In this review, we will be giving you our quick impressions of working with Hollyland’s new T1000 talkback system. Communicating on set or on location with others on your camera team might not always be so easy, depending on the situation and location. And especially in these very strange days with the coronavirus, unfortunately, hindering close contact you might want to invest in a system which allows you to easily communicate from a good distance. For these cases a good quality talkback system is a necessity. There are obviously plenty of options on the market already, all at various price points, so it’s not easy to see the forest through the trees. But Hollyland’s system might just offer you what you need at a very fair price.
The Hollyland T1000 comes with a base station and five included headsets and belt units. The belt units are quite compact and are powered by their own internal battery. The headsets are not the most luxurious ones but they suffice. They don’t use an XLR connecter but a 3.5mm jack instead. You can charge these using USB-C from the base station, or through an external power bank or source. The belt units do support two-amp fast charging. The belt units should do approximately 8 hours on a full charge. The T1000 is supposed to cover a range of about 300 meters between the base station and the belt units. You’ll need a clear line of sight to get the maximum range though, but it should still provide plenty of coverage in other situations.
So, considering all that you’re getting here, the price point of $1,799 (in Europe prices will vary a bit but they seem to be around 1779,- euros) seems more than fair, compared to other similar offerings. Getting a similar setup would cost you much more.
Setup was easy as expected. You can connect a unit to the base station by simply plugging it in, hold the pairing button on the belt unit, select the number you want to assign to it and it just takes a few seconds and you are up and running. They do not need to be paired again if you turn them off, the system will remember.
The T1000 base station and belt units are fairly well constructed, the belt units specifically are small and not heavy at all. There’s also support for an optional Tally Light Signal System which might come in handy if that is something you really need. The base station will function with the provided A/C adapter, or it will run off two NP-F970 batteries. One can also connect a headset to the base station, and while it obviously won’t be wireless connection this could come in handy too. The T1000 has a very decent (and expandable) feature set.
All in all, we have found it the T1000 to be a quite complete, solid and simple system to work with and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. Be sure to check it out at your local dealer if you are looking for something like this or check out the Hollyland website for more details.