Emerging appointed exclusive distributor for Voyage Audio

26 March 2024

Makers of the innovative Spatial Mic improve representation in UK and Ireland

Voyage Audio, the San Diego-based creators of Spatial Mic have appointed Emerging as their exclusive distributor for UK and Ireland. Spatial Mic is a perfect addition to the company’s growing portfolio of products that support immersive audio workflows.

What is Spatial Mic?

The original Spatial Mic product employed USB/ADAT connectivity and this has been joined more recently by a Dante® version. Both microphones have 8 capsule arrays that support 2^nd Order Ambisonics. The body of the mics contain high-quality A/D conversion using a high-resolution Skyworks clocking scheme and built-in 32-bit XMOS processor.

The soundfield parameters of the mic are controlled by the Spatial Mic Converter plug-in (AAX, Audio Unit and VST3). This plug-in transforms the raw audio signals to a production-ready format. The output can be 1^st or 2^nd order Ambisonics in AmbIX or Fuma, mono or stereo virtual mics, or up to 7.1.4 surround. This is achieved by using a 64-channel filter matrix with measurements from an anechoic chamber.

The Ambisonic output can be sent to a variety of plug-ins for further processing and the surround outputs can be used as sound bed tracks in Dolby Atmos® sessions or routed to the surround bus of choice. The Virtual Mic output allows a remarkable variation of capsule polar patterns, and a Mid-Side stereo output can also be derived with pattern, balance and output adjustments. The surround output can be configured in virtually every format from 5.1 to 7.1.4.

Broadcast, Film, TV and ATMOS

The applications for the Spatial Mic are as diverse as its specifications. It is equally at home in studio, broadcast, field and live concert recordings where the remote control of the capsules and the output are obviously valuable. In broadcast, Spatial Mic Dante has already proven invaluable to deliver up to 5.1.2 ATMOS feeds directly from the mic itself using it’s embedded DSP processor.  Recording spatial sound effects for film, TV and games is now hugely important and again, Spatial Mic is the ideal package that is easily portable and fully capable of delivering whatever configuration is needed for the final production.

The Dante version is particularly well suited to simplifying VR/AR workflows and here the connection via CAT5E cable with PoE (Power over Ethernet) directly to the Dante network is a huge plus. In this scenario, a simplified application, MicNet Control can be run on the same computer to adjust the output settings of any Spatial Mic on the network. The USB/ADAT version can provide simple connectivity to a laptop or mobile device and is perfectly suited to working in conjunction with a 360 camera.

Gaming and VR

Immersive audio is under constant development and as formats evolve, Spatial Mic allows for different decoding of the original recording in the future. With the importance of VR, particularly for gaming, Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) allows the user to move within the environment with the sound changing as it would naturally. Impulse responses can be captured by a network of Spatial Mic Dante microphones and synthesised by the game engine to create a realistic immersive environment.

An Exciting Partnership

Emerging’s MD, Paul Mortimer is excited to be adding this product to the company’s line-up; “We already have an impressive range of products to manage immersive audio for mixing and mastering, and having a product like Spatial Mic that can capture live such an impressive range of immersive formats, completes the picture for us.”

Colin Ritchie and Steve Silva are co-founders of Voyage Audio and have extensive experience in the design of microphones and software for recording and production. Colin remarked; “We were impressed with Emerging’s focus on quality products that support immersive audio production. Clearly, they have the technical expertise and practical experience to properly support the product, so we think this partnership will be hugely successful.”