The professional and prosumer industries have seen a huge uprising of affordable Intercom systems that have been taking on big-brand names to deliver access to those who are unable (or unwilling) to spend top dollar for these solutions. Now Saramonic ups the temperature as well with its new Saramonic WiTalk Base, which brings huge features to its wireless headsets and more pressure to everyone else.
If you are familiar with intercom solutions and have researched some of the more affordable options, you’ve likely heard of names like Saramonic, Hollyland, Comica, Godox, and others. These brands seek to shake things up since solutions from companies like Clear-Com, RTS, and Riedel can reach into the many thousands of dollars. For example, a Clear-Com FreeSpeak II starter kit will run you around $25,000 to $27,500 and will include only five headsets. Going the route with Saramonic with a pack of 8 headsets (as one example) will likely run you around $4,100 to $4,300 (with the WiTalk Base being only $2,500 of that price tag).
There is a huge gap in price, and for those who don’t need the power and flexibility of a massive system like Clear-Com, it is also a huge relief. Saramonic’s WiTalk Base (and headsets) are great for everything from studio teams to ballrooms, and we have been testing the system out (ourselves) for a few weeks now, and the result has been wonderful.
We have been using CC FSII for our intercom needs for some time now. It became a bit of an industry standard for some environments, but it did come at a cost. It has held up for some time now and fulfilled all of our needs. That being said, depending on the environment, we can easily see how the new Saramonic can shake things up, as we could see ourselves using this system in place of it for many scenarios. Which makes us start looking at how much we’ve spent over the years.
The new Saramonic WiTalk Base is used to expand on the company’s WiTalk9 and WiTalk9X ecosystems. It works with all of those headsets and takes the place of what would normally be the “base station”, which was the “master headset”. Saramonic has been hard-focused on mobile kits that are purely headsets, with all remote units talking to one master headset. These work quite well for smaller situations, but you might find yourself limited by range and features. This is where the WiTalk Base comes in.
As mentioned, instead of using the master headset, you would put the master headset away and pair the remote headsets to the WiTalk Base. This expands on their capabilities tenfold by delivering a pro-level base station that you can access via app or web interface, or even its own 5-inch color display. From there, you can create roles and groups to delegate your users out to, and provide each headset with two specific channels of intercom that are best for their needs (ie, Production and Audio, or Video and Cameras, etc).
It is capable of up to 16 users (headsets), and can be cascaded out using additional base stations to increase this as high as 64 total users. So you can technically fill a very large building/space with this system, allowing a lot of people to communicate with one another, and each base station is capable of reaching up to around 2,296 feet (with perfect line-of-sight)
The base station comes packed inside a hard-plastic Pelican-like case that includes the base station, four antennas, two 90-degree adapters (for the antennas), instructions, a small drawstring pouch, and a power cable with multiple adapters so that it can be used virtually anywhere in the world. It’s a pretty straightforward kit that is well-protected and ready for transport as you move in between shows or tasks.
The antennas easily screw into place (for use) at the top of the WiTalk Base unit, and then unscrew to pack away within the case. Keeping things neat and protected, while also providing a durable high-quality build that represents the years you should get out of this kit.
As mentioned, the front contains a 5-inch color display, which gives you a one-up on brands like Hollyland who sometimes offers a much smaller (and sometimes black and white) display. There is a simple set of buttons to help move around the menus, along with a back button and select button in the middle. There is no guessing needed there.
The screen isn’t a touch-screen, and for those of us that are typically pretty spoiled, that is unfortunate, but at the end of the day, this is perfectly fine given the price tage.
The bottom of the WiTalk Base yields all of your connectivity, including two LAN ports that make use of Ethercon connections (so they can use both Ethercon or Ethernet). The left-most in the image is LAN2, which appears to be for cascading, and to the right of it is LAN1, which is what you want to use for connecting to your computer. There is also another Ethercon connection to the far right in the above image, which is a 4-wire connection (this allows you to integrate the WiTalk Base into other systems, such as Clear-Com or RTS (that’s right, like some of the best affordable solutions out there, it does offer this).
There is also a USB-A port for firmware updates and the like, and a USB-C port that offers UAC (USB Audio Class) support, which allows you to connect the WiTalk Base to a computer and use it as a native send/receive audio source, similar to any normal USB interface. There is a serial connection as well, but that doesn’t do anything at this time (or maybe ever). It is just there for potential future upgradable features that may or may not happen in this model.
