Challenge
While the availability and performance of 360° cameras are improving, the devices often lack support for capturing sounds that represent the entire space. Instead, the users are often left with mono or stereo output which is inappropriate for immersive experiences.
Capturing spatial audio is traditionally achieved with complicated microphone arrays or expensive ambisonics microphones. Both require the specialized knowledge of a sound engineer for operating and also ensuring that the microphones do not obstruct the camera’s field-of-view. Moreover, most external microphone solutions cannot accommodate the needs of complex recording situations where the camera needs to be placed in tight spaces, or quickly moved from one scene to another.
Until now, these problems have been making spatial audio capturing a time-consuming, error-prone task that is usually left to professionals or audio enthusiasts to carry out.
Benefits
Fraunhofer’s spatial audio microphone processing technology enables anyone capable of operating a camera to enhance video content with spatial audio in a simple and robust way.
Professional Content Creators
Professional content creators can also benefit from Fraunhofer’s audio expertise which helps them capture high-quality, position-accurate 3D audio and a natural ambience that carries the atmosphere of the set. In post-production, the captured audio scenes can be combined with additional sound elements such as voice overs or dynamic objects.
Consumers
Consumers are usually looking for products that are easy to use and can provide high-quality recordings. Fraunhofer’s spatial audio capturing technology integrated in consumer cameras enables exactly that: immersive sound capture to accommodate the video with the push of a button.
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
