Eigenmike
Common name: mh acoustics Eigenmike
Production Status: In production
The mh acoustics patented em32 Eigenmike® microphone array is composed of many professional quality microphones positioned on the surface of a rigid sphere. The outputs of the individual microphones are combined using digital signal processing to create a set of Eigenbeams (also known as Higher-Order-Ambisonics (HOA) signals). A complete set of Eigenbeams (HOA signals) capture the soundfield up to the spatial order of the beamformer. The Eigenbeams are then combined to steer multiple simultaneous beampatterns that can be focused to specific directions in the acoustic field. The em32 Eigenmike® array is capable of 4-th order HOA output. By the process of eigenbeamforming, the sound-field captured by the em32 Eigenmike® array can be steered and virtually ‘aimed’ in a desired direction using mh’s EigenStudio® application or the EigenUnits® VST plugin. Using mh’s EigenStudio® application or EigenUnits® plugins allows for real-time steering or to record the entire sound field to be recorded or edited and rendered at a later time. Real-time applications include multichannel surround sound recording and playback (MPEG-H), sound field spatial analysis and spatially realistic teleconfercing. Other applications include security and surveillance, sports/news reporting, sound production for music/film/broadcast, gaming and consumer products. Each em32 consists of an 8.4 cm diameter rigid sphere with large professional-grade electret pressure microphones Individual channel programmable gain preamplifiers and 24-bit A/D conversion are done inside the Eigenmike® spherical array. Digital output from the em32 array is via a standard CAT-5 cable that connect to mh acoustics EMIB (Eigenmike® Microphone Interface Box) termination box. mh’s EMIB converts the proprietary multiplexed digitized microphone signals into a Firewire audio stream and appears as a 32 channel audio driver to the PC. Users typocally control the em32 outputs through mh acoustic’s associated EigenStudio® application software available for both Mac and Windows PC’s.