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DNUK
Hardware Review: MA-V600 Bone Conducting Earpiece
By Scott Taylor
www.door-network.com
There’s nothing more annoying than having one of your colleagues
inside a venue calling you over the radio whilst you’re on the door,
and not being able to hear a damned word he’s saying through him
shouting to be heard over the music, and the DJ trying to pop every
eardrum within a three mile radius as the volume goes consecutively
louder week by week. The best you’ll hear when he calls you is a
garbled sound like the man’s being strangled and is gargling for
help, and when you run inside to rescue him from a beasting,
knocking all and sundry aside as you make a mercy dash to his
location, you find out that not only is he perfectly fine, he was
just passing idle chat about how much he fancies the new polish
barmaid with the chiseled ass and blonde hair..
Over the years we’ve tried every different solution to combat this,
from D ring earpieces to throat mics to cans tried with string and
pulled apart really tightly.
Nothing worked well enough.. Until now.
I was recently handed a MA-V600 bone conducting earpiece, (available
from
www.fdss.co.uk ), to try out
for a local security manager who was looking to buy some for his
staff. Like a wee kid at Christmas I snatched it from his hand and
took it to work, eager to try it out. I wasn’t holding out much hope
of it working, but I’m fond of new gadgets and when the packaging
told me it was ‘bone conducting’ I was looking forward to giving it
a bash, (until I discovered that ‘bone conducting’ didn’t mean
the same as ‘sex toy’, so there was no bashing whatsoever..)
At first it seems rather uncomfortable, as the molded earpiece
slides its way along your ear canal. You notice that you lose some
peripheral hearing from the ear it’s inserted in, but that’s the
whole point. When you’re inside the venue calling out it cancels out
a lot of the background noise from coming in, making broadcasting
clearer and doubling as an earplug of sorts.
“How does the ‘bone conducting’ work?” I hear you ask. Well, that’s
the clever part. As a quick experiment put a finger in each ear and
talk. Notice how you can still hear your own voice? Well, that’s the
sound that’s transmitted over the airwaves to your colleagues. The
microphone is hidden inside the earpiece, and picks up the sounds
that vibrate from the bone in your ear. These are the sounds that
are then transmitted. Fine in theory, but how would it hold up to a
test?
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Our first test was standing by
the DJ box early on in the night. The music is still subdued
enough that you can hold a conversation without shouting in the
bar, so I walked inside and took up position under the speaker
by the DJ’s pulpit.
I forgot to mention, the broadcast button can be clipped to your
belt under your jacket, so you can discreetly broadcast by
pressing the button while your hands are in your pocket. Handy
for when you want others to know you’re in trouble without your
attackers knowing you’re calling for assistance, but makes you
look crazy when you’re standing in a bar full of people who
suddenly think you are talking to yourself!
So I broadcasted a test transmission to the lads outside and
they heard me clear as day. Ok, it’s passed test one, let’s see
how it performs later that night when the music was thumping and
the bar was full.
It came to 22:30 and the bar is now full. I once again walk
inside and stand under the speaker. This time the music is
thumping, and the DJ is going through one of his dance fazes so
the bass is thumping like hell as well. I press the earpiece to
my ear to help block out surrounding sound, and once again
broadcast my test message.
Once again the broadcast comes through clear and concise, and
the lads at the door make out every word I say. Its tricky
hearing their reply unless you press the earpiece to our ear,
but we were all impressed how clearly my message made it to the
lads out in the open.
Criticisms? Hmm, not many to be honest.. The earpiece does take
a bit of getting used to, as it does fill the ear canal deeper
than most earpieces. Also, if you’re outside on the door all
night then its not the best to use, as it cancels out a lot of
surrounding sound from that ear, affecting your peripheral
hearing. Being able to have the broadcast button in a discreet
location is an absolute bonus, and really helps when it comes to
quietly calling for back up, or letting the boys inside know
that you’re in the proverbial
 So
what’s my final verdict? The MA-V600 is one of the best
earpieces I’ve used for working inside a venue. Your messages
come through clearly to the door, even when under a speaker and
the discreet wire and broadcast button adds to the appeal, as
nobody likes having a big, bulky earpiece hanging from their
head. If you’re on the door all the time however I’d recommend
sticking with the more popular acoustic tube discreet earpieces,
(see picture just above, also available from
www.fdss.co.uk ) as the
earpiece doesn’t affect your peripheral hearing as badly. |
