First looks: Going wireless with Sennheiser’s AVX 835 SET

First looks: Going wireless with Sennheiser’s AVX 835 SET

Introduction 

Anyone who’s ever dabbled in videography knows that capturing good sound is essential to completing any production. After all, what good is an interview if you can barely hear the subject over the din of what’s going on in the background?

The typical solution revolves around using a combination of clip microphones on the subject that are then plugged into digital recorders to store the audio. If wireless is required, an additional receiver will be needed which can mean multiple wires to hide. Add to the fact that you’ll have to set frequencies for both receiver and microphone, and you’ll have another layer of complexity to deal with.

Sennheiser’s latest AVX 835 SET then, looks to remove all the complexity by offering a simple plug and play solution.

Design and features

The set consists of a wireless handheld microphone, a plug on receiver, and a host of accessories that allow the receiver to be attached to camcorders and DSLRs right out of the box. As you can see, both receiver and microphone are powered by batteries that recharge via USB.

The first thing that caught our attention was the size (or sheer lack of) of the plug-on AVX receiver. It’s barely a third of the size of a traditional Sennheiser E3 receiver unit, but as far as our video crew could tell, worked just as well, if not better than it.

Set up is truly plug and play, as the AVX receiver unit automatically switches on once plugged into the intended device, be it a DSLR, traditional video camcorder, or an audio recording unit. Also, the ability to automatically select the best operating frequency and channel means you can really just plug in and go, which makes it ideal for run and gun style video recording. Field broadcast crew, video journalists, wedding videographers and video-bloggers could all benefit from this ease of use so that’s great adaptability there.

There’s a XLR to 3.5mm converter accessory that allows you to directly plug the AVX receiver unit into the DSLR. This would be the most basic means of operation – direct mount onto the DSLR’s hotshoe. It’s quick and easy, but you lose the ability to monitor audio as most DSLRs lack the option of audio level monitoring.

Otherwise, the transmitter unit can also be directly plugged into any devices with XLR jacks, like traditional camcorders. This is where the small size of the AVX is a big plus as it stays conveniently out of the way without adding any noticeable weight.

For workflows that require multiple audio inputs, multiple AVX receivers can be connected to an external audio recording device like the Zoom H6. In this case, the rotatable design of the AVX receiver allows you to easily fit up to four transmitters in a tight configuration. 

Contrast this to the traditional setup shown above. If you used a typical receiver, you’d have to hand hold it or find an additional mount to keep it out of way. Certainly not the most convenient approach if you’re dealing with multiple receivers!

First impressions

We had a bit of time with the AVX 835 SET so our video team actually used it in a live scenario and gave us further feedback, while providing video evidence of their findings, and we must say we’re quite impressed. The video team was covering an Intel event, and were conducting interviews with people in a seminar room filled with over 50 people.

As you can imagine, there was plenty of background chatter but the AVX 835 microphone was able to pick up and mostly isolate the audio of the interviewee so everything being said came through loud and clear. Certainly impressive! Our only complaint, is that the set uses proprietary batteries that charge via USB through the devices themselves, so you can't easily swap batteries if the devices run out. Unless you pick up spare battery packs, which doesn't seem to be an option at the moment. Check out the difference below:

The Sennheiser’s AVX 835 SET retails for S$1,305 at all authorized Sennheiser retailers.