Sennheiser’s Esfera wins IABM Design and Innovation Award

Sennheiser’s Esfera surround microphone system has been recognised with an IABM Design and Innovation Award. At the awards ceremony held on 13 September during the IBC in Amsterdam, the audio specialist received the award within the Audio category.

“We feel extremely honoured that the IABM’s independent panel of experts has selected Esfera for the Audio award,” said Claus Menke, head of portfolio management pro for Sennheiser’s Professional Division. “Immersive audio is one of our focus areas, an area which truly creates a difference for the viewers’ TV experience. Esfera makes the lives of broadcast professionals a lot easier. The system enables them to efficiently capture authentic ambience using just two audio channels, and to convert this audio information to 5.1 at any point in the workflow, whether live or in post-production.”

The Esfera system consists of the SPM 8000 two-channel microphone unit and the SPB 8000 processing unit. The microphone unit features the typical advantages of RF condenser microphones: natural and detailed sound, transparency, ruggedness and high resistance to adverse climatic conditions. The processing unit uses an algorithm perfectly matched to the microphones to generate a 5.1 surround signal with sampling rates of up to 96 kHz. An integrated compressor ensures a broadcast-friendly signal. For ease of operation, the processing unit uses four directly selectable presets. These can be modified via an Ethernet interface to adapt to local conditions, including the settings for the gain of the individual channels, front and surround focus, surround delay, rotation, filters and cut-off frequencies, compressor, make up gain, output gain, limiter and windshield compensation.