Finally, you have your DC power connection, as well as two mountable options for various styles of tripods. No adapter comes with the Base, which is a little odd, so you’ll have to figure out mounting on your own. And there is a 3.5mm TRRS analog connection you can make use of, as well, allowing you to send and receive via analog.
You are not limited to wall power, so the DC power connection is simply an option, and it does come with that plug. However, you can also take this one mobile as it supports battery connectivity on the back. There are two versions of the WiTalk Base you can buy into, with one supporting a V-Mount battery on the back, or one that supports G-Mount.
Powering the WiTalk Base up, you get to the main screen. The main home screen shows you a familiar layout of all headsets connected to that base station. It shows their headset number, the role, the quality of connection, and battery life.
From here, you can configure all of the basic settings for the packs by pressing and holding the select button until the menu pops up. You can get a basic setup up and going without having to connect via any other method. This includes pairing new packs to the base station and assigning them to roles and groups as needed.
Roles are how you organize them into departments (or simply keep them all on the same role if you want to keep things simple), and groups are how you divy things up into individual talk groups (ie, audio, video, lighting, management, etc). Group A could be general production chatter, while Group B could be individual departments. This may get a little confusing at first depending on what intercom solutions you are normally familiar with, but it doesn’t take long to figure out (it’s just a little off the normal beaten path).
You can assign multiple roles, including both built-in factory-named roles and roles you can create and add to the list (via the web interface, which we will talk about in a moment), and this just helps you organize things in the settings so you can remember which headset numbers belong to who generally. You can say one role is “Tim”, and assign only one headset (ie, Headset 001) to that role, but saying Headset 001 through 003 are part of the Lighting department will help unclutter the overall list. How you role things out is completely up to you. This doesn’t say who talks to who; it is simply a form of data organization.
When it comes to groups, you can have up to eight total chat groups you can assign to everyone, with each headset having access to up to two of these. You can’t go above two, sadly, but it covers you for most small to mid-size shows/setups. So you can have something like Production, Audio, Lighting, Video, Cameras, Automation, Rigging, Records, etc. Whatever you want to consider, up to eight groups. The only tricky part is you can’t rename groups, so you will have to remember what the group numbers represent (we’d prefer to name them to make that process easier, but this is what it is). So the settings list them out as Group 1-8.
Beyond that, you have access to adjusting a few settings and viewing data related to your web access (via browser), like the WiTalk Base’s IP address. As well as Master/Remote settings for when you want to cascade out to additional WiTalk Base units so that you can expand past 16 users (if you ever need to). There is also Bluetooth control, which is how the Saramonic app connects to the WiTalk Base. We would recommend updating the firmware of the Base via the USB port and a downloaded firmware (via the Saramonic website) before trying this, as we weren’t able to get the app to work with the initial firmware it came with. Thankfully, updating the firmware of the Base via USB is very easy and quick, as it kicks in the moment you plug the drive (FAT32 formatted) in with the firmware on it.
It is also HIGHLY recommended that you start by making sure the Base is on its latest firmware before doing ANYTHING, as this will make sure it recommends the proper firmware for the headsets (the stock Base firmware, at the time of our testing, will downgrade the firmware of your headsets instead of upgrading them). The moment we upgraded to the latest firmware, all headset upgrade prompts were working properly.
By connecting to it via Ethernet to your computer or router/network using the before-mentioned LAN1, you can bring up the GUI interface on your favorite browser. From here, you’ll find many of the more popular options found in intercom systems. We found this more familiar to use, as for us, the browser-driven GUI is fast, flexible, and (operationally) familiar to what we are used to working with on other brands.
You log in using the default user/pass that can be found using the menu on the WiTalk Base’s screen (which is also where you found the IP information). You can change the login information if you want, as the default user/pass is a bit too easy. But that’s up to you, as if you are cross-renting these, you might choose not to. But if you are using it only for internal use, we would highly recommend changing it to something more complex.
The first screen you will be dropped into is a broadcast screen that lets you broadcast globally or to individual roles. You may or may not ever use this depending on your use-case scenario(s).
The next tab is your headset settings page, which you will absolutely be using as this is where you assign each headset to their one or two groups. This is also the screen you will be spending most of your time in during show, if you are the one maintaining coms, as this is where you can monitor battery life, signal strength, and who is or isn’t talking. For us, we find this to be the proper “home screen”. This is also where you can enable pairing and assign headsets to their roles (but not where you create the roles).
