In June, Sennheiser visited Duke’s Technology Engagement Center (TEC) to highlight some of their new offerings from NAB 2018. Sennheiser has a reputation for offering mid- to high-end audio equipment primarily found in larger event spaces, house of worship, and areas where acoustical accuracy is key. With the imminent closure of the 600MHz spectrum, many organizations are searching for a good replacement microphone. With Sennheiser announcing their G4 series of microphone systems at NAB 2018, there are plenty of new options to consider. The G4 series offers three primary tiers, each tier has the same quality of audio. But, as you go from tier to tier, you start adding features to the devices (better materials, more advanced signaling, receivers, etc.). During the conversation, a comparison was made between an alternative brand of microphones and Sennheiser’s offerings with one person mentioning, “But your mic is $200 more?” Sennheiser was quick to acknowledge that the competitors’ price was, in fact, cheaper, but that it didn’t have a number of features included with their offering and that it’s difficult to make a 1:1 comparison with many of these new microphone systems.
Also of note, Sennheiser passed around their Sennheiser AMBEO VR 3D Microphone, ideally suited for augmented reality and virtual reality recording. while this is a new frontier (3D audio capture) there are a number of applications where this device could be deployed. The initial thought was in a 360 lecture capture scenario. We’re a ways away from this type of recording, but it’s on the near horizon.
After the session, Sennheiser visited a location on Duke’s campus to spec out eight of their new mics, and we hope to report on the success of that install in the near future.
