The Jangus Music Wi JMWAL35 showed up in the mail yesterday and it looks extremely interesting. Basically this is a stereo wireless transmitter that operates on a 2.4GHz frequency. You might recognize that frequency from your wireless router or cordless phone laying around the house as it belongs to the 802.11 IEEE standard. In fact the Jangus website even mentions that the unit is compatible with VoIP calling.

Jangus also claims “100 feet range (line of sight)” with “16bit, 48kHz uncompressed CD quality connectivity”. The “line of sight” statement is something to keep in mind as frequencies in the GHz don’t penetrate as well through walls and people as lower UHF frequency bands.

The Jangus Music Wi comes in a very nice form fitting case that looks very similar to the Samson Airline micro’s included case. The case is larger then it really needs to be for the size of it’s contents but it is still a very nice accessory. Inside the case you’ll find a small usb charger, the receiver, and the transmitter unit, along with cables zipped up in the lid.

Each of these units are about the size of my thumb with a built in Lithium-Ion battery. There are a lot more controls on the Jangus then the Airline Micro, but you still have to deal with a flashing led style system. Thankfully there is a list of the different operating modes on the back of the transmitter to help you with the settings and dedicated volume controls.

The included cables aren’t something that will be very handy for most filming applications. Instead these cables would probably be more useful for turn tables or mixers in a sound booth. I think the biggest thing for me is the fact that it’s a Stereo audio transmitter under $200.  I haven’t had a chance to run very many tests yet, but so far I’ve tested it at a distance of 60 feet without any problems and the audio is clean and clear.

The other thing that seems very useful is that you can link multiple receivers to the same transmitter. This means I could send audio from a boom Mic back to multiple cameras without cables. This could mean no more syncing the audio from a filed recorder in post. I just need to come up with a way to mount the darn thing.

I’m pretty excited to spend more time playing around with this guy. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations.


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