Today we are taking a look at a second product made by Hollyland announced back in IBC 2022 – the Hollyland Mars M1 wireless monitor and HDMI transmitter/receiver – one of the first affordable wireless monitors on the market.
Hollyland
Hollyland has been providing wireless transmission solutions for video and audio for some years now. We’ve reviewed a number of their products in the past including the Mars 4K wireless video system (also announced back at IBC 2022), and today we’re looking at their new Mars M1 monitor transceiver.
Concept
This product is an innovation since it combines two very useful pieces of gear into a small and versatile package. Being a transceiver, the M1 works as an on-camera transmitter monitor to wirelessly send a feed to multiple monitors, while also receiving wireless video feed as a remote monitor [and a limited-functionality recorder].
Can be used as an on-camera monitor as well
In the box
Hollyland ships the M1 in a cardboard box. The kit includes the monitor itself, a glass screen protector, a Dtap to DC cable, and an OTG adapter. There is no carrying pouch, but since the monitor is pretty compact, it shouldn’t be hard to find some sort of protection to transport it.
The M1 and the included D-tap cable
Build and design
The Mars M1 is a 5.5’’ touch LCD screen. The body is made of a hard composite and covered in a rubberized shock-proof bumper.
One of the most stand-out design choices on this unit is the new stubby antennas. These make the monitor very portable. You could also replace them with some bigger antennas if ever you need the extra range.
On the left side, the unit features HDMI (full size) in and out ports. Additionally, there is an SDI in port on the back. There is an option to receive feed through SDI and send it out through HDMI.
On the right side, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack to monitor audio and a USB-c port to power the unit, upload LUTs, and for firmware upgrades.
On the back of the unit, there are two other power options: an NP-f battery plate and a DC jack. There is also a DC out to power another accessory. The power button is also located on the back. When the device is powered up, a short click on the power button disables the screen’s touch function. To power off the unit, long press the power button.
To mount the monitor, there are metal ¼’’ mounts on the right side and on the bottom. Both of these come with anti-rotation pins. Thank you!
Smart and simple design – Hollyland Mars M1
Features
The screen on the M1 monitor emits 1000 nits of brightness. It’s not the brightest there is, but it’s definitely bright enough to use in daylight. Hollyland promises screen colors are calibrated, and the image is definitely very similar to what you see on the camera screen. In case you need to further customize the look of the image, you can actually change the WB of the screen in the assist functions.
The M1 comes with a full set of assist tools. To bring up the tools menu, tap the screen. Here you have all the standard tools, including exposition tools, magnification, ratio, and anamorphic de-squeeze.
There is also a screen freeze toggle to temporarily save a screenshot for reference purposes. There is no internal memory, though, so you can’t save multiple screenshots. We feel that Hollyland should’ve added this feature.
The short menu gives wireless settings and screen options. In the wireless settings, you can choose the channel and switch from transmitter to receiver mode. There’s also a pairing command for connecting to the transmitter [Mars series transmitters and M1 only] when in receiver mode.
The monitor’s fan can be controlled in this menu as well. It’s a bright screen, and it tends to heat up, but it’s not too hot to the touch. When in regular mode, the monitor’s fan is definitely audible, but there is also a mute option.
In the screen options menu, you can control the screen’s brightness and volume. There are also toggles to bring up volume levels [that will appear in the top left of the screen] and turn on recordings. Unfortunately, the M1 only allows recording up to 3 minutes and you can’t export the recording. It’s for reference purposes only.
Like with the screenshots, this is a very limited feature, and we would’ve preferred for Hollyland to have included an SD card slot in the fixture to record internally.
In use
We tested the M1 both in transmitter and receiver mode. After updating the firmware on this device and on the older transmitter, everything worked pretty seamlessly. The bootup does take about 20 seconds, but once the unit is connected to the camera through HDMI, it receives feed right away.
One very useful feature in transmitter mode is sending a feed to multiple devices running the HollyView app. We tried it with multiple android and apple devices, and it worked with no issues. The app gives all the same assist tools and also allows one to record to the device.
The only thing we would add to the app (and to the monitor for that matter) is a camera control feature (these are starting to become available on some external monitors). There is an interesting toggle in the monitor’s menu for a trigger, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. Maybe they’re planning remote recording for an upcoming firmware upgrade?
Hollyland promises 150m of range for this unit. In our range test in the studio, the feed was stable from 10 meters away even with multiple walls and a metal door in between. With two metal doors, the tablet app would lose connection.
As for latency, there’s definitely a bit of a delay, but it’s not significant. While it might be a problem for action scenes, for most shooting scenarios, the slight delay wouldn’t get in the way. [In our tests, we found that the speed of the tablet running the app greatly affected the transmission latency and quality.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the M1 is a quality product with a compact design and powerful features. It’s great both as a screen, as well as in its function as a transmitter and a receiver. When combined with an extra M1 or the app on multiple devices, it becomes its own ecosystem.
A new wireless ecosystem
Pricing
As for pricing, the Hollyland M1 sells for $550 and you can buy a set of two with a $100 discount.
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