In the last few years, we’ve seen a whole lot of new wireless mics aimed squarely at the creator space. And a lot of them offer incredible features, too. As such, it’s going to be hard for a premium-priced product like the Sony ECM-W5 to take a big chunk of that pie.
Sony is well aware of the challenge they’re facing. As such, they didn’t stop at producing a wireless mic that can deliver pro-grade performance, since, let’s be honest, all the top players in the market, pretty much, do the same. Instead, the outfit designed their wireless mic to smoothen the workflow as much possible, making it easy for creators to manage multiple voices, stay in sync, and move freely across a wide range of shooting scenarios.
The Sony ECM-W5 is a wireless microphone that consists of two transmitters, one receiver, and a charging case. Each receiver can actually work with up to four transmitters, so you can purchase a couple of extra mics separately and incorporate them into the work. The transmitters have mics that support sampling rates up to 96kHz/24-bit, with 48kHz/32-bit float audio recorded as backup directly on the onboard storage. Each transmitter, by the way, has 64GB of onboard storage, although no word on how many minutes of 32-bit float recording it’s going to be able to fit.
For compatible cameras, audio is recorded on both the transmitter and the camera, with the audio saved as a WAV file. However, if you’re using it with a Sony Camera, there’s also the option of recording the 32-bit float directly as an audio track within the video file, making for an even more streamlined workflow. That means, no need to maintain separate video and audio files, with everything automatically synced in a single one.
The Sony ECM-W5 comes with both manual and automatic gain adjustments, so you can set it to Auto if you don’t want to keep fiddling with the settings every time, while an external input terminal on each transmitter lets you use it with more discreet lavalier microphones, if you prefer not having a visible mic on your clothing. It also supports wireless monitoring with any Bluetooth headphones that support Sony Bluetooth LE Audio, making it easy to monitor the sound on the fly, while various Sony headphones and earbuds can also serve as additional mics that send audio to the receiver with no need to connect to a transmitter. According to Sony, each transmitter can connect to the receiver at distances of up to 500 square meters, provided there’s proper line-of-sight. It even supposedly uses Bluetooth hopping from one transmitter to another to further extend range.
It can work with smartphones, PCs, and non-camera devices, by the way, via the included USB-C adapter. Battery life is rated at seven hours for each transmitter, with another four hours each on the charging case, while the receiver doesn’t actually use up its battery charge when connected via the MI Shoe on a compatible camera.
The Sony ECM-W5 comes out mid-November. Price is $399.99 for the kit, with individual receivers and transmitters also available for $189.99 and $119.99, respectively.
