receiver. It’s designed to work with the ergonomics of being stored in a sound bag. That means the outputs and USB socket are down at the bottom, and all of the controls sit up top where they’re easy to access inside a bag.
The DUO-RX features dual SMA elbow antennas, allowing you to optimise the angle of the antenna regardless of the orientation of the unit. But two dipole internal antennas also run horizontally inside the unit to help capture signals that might go out of phase of the vertical ones. It’s similar to the technology that allows you to keep constant communication with drones, regardless of orientation, even at a distance. Of course, to be able to make use of a receiver, you need a transmitter, and that’s where the BP-TX comes in. The BP-TX is made of CNC aluminium for durability, and it also features an SMA antenna connector. It has a 1/4-20″ socket for the belt clip and screw-lock 3.5mm microphone socket for your lav.
The BP-TX allows full remote control from the transmitter. So, now, no longer do you need to wire up your talent, do a bunch of tests, tweak and adjust the box on their waist for 5 minutes and hope for the best. Now you can just hand it to them and let them go do their thing while you listen and tweak from the receiver. And you can actually make adjustments remotely while you’re recording, too. What’s not yet listed on the Deity website that’s shown off in the video is a new HD-TX XLR transmitter. This is definitely something that’s a little special. Like the BP-TX, you can fully control the HD-TX remotely, but you can also start and stop internal recording on the HD-TX remotely, too. Yes, that’s right, as well as transmitting back to the receiver, it records internally.
So, if there’s interference or the HD-TX and DUO-RX go out of range or drop the connection, you still have a good recording. Internally it saves to microSD card which you can pull out or you can connect the HD-TX to your computer’s USB and use it as a card reader. And that internal recording is 48Khz, 24Bit uncompressed WAV. It has an internal battery, which isn’t swappable, but it allows Deity to include some safety features. Like, the ability to automatically save out and gracefully close the file when it knows the battery is about to die, preventing corruption of your entire recording. The battery charges up via USB, and it can be used while it’s charging. The Deity connect system is currently available to buy now for $669.99 as a dual BP-TX transmitter and DUO-RX receiver kit, although more kit combinations are on the way. You can find out more about the Deity Connect system on the Deity website. – We are giving away over $5,000 of cinema gear: http://bit.ly/2LQE6gwDIYP’s coverage of IBC2019 is sponsored by Syrp, Manfrotto, Zhiyun, and Spiffy Gear.
