Especially designed for 360° spatial audio recording, the easy-to-use AMBEO® VR Mic is an ambisonic microphone fitted with four matched KE 14 capsules in a tetrahedral arrangement. This special design allows you to capture the surrounding sound from one single point. As a result you get fully spherical ambisonics sound to match your VR video/spherical 360 content.

The AMBEO VR Mic is meant to work together with specialized high-end software and hardware. Ideal companions for the AMBEO VR Mic are, for example, field recorders like the Zoom F8, digital audio workstations like the Avid Pro Tools HD or the Cockos Reaper and binaural decoders e. g. from Noise Makers. Output is possible via HMD, VR Game Engine or 360° Social Media platforms.

By means of the VR Creators Program Sennheiser made sure to involve the professionals of the industry in the realization of the AMBEO® VR Mic right from the beginning. Thus, we developed a comprehensive product package including many well-conceived accessories that allow for a smooth workflow ¬– not least the A-B encoder software that works as a plugin, which can be seamless embedded in your post-production process.

Ambisonics is a multi-channel technique that lets you spherically capture the sound arriving from all directions, at a single point in space. For playback this representation is rendered binaurally, allowing you to virtually rotate the orientation of the perspective in all directions, horizontally and vertically.
Ambisonics is supported by all of the major post-production and playback tools on the market today. This makes ambisonics the appropriate tool for Virtual Reality and all other applications involving 3D sound. A tool to create new worlds of sound with.

The capsules of the Sennheiser AMBEO VR Mic deliver A-format, a raw 4-channel output that has to be converted into a new set of 4 channels, the Ambisonics B-format. This is done by the specifically designed Sennheiser AMBEO A-B format converter plugin, which is available as free download for VST, AU and AAX format for your 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 being the sum of all 4 capsules, whereas X, Y and Z are three virtual bi-directional microphone patterns representing front/back, left/right and up/down. Thus, any direction from the microphone can be auditioned by the listener during playback of Ambisonics B.

Technical Data

• Dimensions

  215 x 49/25 mm (L x D)

• Frequency response

  20 Hz to 20 kHz

• Max. sound pressure level

  130 dB(A) for 1 kHz

• • Transducer principle

    Pre-polarized condenser microphone

  • Weight

    1.060 kg

  • Microphone connector

    DIN12M, use enclosed adapter cable to convert to 4x XLR3M Polarity: Pin1 (GND), Pin2 (+), Pin3 (-)

  • Pick-up pattern

    4x cardioid, in A-format arrangement (1: front-left-up [FLU], 2: front-right-down [FRD], 3: back-left-down [BLD], 4: back-right-up [BRU])

  • Nominal impedance

    Approx. 200 Ω

  • Min. terminating impedance

    1000 Ω

  • Storage temperature

    -20 °C to 70 °C (-4 °F to 158 °F)

  • Operating temperature

    -10 °C to 55 °C (14 °F to 131 °F)

  • Equivalent noise level

    18 dB-A as per IEC 61672-1 / 27 dB CCIR as per CCIR 468-3

  • Power supply

    4x phantom powering (P48) as per IEC 61938 (48 ± 4 V), 3.5 mA each

  • Sensitivity

    31 mV/Pa (-30 dBV)

  • Operating relative humidity

    Max 90% at 40 °C

  • Matrix reference

    Center of the capsule holder

  • Mixing to B-format

    W = FLU + FRD + BLD + BRU / X = FLU + FRD – BLD – BRU / Y = FLU – FRD + BLD – BRU / Z = FLU – FRD – BLD + BRU