Wireless microphone systems and audio processing company Lectrosonics has added the SM-Shaque (SM-Shake) to its SM Series dual-battery transmitters – installed in the SMDB or SMQV transmitters, this replaces batteries with a small generator that is operated by shaking the unit.

The SM-Shaque’s tiny generator uses a finely wound wire coil and a powerful Neodymium ‘rare earth’ magnet to apply Faraday’s principal of generating electric current by passing a moving magnet through a coil to location sound. The rarity and supply challenges of these magnet materials have already pushed back the originally planned delivery from October 2011 to April 2012.

Aimed at sports broadcasting where players are increasingly being fitted with wireless transmitters, the system is also expected to find use in theatres. However, any wireless microphone users that ‘jump around excessively’ might also benefit.

The SM-Shaque only works with dual-battery Lectrosonics SM series transmitters since the batteries are in parallel and the Shaque unit charges the single NiMh battery in the remaining compartment directly. Competitor’s units with dual-AA batteries in series will not work with this accessory. Transmitter RF transmission power settings of 250mW are not recommended when using the SM-Shaque unless there is a whole lot of shaking going on.

‘Battery life has always been a concern when it comes to wireless microphone transmitters,’ says Lectrosonics President, Larry Fisher. ‘This is especially true in sports and theatre where transmitters must be buried within costumes or padding. Athletes and actors are also sometimes either inaccessible or touchy about having audio techs reaching under their clothing all the time to change batteries. The SM-Shaque solves all of that.’

The SM-Shaque will have an MSRP of US$229.

More: www.lectrosonics.com