The ability to monitor battery life was a big one for us, as some solutions, such as the Hollyland Solidcom M1 system, do not display battery life in the web GUI, which is incredibly odd. You want to be able to actively monitor this information without having to get up and walk over to the base station (since, like the WiTalk Base, the Solidcom M1 station will be on a stand somewhere). So Saramonic properly nailed this feature! You can monitor battery life from the screen, the web gui, or the app.
Moving on to the third tab, this is where you can play with the alternatives in and outs of the base station. This includes that wonderful support for 4-wire, UAC, and the 3.5mm audio jack. All of these can be configured for audio going in both directions, when it comes to which groups will be listening or sending to. So you have another grid on this screen to configure this with.
We can say that 4-Wire running to our CC FSII system will send Group 1 and Group 2 audio to FSII base, while the same groups can listen to what’s coming from the FSII base station (of course, the FSII base will also need to be configured to send/listen as needed on its end). Then you can say that Group3 is sending to UAC-out so that it can be heard by whatever computer you have connected to the USB-C (maybe you are using it as a source for Zoom or an IP-driven com system of some sort), and maybe something similar coming back through UAC-in.
Then you can connect a TV to the 3.5mm input and direct it to one of the groups and pipe in your favorite sporting event as program audio, taking the volume down so that it doesn’t interrupt communication. This is an odd example, but it provides an excellent example of the options you have (and stuff like this does happen in the industry all the time when you have a solid com specialist maintaining everything).
Having these features adds so much strength to this com system, making sure that it makes it to the top of the list within its price range, and gives it a lot of fuel when it comes to competition.
The next tab is your role settings page. This is where you can design out all of those roles. This includes both the pre-set roles and the ones you might add in addition to these. Adding roles allows you to custom-name them whatever you want, whereas the pre-set roles are hard-configured and cannot be renamed.
Again, this is for organization on the headset setting screen of this web-gui, and the main screen on that 5-inch display of the base station itself. It helps you to better guess who’s where so you can react when things like battery life begin to get low.
Then you have the keyboard settings tab. This is a unique one that you don’t always find with intercom systems in general, let alone affordable ones like this one. If you connect a keyboard, you can configure hotkeys on the keyboard that act as shortcuts to various operations.
You can quickly switch between groups, trigger a system-wide mute, build out macros, and more. You can actually do quite a lot with these settings. None of us have ever built out a keyboard-driven hotkey system for intercom solutions before, and some of us also work in other parts of the production industry on the side (and still have not made use of this kind of feature before). So this was exciting to see and play around with.
Connecting a USB keyboard to the base station would also allow you to type out role names more easily, but these hotkeys are the true purpose of using a keyboard. However, if you don’t plan to be sitting near the base station with a keyboard like this, you can comfortably choose to ignore this tab and never use it. But if you do want to jump into the deep end and have fun, you can build out a total control station using a keyboard if you wanted. This is pretty awesome.
The final page gives you access to Bluetooth, language, web control, master/remote, and other settings that are also found on the base station’s 5-inch display. You can also view firmware information, rename the base station, and more.
The Headsets (Used for testing)
We can’t forget about this part! As mentioned before, the WiTalk Base supports Saramonic’s WiTalk9 and WiTalk9x headset models. We had a three-pack (one master headset + two remote headsets) of the WiTalk9x series to play with in testing the WiTalk Base out.
These headsets offer a single-sided solution (one muff, with a temple pad on the other end) and offer noise cancellation for noisy environments. They are an excellent solution for the base station, outside of having to manually switch between A and B before you can speak to one or the other. Hopefully, Saramonic launches headsets that have a dedicated button for both in the future. Maybe this is done this way since the button is at your ear and not on a pack that you can physically see. But personally, we like to have a PTT button for each channel (or in this case, group) because it is just quicker/friendlier.
Beyond that, these offer everything you need in an intercom headset, and they work great with the base station. This three-pack retails for around $600, and goes up from there in price as you buy into kits with more headsets. This gives you two headsets since one is a master headset and only the remote headsets can be synced to a new hub (ie, the WiTalk Base). The master headset is stored as a backup solution in case you need a smaller footprint and don’t want to bring the WiTalk Base with you.
You will likely need more than these, so the aforementioned 9-pack would be best for most people (MSRP is around $1600-$1800 in price), as it would start you off with 8 usable (remote) headsets. Or you can buy into a 16-pack. Or, you might even be able to invest in expansion packs of headsets that do not contain a master headset at all, which could be more cost-effective if you never plan on using the master headset for anything.
