WiTalk9 was chosen by Oneglove, Imam, Axel and the rest of their 10-person team for their intercom needs during Joyland Jakarta, 2024, a music festival that took place from Nov. 22 to 24 in Indonesia. Tasked with capturing aerial footage for live broadcasts and post edits, the team had to get their messages across the whole stadium and the excited crowd. Great range, noise cancellation, and long battery life are their major impressions of the wireless intercom headset system.
(Drone footage of Joyland Jakarta, 2024)
This year, the 3-day music event took place in Jakarta's GBK stadium, one of the largest stadiums in South East Asia that is capable of hosting 88,000 spectators.
For this event, the organizer set up two stages on one side of the stadium and the control room on the opposite. The drone team and the camera crew operate in between.
"Yesterday, we flew drones from the base. And there were four cameramen in front of the stage coordinating with us. We get instructions very clearly from the control room where Pidi, the program director, can see all the video inputs from us and decide which one goes onto the big screen," says Imam in the event recap video that they posted on YouTube.
(Imam operating the drone with a remote headset of WiTalk9)
"Our communication needs to be in real-time and everyone on the same page," adds oneglovetv. "Drones must be on standby anytime. If the communication is bad, and our drone footage projected on the screen is ugly, we will be ashamed."
Featuring a low latency of ≤ 83 ms, WiTalk9 makes real-time communication a possibility. To consolidate transmission across long ranges, WiTalk9's transmission is DECT-based, meaning all signals travel on a less crowded frequency band, so team talks are less likely to be influenced by 2.4 GHz-based signals such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
"The range is really great. Approximately 400 meters per our test. We went from the backstage to the front and then to the end of the event venue. We remained connected from top to end," says Axel.
With cameramen shooting off the stage in the front, the loud music and excited fans pose another challenge for the broadcasting crew — getting their voices across, not the noise.
"I am more into noise cancellation," says Axel when talking about his impression of WiTalk9.
(Axel operating his drone with WiTalk9 on strong noise cancellation, which is indicated by the greenlight.)
"I really like the audio quality, as we know in a music event, the environment is definitely very loud. WiTalk9 helped us communicate over the loud music," continues Axel.
"Yesterday, we went from the left side of the stage to the right. For some moments, we were in front of the speaker. We used the strong noise cancellation mode. And it really reduced the noise. Our communication became more fluent." adds oneglovetv.
(Oneglove getting his drone ready with the master headset of WiTalk9)
With a three-microphone array (microphones on the left and right sides collect the ambient sounds and the one in the boom human voice) and a noise-cancellation algorithm, WiTalk9 is engineered to get rid of ambient noise and keep human voice front and center, so users can get their messages across clearly. On top of noise cancellation, weak and strong modes are optional for users to engage depending on their preference. The weak mode is activated by default when the system is turned on and strong for occasions where the ambient noise is overwhelming.
"The battery level is crazy. Yesterday, we started at 16:00 and wrapped up at 00:30. We didn't charge or switch the battery of the remote headset anyway. And also, we did a little bit of a test — we didn't charge it after day 2. It was used until day 3 and all the way until the event was finished," says Oneglove. "Now we are doing this event recap video. Its battery level is still not drained."
Carrying a larger battery capacity (1450 mAh vs 1200 mAh in WiTalk5) and a better chip that consumes less power, WiTalk9's master headset offers 9 hours of battery life while the remote 15, which is a major leap from its previous generation.
WiTalk9 comes in packages ranging from 2 to 9 headsets and WiTalk9 SE 2 to 5.
For large teams (9 or more) that need to communicate over large crowds, cluttered signals, or long distances, WiTalk9 is the ideal solution.
For smaller teams (5 to 9 people) operating in open outdoor spaces or in indoor environments with few individuals, WiTalk9 SE is recommended.
Order WiTalk9 here and WiTalk9 SE here.
