Marcello Barbusci, audiovisual producer and documentary filmmaker from Sao Paolo, Brazil, applied a 3-headset WiTalk9 system for his team talk effort when videographing a motorcross event in May, 2025. No interference, no loss of signal, and long battery life are his impressions of the system.
(Marcello, responsible for documenting the event and giving directions.)
The Challenges
Evolving from motorcycle trials, motorcross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. In the middle of May, 2025, the racing track of Kalango Cego in Itupeva, one of the best tracks in Brazil, came to life with São Paulo Motocross Championship. Marcello, together with his 3-videographer team, was responsible for documenting the event from multiple perspectives. They were spread out along a 1.5-kilometer dirt route and sometimes up to 400 meters apart.
Communicating with the team over the long distance, in a clear way, and without interference are the top three chanllenges for the small crew.
The WiTalk9 Experience
Before intercom, Marcel used to rely on cellphones for instant communication. "(It's) convenient when you don't have a camera in your hand, but when the camera is your main tool, the cellphone makes things much more complicated," said Marcello in an email interview.
With the organizer using two-way radios themselves, the crew was facing likelihood of interference. But at the end of the day, their communication proved "interference-free" thanks to the DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) the system was based on — WiTalk9's signals are transmitted on a less crowded frequency band (1.9 GHz) than the congested 2.4 GHz (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) and can detect and hop into the clearest band automatically.
(Another cameraman from the small team documenting the motorcross.)
"And the battery lasted a long time. I had it on for 2 hours without needing to recharge it," continued the filmmaker.
With a more efficient chip, the duplex intercom system sees a major boost in battery life. The master headset can run up to 10 hours and remote 15, giving teams ample uptime without having to stop mid-shoot to recharge or change batteries.
"I was 400 meters away from my team and no one lost signal," continued Marcello about his impressions. To empower teams to communicate aross a long distance, WiTalk9 is enhanced with two antennas — one built-in and the other one out on the same side, so teams can still reach each other up to 500 meters apart (Line of Sight). The communication range can even be 1,000 meters when 3 headsets are on the same line with the master headset positioned in the middle.
The Availability of WiTalk9 and WiTalk9 SE
WiTalk9 (9-channel and scalable to 30 users for large teams) and WiTalk9 SE (5-channel and scalable to 9 users for smaller teams) are available to worldwide users via Saramonic Official Online Store. You may also reserve a hands-on experience with Saramonic official distributors.
