What is the SPIRE + PortaMon package?

SPIRE is TMSi's wireless HD-EMG recorder, up to 64 channels per unit and syncable to 256 channels across four units. PortaMon MkIII is Artinis's muscle NIRS device, six channels of near infrared spectroscopy reading oxy, deoxy and total hemoglobin plus tissue saturation from the same muscle. TMSi is now part of Artinis, and the two companies sell this pairing as a standard combination rather than something assembled after the fact. The NIRS sensor sits directly on the HD-EMG textile grid, so both devices read from the same patch of muscle instead of two nearby spots that might not agree.

How the two modalities complement each other

Neither device sees the whole picture on its own. HD-EMG reads the electrical signal the nervous system sends to the muscle: which motor units fire, how often, and how fast the signal travels along the fiber. It says nothing about whether the muscle has the fuel to keep answering that signal. NIRS reads the metabolic side: oxygen delivery, oxygen consumption, and how fast the tissue recovers after a contraction. It says nothing about what the nervous system asked the muscle to do.

Run them together and the two readings start to explain each other. Firing rate holding steady while oxygenation drops points to a metabolic limit. Firing rate dropping while oxygenation stays normal points to a neural one. Neither device alone can make that distinction, and mistaking one for the other changes what you would actually train, treat, or investigate next.

What's in the package

• SPIRE recorder, up to four units per suitcase, hub station, textile HD-EMG grids, body straps in five sizes, HD-EMG starter kit with gel and applicator, SPIRE Connect and WaveView software
• PortaMon MkIII device, OxySoft software, Peli case, Bluetooth dongle, batteries and charger, sunshield accessories
• Synchronization through SPIRE's trigger inputs, USB TTL module, or Artinis PortaSync, so both recordings land on one timeline