Zaxcom Introduces STA200 Microphone Input Adapter

Zaxcom, a pioneering provider of professional audio equipment for the television and film industries, today introduced the STA200, a new microphone input adaptor tailored for use in dance and theatrical applications. Now shipping, the STA200 is a valuable tool for audio professionals who need to transmit multiple audio channels from a single body pack. The new adaptor expands on the feature set of Zaxcom's popular TRX900 wireless microphone transceiver by allowing the production staff to connect two additional microphones for a total of three microphones supported by just one unit.

Zaxcom's STA200 has two auxiliary microphone connectors facing downwards for mounting on a performer's tap shoes during theatrical and dance presentations. The audio signals from these two microphones are mixed together for transmission on a discrete channel. A vocal microphone also is connected to the TRX900 and transmits on a second channel for a total of three microphones on a single performer. The Zaxcom receiver will output the two discrete channels, ensuring that the tap shoe audio is completely separate from the vocal channel.

"The STA200 is a very unique tool designed to specifically address the challenges that audio professionals face in the dance and theatrical industries," said Glenn Sanders, president of Zaxcom. "We've given those audio professionals a means to get premium audio quality from multiple microphones with the simplicity of just one body pack—and all this with the added benefit of integrated backup recording. We've made a commitment to continually develop our products to meet customer needs, and this product is just one demonstration of our core principles of innovation and responsiveness."

In addition to supporting additional inputs, the STA200 also includes an audio output to support an earpiece. This output is broadcast from Zaxcom's IFB100 to the TRX900 and can be used as a click track to keep dancers in perfect time, or as an IFB feed to communicate staging instructions directly to the performers. Zaxcom's system also provides RF remote control for flexibility in managing and fine tuning the TRX900 transmitters.

The TRX900 can record a back-up of the transmitted audio, utilizing its patent-pending internal recording capability. Zaxcom's TRX900 digital wireless microphone transceiver is the industry's first wireless microphone with internal IFB and integrated audio recording with time code. This feature set allows audio professionals to record up to 12 hours of audio directly to a flash memory card and then transfer the .wav files to either a PC or Macintosh for post-production. The TRX900 system is designed for use primarily with a lavaliere microphone.