With its ease of use and surprisingly large feature set, the Pliant Microcom 900m could give more expensive intercom units a run for their money.
Intercoms are an essential element for the live production tool kit. Wireless intercoms are certainly not new, but it wasn’t that long ago they there were only two options: expensive and terrible. Now there are many more options delivering units for nearly any use case and budget.
Its simple setup and ease of use certainly seems tailored with the less-technical church volunteer user in mind.
Pliant is not one of the “Johnny-come-lately” intercom manufacturers; they make CrewCom and one of my favorite intercom systems, the Tempest. To add to the already robust product line, Pliant has added a compact, economical, wireless intercom system that operates in the 900 MHz and 2.4GHz frequency bands called the Microcom 900m, which start at about $500 per user. While those are great frequency bands to use, as with anything wireless you always have to be concerned with range and susceptibility to interference. More and more wireless products are starting to operate in those ranges and many of them don’t have detail control to assign a channel. As result those, spectrums can be a little like the wild west, and nothing in the documentation hints at use range of the unit.
The Microcom 900m is very suitably named, coming in at 3.9 x 1.9-inches and weighs only 3.1-ounces. While we wait on our review unit to arrive, the closest comparison we can come up with is roughly the size of two smartphones stacked screen to screen.
The wide variety of headset options could make the Microcom 900m line a viable alternative, not only for live production, but other ministries like a first impressions team or youth ministry.
The system can support five full-duplex units and unlimited listen-only units all without a base station. While it was designed with sophisticated Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum Technology (FHSS) with low latency (less than 35ms), its simple setup and ease of use certainly seems tailored with the less-technical church volunteer user in mind.
Pliant makes a variety of headsets that are compatible with the Microcom system, including their Smartboom series of production-style headsets, as well as some in-ear and lavalier style units more suited for less production-driven environments. The array of headsets options alone is enough to satisfy even the pickiest production-minded users. However, this variety of options also make the Microcom line a viable alternative, not only for live production, but other ministries like a first impressions team or youth ministry. If your youth ministry is anything like ours, you will be happy to know that the body packs are also weather-resistant, so hopefully, those occasional middle school messes shouldn’t affect it.
The connection for these headsets is a dual mini connector, but supports a single mini connector use
A feature often not found in more economical intercom units is sidetone, which allows the user to hear themselves when they talk. The Microcom 900m not only has sidetone, but it is adjustable and can be disabled.
According the spec sheet the Microcom 900m features an internal lithium-ion battery with a 10 hour run time. This battery is charged via a USB connector, and an LED status indicator light in the corner of the bodypack illuminates red when charging and turns off once the unit is charged. The battery can be charged while the unit is in use, but will increase the 3.5 hour charging time if the battery is dead. However, if 10 hours of talk time isn’t long enough, it seems possible to supplement the cells with small USB based charging units. Because they can be charged and used simultaneously, with enough USB chargers, it seems the Microcom could theoretically run indefinitely.
While the bodypack is quite small, there is still room for a small LCD screen. Despite the small size, there is a lot of information found on the seven-segment LCD screen, including; battery status, talk status, connectivity, and different menu options.
Applications
Because it doesn’t need a base station, Microcom 900m looks like an excellent option for churches that are mobile or meeting in temporary locations. With less to pack away and unpack, it’s an obvious choice for portable or small churches. Adding support to this use case is the fact that it’s listed for “users with modest budgets.” Since it supports unlimited “listen-only” units, it’s also suitable for interdepartmental communication.
The weather-resistant bodypack and headphone options should make it a good choice for parking attendants who are outside in the elements, but there was no use range listed in the documentation so this may not suitable for large parking lots. As stated earlier, this also makes it a good option for youth or middle school ministries needing an intercom unit. With base station-less operation and built-in batteries, Microcom appears to be perfect for volunteer-driven departments, because doesn’t seem to be much more complicated than a cell phone.
It will be interesting to see if this small unit suffers any interference when carried in a pocket. The small size certainly lends itself to that form of deployment, but not if it is going to sacrifice range or clarity. Many budget wireless systems are “line-of-sight,” and in some cases that is very literal. We have used intercoms that drop out if you simple set them down, facing away from the receiver.
It will be interesting to see the how the Pliant Microcom 900m stands up in a practical application. That said, with its ease of use and surprisingly large feature set, this small unit could give more substantial, more expensive units a run for their money.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a budget-friendly robust intercom unit, but can’t afford to sacrifice function, the Pliant Microcom might be just what the doctor ordered.
