Sound Devices Announces new VR Partnership with Sennheiser

MixPre-6/MixPre-10T portable recorders and Sennheiser AMBEO VR Mic help VR professionals record and monitor high-quality 360 spatial audio for video.

REEDSBURG, WIS., APRIL 9, 2018 — Sound Devices announces an exciting new collaboration with Sennheiser to offer the full spatial audio experience for virtual reality (VR) video within Sennheiser’s AMBEO for VR partnership program. With the Sound Devices MixPre-6 & MixPre-10T portable recorders and Sennheiser’s AMBEO VR Mic, VR professionals can record and monitor premium 360° spatial audio for VR video.

As an exclusive new feature to the VR partnership program, the MixPre-6 and MixPre-10T will be the first portable recorders to offer onboard AMBEO to binaural decoding. This allows VR creators to assess and make creative decisions about spatial audio content at time of capture, without needing a post-production workstation.

“Sound Devices recorders have been used for Ambisonics field recording for many years, so it was a natural progression for us to bring our MixPre recorders into the new world of VR 360 recording,” said Matt Anderson, CEO of Sound Devices. “We are happy to partner with Sennheiser to provide a high-quality VR recording and monitoring option for our MixPre-6 and MixPre-10T customers.”

“Sennheiser is excited to have Sound Devices come on board the partnership program,” commented Véronique Larcher, AMBEO Immersive Audio co-director at Sennheiser. “Offering VR content creators the unique and exciting possibility to directly monitor their spatial recordings exemplifies the spirit of the program: making immersive audio workflows as simple and straightforward as possible for users.”

Sound Devices will be releasing a free firmware update for the MixPre-6 and MixPre-10T—anticipated spring 2018—that offers:

  • Record AMBEO VR mic in Ambisonics A-format or B-format with support for any mic orientation (Up, Down, Endfire)
  • Stereo or Binaural headphone monitoring of AMBEO VR mic
  • Support for both AmbiX and FuMa B-format standards

The groundbreaking MixPre-6 and MixPre-10T are lightweight, high-resolution audio recorders with integrated USB audio streaming that offer world-class sound quality combined with extreme durability.