World largest Microphone phased array

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Clik here to view.© Foto (inserts): (c) Sorama (c) ASTRON

Last Friday, 22th of August, Dutch company Sorama sets a record when combining four of their 1024 microphone arrays to one large 4096 elements array. The previous record of 1020 microphones from Massachusetts Institute of Technology was over classed by merely a factor of four! The new record will be listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Sorama is using coherent sampling and beamforming technologies to virtually create a sound camera. By using a large number of MEMS based microphones, they are able to create images with resolutions high enough to localize (pinpoint) and identify sources of audible noise. Visualizing sound waves around and vibrations on a product helps to understand and improve the dynamic behaviour of a product (e.g. localize and reduce sound vibrations in consumer electronics, resulting in quieter products). Another application example is to monitor vibrations of engines and to analyse the results of damping measures to reduce the environmental noise generated from these machines.

Just like ASTRON applies GPU cores in its new COBALT beamforming/correlator system, Sorama also recognizes the power of GPUs when implementation their acoustic algorithms for beam forming and near-field acoustic holography.

During the Hannover Messe where both Sorama and ASTRON joined the Dutch High Tech pavilion, early discussions started on the feasibility on creating more spatially distributed microphone arrays. Although the sampling rate of microphone arrays differs significantly from sampling rates as used in radio telescopes like LOFAR , there is reason enough to believe that we could exchange know-how on clock distribution and coherent sampling and beamforming technologies.

Congrats to Sorama for its world record!