Testing a Novel Hybrid Spiral Microphone Array designed for Performance and Portability

Abstract

In this investigation a novel hybrid spiral microphone array system is designed and constructed to maximize the overall performance of the array under the constraint that the array must be portable and capable of being transported in a small hatchback vehicle. Several microphone array designs are considered before settling on a modified Fermat spiral with microphones located exclusively on the axes of the array, enabling the array to be quickly disassembled into a small number of sections, transported to a remote location, and then re-assembled. The performance of the new microphone array is tested against an existing microphone array that was also designed for portability but with a more conventional logarithmic spiral design. The resolution of the new hybrid spiral array is found to greatly exceed the resolution of the conventional portable microphone array.