Review: Hollyland MARS T1000 Full Duplex Wireless Intercom System

Loaded with features missing on intercoms costing much more, the new MARS T1000 offers exceptional value for small and medium sized church productions.

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Intercoms are the unsung heroes of the tech production world, yet they are often used and abused. And they are typically the system you worry about the least. Most modern intercoms are fairly bullet-proof; they have one job to do and they do it well. The market is also saturated with options that have a wide variety of features and price points. However, most intercom systems are expensive, and for many small churches the price is simply too high. That situation may be coming to an end though, with Hollyland’s introduction of an intercom system for small- to medium-sized churches that appears to be an exceptional value: the new MARS T1000.

Overview

The Hollyland MARS T1000 system is a wireless intercom system with four belt packs and one base station. It functions in the 1.9 GHz wireless frequency band and can connect to belt packs up to 300 meters away. This distance is perfect because that’s close to the same functional distance of an SDI cable. So if you can run an SDI cable from your switcher to your camera, and it works, you are probably within the functioning distance of the MARS T1000. Unlike many wireless intercom systems, this system also includes the headsets. The headsets are ruggedly built and connect to the belt packs via a 3.5 mm jack, as opposed to the 4-pin XLR connector found on many other intercom systems. The belt packs are powered by lithium batteries and can run for eight hours on a full charge. They are recharged with a USB-C connection, which is provided by four USB ports on the side of the base station. The base station and belt packs feature large, easily readable displays which confirm sync, battery and mute functions.  

Things to like

First off, the price point on the Hollyland MARS T1000 is affordable compared to many other intercoms on the market. At just $1,799 for a base station with four belt packs and headsets, it truly is an incredible value, considering you could spend that much for just headsets from some of the other manufacturers.

The belt packs are small and lightweight, but solidly constructed. I really like that they feature a ¼-20 mount screw on the bottom of the unit, making them easily mountable to pretty much any camera platform. The belt packs are small, about the size of my wallet small, so they wouldn’t look out of place mounted directly to a camera. This mounting point is especially critical if you are going to take advantage of the built-in tally system. Yes, the T1000 supports an optional Tally Universal Signal Converter, so you can add tally functionality over your intercom. This ability to conquer multiple tasks with a single product is always a feature I like to see from any manufacturer. Features like this make me think Hollyland took advantage of a focus group, or else they have some really smart people on their team, because this just makes a lot of sense.

The base station can be run off two batteries (NPF-970) or the provided A/C adapter. This is a huge win for churches that set up and tear down each week, for example churches operating out of schools. I know my home church has multiple campuses that are meeting in schools, and they get charged by the school for each power outlet utilized. For us, we could recoup the cost of this system by using one less power outlet and running the base station on batteries.  A single battery will power the base station for 20 hours, and two batteries will double that. 

Another function I appreciate is that the base station on the MARS T1000 features a headset port and a remote mic kill. This means you could effectively have five people on comm, albeit one would be wired and four would be wireless. Also, if someone leaves their mic open and is distracting or interrupting the communications for the event, the director or whomever is closest to the base station could mute it. I have often wished these features were available in my current intercom. I hope other manufacturers read this, because these two features alone make this system stand out in my mind.

Things that missed the mark

As a video director, I really like to hear myself talk (insert gratuitous director ego joke here) and one of the things I wish the MARS T1000 system offered is a side tone. Side tone is a fancy way of saying “listening to your own microphone.” Many people in the live production world have a love/hate relationship with side tone, and at the end of the day it’s all about personal preference. As a result, many intercom systems have this option, and it can be tuned to personal preference or completely turned off. Personally, I like to hear myself so that I know my microphone is hot. This gives me instant feedback to know if something is wrong, like my mic is muted or not working.

Also, while the intercom system is full duplex (meaning information can be transmitted in both directions at the same time) there is a gate-like function called a ducker on the mic. This means that when you speak at the same time as others, the level of the other voices is automatically reduced in the headset. This could be problematic when multiple people are talking at the same time and not being able to hear or communicate with each other. Of course, good com etiquette (not talking over others) would reduce this to a non-issue. Also, the manufacturer assures us the issue will be addressed in a firmware update in the near future.

Conclusion

Despite two minor “misses,” Hollyland has put together a very solid, remarkably affordable offering for the intercom market. With the high build quality, optional built-in tally, small form factor, and ability to run completely off batteries, the Hollyland MARS T1000 has an excellent feature set. This new unit should be a very serious contender for small- or medium-sized church applications, or for youth rooms or secondary venues in larger churches that already have an intercom in their main venue.