While the name smartLav may conjure up images of a robotic toilet assistant, it is in fact a new professional-grade lapel microphone developed for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Designed for use by film, television and broadcast professionals, RØDE's discreet condenser mic is claimed capable of capturing 360 degrees of premium quality sound.
The 0.47 x 0.17 x 0.17-inch (12 x 4.5 x 4.5-mm), 0.21-oz (6-g) smartLav features a 0.1-inch (2.54-mm) omnidirectional condenser capsule, JFET active electronics and comes supplied with a foam pop shield to reduce wind noise and vocal plosives (such as hard B, T and P sounds). It has a reported frequency range of between 20 Hz and 20 kHz and sensitivity of -32.0dB re 1-volt/Pascal (25.50mV at 94 dB SPL) ±2 dB at 1 kHz.
A user would attach the smartLav microphone to the clothing of the person to be recorded using the included mounting clip, plug the 3.5-mm jack into the audio port of the chosen Apple device and start recording. smartLav is powered by the iOS device.
Though the lavalier microphone is also compatible with any iOS audio recording app capable of accepting input from the headset connection, as you might expect, RØDE recommends using the RØDE Rec or RØDE Rec LE apps.
RØDE Rec includes a range of EQ presets to suit different recording situations, pro-level editing functionality, and is capable of publishing to online services like SoundCloud and Dropbox from within the app itself.
smartLav starts shipping worldwide this month for a suggested retail price of US$60.
The video below outlines its features and where RØDE expects it to see it being used.
Source: RØDE Microphones
