Sound Devices has announced Astral Mini Plus, the newest iteration of the brand’s compact wireless transmitter packs. Astral Mini Plus builds off the innovations of the original Astral Mini while adding several new features and improvements.
It features a familiar ergonomic form factor and rugged performance while also adding longer battery life, extended tuning flexibility, IP67 water resistance, and improved usability features for faster setup times and operation.
Key features
- 8+ hours battery life: For those especially long or challenging productions
- Extended 169-1525 MHz tuning range with Sound Devices’ SpectraBand technology: Ensuring its usefulness in any legal frequency bandwidth, anywhere in the world
- IP67 water resistance: The transmitter is now rain and sweat-resistant, a feature championed by live theatre professionals
- Improved usability features for more streamlined setup and operation
Sound Devices Astral transmitters and receivers have been widely used by location sound and live sound professionals worldwide. They are chosen for their compact size, reliability, and ease of use. Astral Mini Plus expands upon these strengths with several key quality-of-life upgrades designed for the most demanding of production conditions, ensuring trouble-free operation regardless of event length, location, or conditions.
The new Mini Plus has been engineered for extended battery life with the XL-B14500 rechargeable cell, ensuring consistent, dependable performance for up to 8 hours. The transmitter can also be powered via USB-C for additional flexibility.
In addition to its extended battery performance, Astral Mini Plus also now takes full advantage of Sound Devices’ SpectraBand extended 169-1525 MHz tuning range, which is claimed to provide exceptional RF control to find clean, usable, and legal frequency bandwidth anywhere in the world, regardless of region. The transmitter can be operated anywhere, regardless of local spectrum regulations, making it ideal for international productions.
The Mini Plus captures the natural sound and full dynamic range of audio with Sound Devices’ GainForward technology, which enables simplified gain-staging at the mixer without having to touch a transmitter. GainForward is claimed to capture every nuance of speech or musical performance from whisper to scream at the highest possible audio quality and without any danger of clipping. The transmitter also includes an ePaper display and new usability features for reduced setup times and faster on-the-fly adjustments.
Finally, Astral Mini Plus is also rated IP67 for water resistance to make it more impervious to the elements. The compact transmitter is now resistant to sweat, humidity, and other sources of unexpected moisture, ensuring reliable operation and perfect sound quality regardless of the weather.
