Looks too bulky?! :-/ Like the RodeLink

I honestly would hate to use anything more bulky than the G3/UWP-D11/UM200/UM400/etc transmitter, that is my limit! They're tough enough to hide effectively in some curve ball scenarios you get thrown.

That is why I never ever use my RodeLink on talent now, my RodeLink has been demoted to camera hop usage only.

This new one from Saramonic looks like it crosses the line to being "too big" :-( Such a pity. At least their Saramonic UwMic9 which I have, is almost the same size as my Sony UWP-D11 transmitters. Why go backwards now? Makes it smaller, not bigger! :-o

One big concern is how do you output all three transmitters from the receiver into a recorder?? Without mixing them, so it is useless then without isolated tracks.

As I remember the UwMic10 when first released had this same massive flaw, until an update fixed it.

Anyway, my friend Andrew, wrote up a really good look into the new Saramonic VmicLink5 (not as good as a hands on review, but the next best until we get one of those. Anyone volunteering to be brave and go first? :-P ):

https://wavreport.com/2017/09/08/breaking-news-saramonic-vmiclink5-wireless-microphone-leak/

Progress of Chinese considering wireless is staggering, I expect in one year time it'll be real issues with Sennheiser and Sony and in 2 year it'll be issues with Zaxcom existence.

I do agree the progress over the last two or three years or so of the Chinese wireless has been very impressive, but they constantly still have way way too many massive issues with them to be able to consider them even for a moment as a good choice on a proper professional set being used by a sound recordist.

It really makes me wonder if they're even getting any feedback at all from professional sound recordists during their product development?! :-/

Maybe Senal might change this, but I need to see some more reviews of it. It only "looks" good... dunno about actually sounding good!

Also Aputure have strongly hinted at they have a product coming "soon", I'd place a bet on them being a possible game changer for the low end wireless market.

I'm doubtful that within a year we'll see a serious threat from China to the traditional Sennheiser/Sony products, I'd give at best 50/50 odds on that.

And I'm very very very doubtful we'll see any serious threat at all to the high end Lectrosonics/Zaxcom/Wiysom/etc from a Chinese brand within 2 years. Not going to happen! No way.

What are scenarios of usage where this size really matters?

Oh just like 95% of what I do? Basically any scenario where you do not want your audio equipment to be on camera! Then having a smaller transmitter will be beneficial.

Do not know that Senal is doing here.

Oh yeah, guess Senal isn't "Chinese"! As while they are party of Gradus Group that seems to deal mostly in somewhat knock off products from China, they are a sister company of B&H and thus in New York.

Most wireless systems are not used by "professional sound recordists", they are used to record speech.

If Chinese companies which to take on the likes of Lectrosonics/Zaxcom/AudioLtd/etc, then they must target the professional sound recordists who are out there on the sets of films/TV/TVC/docos/etc making the magic happen.

At the moment, everything wireless that has come out from the Chinese companies, has almost zero appeal to such folks.

Even if they just want to take on the industry default low budget standard of the Sennheiser G3, then they still need to make it good enough to at least have some appeal and be considered for a moment by professional sound recordists, as if it can't reach at least that minimum standard then they won't stand a strong chance of unseating the G3 wireless as the default standard for filmmakers on a low budget.

Until then Chinese wireless will only have uses in the likes of Church halls for their services, or amatuer YouTubers, or other such non-mission critical applications.

It is not Aputure who makes product, it is specific engineer. For now they have quite good lights people, very good marketing, all else is so-so.

They have in house engineers. But even if they outsource all of it, it is still Aputure's management / oversight / innovation with these engineers which sees them be a Chinese company that keeps on releasing fairly high quality products which push the limits of technology while doing so at great value prices.

It'll be real honor to put above companies to grave. You'll see it soon.

Or maybe some will innovate to stay ahead of the competition? And eat their own babies, as they push their own products into new lower priced markets.

As we just saw Sound Devices surprisingly do today with their MixPre-10T announcement! :-o

Btw all this across industry is also mainly based in blatant lack of education and just following crowd.

And that is why people keep on recommending G3 instead of the newer UWP-D11

Again, on PV we do not talk in brands as far as it is possible. Better talk about specific product.

I do believe there can be consistent themes across a product group, and that people (as companies are just made up of people after all) do develop a track record of doing good work (or bad...). And thus general conclusions can be drawn from that.

As for Sound Devices - whole sector of their products will vanish in 4 years totally.

Portable sound recorders/mixers will vanish totally in 4yrs? That is a bold and brave prediction! ha

Soooooo you're saying my job will be completely replaced in 4yrs time, what will happen instead?

Not just me, but thousands of other people, like this guy (highly recommend him btw! Best/only channel worthwhile following from an independent soundie putting out regular educational content):

https://www.youtube.com/user/ThatWasSound/videos