Production-sound experts Lectrosonics have recently announced the upcoming launch of a new lightweight shotgun microphone designed for high-end location and studio work. Aimed at the likes of film, TV, sports broadcasting and news, the S1 promises to pair top-quality audio performance with a robust design that will stand up to harsh environments both indoors and out.
The new mic is built around a true condenser capsule with RF biasing, which Lectrosonics say makes it resilient to humid environments, and boasts a newly designed body that helps to maintain a consistent polar pattern with uniform off-axis rejection and low colouration. It’s a compact and lightweight design, measuring 215mm (8.4 inches) long with a diameter of 19mm (0.75 inches), meaning it’ll be well suited to boom work as well as being compatible with a wide range of shockmounts and other hardware.
Frequency response is said to be broadly flat, with the exception of a slight lift in the upper frequencies to ensure dialogue is captured clearly, while careful circuit design means the mic offers a self-noise figure of just 10dBA, and will happily handle SPLs of up to 130dB. The S1 is also said to be ideal for battery-powered mobile rigs, drawing less than 2mA from a standard 48V phantom power supply.
Tech Specs
- Polar Pattern: Supercardioid
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Sensitivity: -34 dBV ±1dB (-54 dBV low-sensitivity mode)
- SNR: >80dB
- Equivalent Noise: 10dB SPL (A-weighted)
- Max SPL: 130dB
“The new S1 shotgun mic is one of the first examples of a collaboration between different parts of the Freedman Group. The vast Rode acoustics and microphone capsule engineering expertise was met with the Lectrosonics knowledge of our professional customer base in film and TV production — we brought the best of both worlds together for the development of this high-performance professional microphone.” - Karl Winkler, EVP of Product Design and Distribution, Lectrosonics
Pricing & Availability
The S1 will be available in the second half of 2026, and expected to be priced at $1639.
