What is the Hollyland Lark 150 Wireless Mic System

Regardless if you are filming a video for work, a YouTube channel, a virtual presentation, or teaching a class over ZOOM, you need to have great audio. It is simply too frustrating to try to watch content where the audio is dull or muffled.

Hollyland has recently launched their new wireless audio system called the LARK 150 which they sent me to check out.

There are many wireless mic systems out there so while I was expecting a decent mic system, what arrived was far more.

What is the LARK 150 system?

The Lark system consists of 2x wireless microphones (transmitters), 1x receiver, and a case. The entire system is charged while it sits in the case.

As soon as you remove the mics and transmitter from the case they are automatically switched on and are paired. When you return them to the case, they shut off and start to charge. This is a big deal as I have often left my mics on only to discover them being flat when I needed to use them.

The mics connect to the receiver over 2.4Ghz frequency. The Lark has “Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum Technology (FHSS)” which means that the system hops around the frequency to avoid interference providing a clean signal.

In the system, you get everything you need to get going.  You get USB-C cable to charge your “case” and everything in it, 2x Wind Shield so that you don’t have that wind noise when recording with the mic, 2x lav mics, 2x windshields for the lav mics, 3.5mm connector to connect the receiver to your source, and a carrying pouch.

Looking at the Lark 150 Mic

There are two omnidirectional microphones in the system which is perfect for those on-camera interviews. The mic can be used as a clip-on mic so that you can simply attach it to your jacket when you record. It also has a 3.5mm jack so that you can attach the omnidirectional lavalier mic to it and clip the mic onto your belt or stick it in a pocket.

The mic is switched on automatically when it is removed from the case, but it does have and an On/ Off button so that you can manually control it. The same button also doubles up as a Mute button.

Looking at the Lark 150 Receiver

When the receiver is in the case, its LCD screen switches on briefly showing the battery level for each of the mics and the receiver.

The receiver itself has a line out which is how you connect it to your camera or phone or computer.

There are two knobs on the receiver each one controls the audio level from each of the mics and the LCD screen shows the audio levels which you can monitor by plugging in your headphones.

When you push the knob in, you can select one of the three modes:

• Mono which means the audio that comes from the mic is recorded to both the left and right channels. This is the setting you need to use if it’s only you speaking on camera.
• Stereo means that each of the mics records their audio into their own channel. This is to be used when using both mics for an interview and allows you to control the audio level of each speaker independently. Therefore, if someone is speaking really loud, you can turn down their volume.
• Safety Track is where both mic’s audio is recorded to the same track, but you can set the audio level to be -6 db less than the main speaker

Some Important details to note

The battery life is always something to note when it comes to wireless mics (wireless anything really…).

The receiver can last up to 7.5 hours and the mics 4.5hours according to the manufacturer’s specs. This will obviously depend on usage. The charging case takes about 2.5 hours to full charge while the mics take 1.5 hours and the receiver 2 hours.

The big thing to note is that you can not charge the mics or the receiver without the charging case. Therefore, you have to carry the case with you. This is something that could be seen as an issue.

The batteries are also not swappable therefore you can’t simply slide in a new pair of batteries and continue a shoot.

Saying all that, I don’t see this product as being meant for the “pros”. This is a prosumer level product for those of us who do talking head videos, tutorials, teaching classes, and just want to have better audio.

Currently, with a wired lav mic, I have a limited range of movement as I am literally attached to my camera. When I am using my shotgun mic, I need to be in the right position for the best audio. The freedom that the Lark 150 wireless mic gives you is the ability to move around more and still get that amazing audio.

I will be using this in my new videos on my YouTube channel so will have more info the more I use it!

You can get your Lark 150 here