Systems

Field monitoring hardware

Purpose-built acoustic recorders and accessories for long-term wildlife monitoring. Designed for reliability in the field, not the laboratory.

Current product

Demeter acoustic recorder

Demeter is the flagship Wild Systems Lab recorder. Designed for continuous, unattended audio capture across bird and bat frequency ranges, it runs on battery or solar power for weeks at a time without intervention.

Built around the ESP32 platform with custom-designed hardware, Demeter balances audio quality, power efficiency, and rugged field construction at a price point accessible to conservation practitioners.

Bird monitoring Bat detection Continuous recording Scheduled duty cycles Available now
Demeter recorder photograph

At a glance

Demeter specifications

Audio

24-bit / 48 kHz recording. Wideband condenser microphone sensitive from 1 Hz to 100+ kHz for both bird song and bat echolocation.

Power

Battery operation for up to 6 weeks on a standard deployment. Compatible with external solar charging. Low-power sleep modes between recording sessions.

Storage

MicroSD card storage up to 1 TB. Configurable file durations, duty-cycle recording, and on-device time-stamping via integrated RTC.

Enclosure

Weatherproof IP65 rated housing. Designed for pole, post, or tree mounting. Temperature rated for UK field conditions year-round.

Firmware

Open-source firmware with configurable recording schedules, gain settings, and duty cycles. Field-updatable via SD card or USB.

Connectivity

USB-C configuration and data transfer. Optional Bluetooth for field status check without opening enclosure. Future LoRa variants in development.

Accessories

Deployment kits and accessories

Everything needed for a complete field deployment, available individually or as kits.

Standard deployment kit

Demeter recorder, pole mount, 128 GB card, USB-C configuration cable, and printed quick-start guide. Ready to deploy.

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Solar charging kit

5W solar panel with weather-rated cabling, charge controller, and extended battery pack for permanent or very long-term deployments.

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Tree mount kit

Non-invasive strapping system for trunk or branch mounting, with angled microphone bracket for optimal directionality.

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Spare SD cards

High-endurance microSD cards pre-formatted and tested for Demeter. Available in 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB.

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Replacement batteries

Lithium battery packs compatible with Demeter's power system. Capacity and cycle rating matched to field deployment requirements.

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Multi-unit deployment kit

For organisations monitoring multiple sites — synchronised configuration, SD management, and a field carry case for four units.

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Firmware and software

Open-source and field-configurable

Demeter firmware is open source and actively maintained. Configuration is done via a plain-text file on the SD card — no app or laptop required in the field for basic changes.

Firmware supports configurable recording schedules (e.g. dawn chorus windows, bat-active periods), gain and sample rate settings, LED status indicators, and remote SD swap without power cycling.

Configuration interface screenshot

In development

Future systems

We are developing the next generation of Wild Systems Lab monitoring hardware.

In development

Demeter Pro

Dual-channel recording, onboard GPS timestamping, LoRaWAN connectivity for remote status monitoring, and increased storage capacity for permanent installations.

Concept

Demeter Mesh

Multi-unit deployment system with time-synchronised recording across a site grid. Designed for soundscape mapping and spatial acoustic analysis.