You can find dual-ear options and more between the two series. Either way, these headsets work really well with the base station
Performance
We found that the WiTalk Base and the headsets we tested with it work very well together. The range is fantastic, as we were able to walk out of the office and into the parking lot while maintaining a perfect connection, even though the base station was closer to the other side of the building. This could, of course, differ in various situations where you might have a lot of wireless traffic, thicker walls, or anything else that could cause interference. So these would work great for most sizes of ballrooms, or maybe even all ballroom sizes. Like Clear-Com’s FSII system, it makes use of 1.9GHz.
When it comes to audio clarity, everything sounds great. There is no second-guessing anyone’s chatter, unless they are whispering and have noise cancellation enabled in their headset. That latter situation can cause dropouts, but this is common with most ANC-equipped headsets and people who talk way too low. But everything is nice and crisp.
The above audio clip is taken by connecting the WiTalk Base to a laptop so that it can be captured. It is important to point out that the room noise that can be heard in the recording is not nearly as emphasized within the actual headsets. Showing this is more about what capturing it from a laptop sounds like than it is listening from a headset. Via a headset, the voice is a little more up-front, and the noise is lower and in the background.
Being able to integrate with other devices and com solutions via UAC, 4-Wire, and analog is fantastic. This also provides some of the key features that make the WiTalk Base competitive, since some of the solutions that come close to it in price offer the same (or similar/partial) features. We found that having this strengthens the number of scenarios in which you can make use of this base station, thus providing you a solid reason for investing in it.
It is also important to point out that the WiTalk Base is IP66 water-resistant. So it can be used outside, even if it begins to rain. If you have access to it in such situations, I would still cover it with something above it to protect it a little (only out of respect), but it should technically be able to sustain the rain just fine. You just do not want to submerge it in water (this should be obvious, but sadly still has to be mentioned).
The fact that it supports either V-Mount or G-Mount batteries (depending on which model you buy) is also a big win since it needs this for full mobile operation, as well as maintaining that strong level of competition with other options near its price range. Depending on the battery you buy into, some of these can go a long way when it comes to powering something like this. Making mobile scenarios easier to deal with.
We tested it using a few of our larger batteries and got a very noticeable amount of life from the WiTalk Base. The only thing we ran into was the battery life indicator (upper-right of the screen when using a battery vs AC). It consistently read the battery as one bar (or low-ish), even though the battery was around 80%. At first, we thought there was going to be trouble, but an hour later it showed exactly the same, and the battery itself was barely depleted, showing that it would last hours on batteries like these. So I am sure that is just a future firmware fix (or the batteries we use, since they aren’t always name-brand).
When it comes to user-friendliness and the settings you have, it is a bit of a mixed bag for us. We would have preferred the settings to be a little more intuitive. Naming packs vs being limited to numeric IDs and the ability to rename group IDs, etc. But it does get the job done while still providing a very usable interface. Maybe we are just a little too used to brands like Clear-Com and the way they handle this (spoiled?).
It would also have been nice to have dedicated PTT buttons between Group A and B on the headsets (like most major com options) instead of having to manually bounce between A and B and then talk, but this could be improved upon with future compatible headset models without having to (potentially) buy into a new base station (and does not seem to be a limitation of the WiTalk Base itself).
Our Conclusion
In the end, this wound up being a fantastic intercom solution, and we can see ourselves using this to test future products within the category that comes in, since it does set some expectations for this price point. Audio is crisp, headsets are friendly enough to work with, and the WiTalk Base takes what is already available from Saramonic headset-wise and expands their capabilities to a full-out intercom system that can be properly integrated with other base stations, recording devices, streaming setups, audio/com-over-IP systems, and more.
Our biggest stinks were the lack of dedicated PTT buttons for each group (channel). You have to toggle between groups when talking, and that can bother some as it’s an extra step (but this is more related to the headsets than the base station and can likely be solved with future models). The other stink was the inability to name groups, and that the whole role vs pack ID thing felt a little confusing. You get over it, but it would have been nice to be a little easier to work with.
Although it wouldn’t be a strong competitor performance-wise or feature-wise) for companies like Clear-Com, RTS, and Riedel, it is a strong competitor for brands like Hollyland and similar. But when it comes to price, it lands perfectly where it needs to and can easily bat off the bigger brands (when you don’t need everything that they offer) just as much as it can similar brands like Saramonic. So Saramonic has an excellent solution on the table with this one.
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Co-Authors: James H.
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