Tech Focus: Immersive Audio, Part 2 - Surround Microphones Come of Age 5.1 is increasingly the native audio for sports broadcasting By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Once considered a novelty, dedicated surround microphones have become more common in the sports-broadcasting toolkit as 5.1 became the native audio format for television networks. Soccer in particular, with its expansive pitch to cover, has been deploying this category of multi-transducer mic. As the immersive-audio era edges closer, surround microphones will be seen as well as heard on sports broadcasts. Here are some leading examples.
DPA Microphones
DPA 5100 mobile surround microphone
The DPA 5100 mobile surround microphone is a completely self-contained plug-and-play solution for 5.1 audio capture. It can be flexibly mounted: on a microphone stand, suspended from the ceiling, or via a handgrip. Lightweight and portable, it's also robust and can withstand challenging weather conditions. The 5100 features five miniature pressure transducers, all with low sensitivity to wind and mechanical noise, low distortion, exceptional low-frequency response, and a substantial dynamic range. The three front capsules in this system are time-aligned to eliminate comb filtering, which also ensures frequency consistency when downmixing to stereo or mono. The rear capsules are nested in the advanced separation chambers, spaced optimally both from each other and from the front array to simulate natural time-arrival differences. The goal of DPA's design approach is a surround atmosphere that offers a high degree of coherence, channel separation, and localization accuracy. The 5100 mobile surround microphone requires no external signal processing.
The DPA 4560 CORE binaural headset microphone is a stereo pair of DPA 4060 CORE miniature omnidirectional microphones mounted on the ear hooks of an ergonomically designed headset, designed to create immersive, 3D stereo sound experiences. The omnidirectional pattern also makes it less sensitive to handling, wind, and pop noise. Based on the Head-Related Transfer Function principle and using closely matched transducers, the 4560 replicates the aural perceptivity of the human ear as close to perfectly as possible.
Sennheiser Sennheiser AMBEO VR ambisonic microphone
Specially designed for 360 spatial audio recording, the AMBEO VR is an ambisonic microphone fitted with four matched KE 14 capsules in a tetrahedral arrangement. This special design allows capture of surrounding sound from a single point. As a result, fully spherical ambisonics sound matches VR video/spherical 360 content. The capsules of the AMBEO VR mic deliver A-format, a raw four-channel output that has to be converted into a new set of four channels, the Ambisonics B-format. This is done by the specifically designed AMBEO A-B converter plugin, which is available as a free download for VST, AU, and AAX format for a preferred digital audio workstation for both PC and Mac. B-format is a W, X, Y, Z representation of the sound field around the microphone. (W is the sum of all four capsules; X, Y and Z are virtual bidirectional microphone patterns representing front/back, left/right, and up/down.) Thus, the listener can audition any direction from the microphone during playback of Ambisonics B.
Soundfield Soundfield DSF-B digital ambisonic mic system
The DSF-B is a fully digital ambisonic product system for broadcast. It consists of a DSF-2 MKII microphone for exceptional sound capture, the DSF-2 MKII microphone controller, and the DSF-3 MKII digital surround processor. The system provides simultaneous mono, stereo, and digital surround soundscapes at large-scale live outside broadcast events, such as sports stadiums and concert halls, creating a completely digital surround-sound-production chain. Surround formats supported include conventional 5.1, as well as object-based formats that have additional height channels.
Click here for Tech Focus: Immersive Audio, Part 1 - Infrastructure Waits Out the Pandemic
Click here for Tech Focus: Immersive Audio, Part 3 - Consoles Evolve as Software-Based Solutions
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Tech Focus: Immersive Audio, Part 2 - Surround Microphones Come of Age 5.1 is increasingly the native audio for sports broadcasting By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
