Vol.2
RICOH THETA Developer Interview
360°Spatial Audio,
3D Microphone TA-1

It uses a microphone unit from Audio Technica Corporation, a company that has the technology and expertise in commercial microphones and headphones. Although a concept from Audio Technica Corporation, the microphone’s biggest feature is its ability to record a softer, more natural sound, like the sound actually heard by human ears.
Furthermore, high precision matching is performed on the sensitivity of the equipped 4 unidirectional microphones when they are produced in Japan. The reason that matching is performed is to prevent sound deviations from occurring such as an increase in sound from a specific direction when processing it within THETA. Sound from the actual location is reproduced while maintaining stable audio characteristics. Since the directional characteristics of each microphone element from Audio Technica Corporation is stable, when the sound is captured in THETA, you can feel the directivity even smoother.

3D Microphone TA-1

The equipped unidirectional microphone element has a large aperture of diameter 10 mm. The element is large compared to the built-in microphone so it has the feature of being good with very loud sound and it is difficult for sound to break up. It picks up bass sounds and records more natural sound compared to the built-in microphone, and this enables you to feel the sound more realistic.
The 3D microphone being accidentally captured in the image is also kept to a minimum. After going to all the trouble of shooting good sound and video, having the microphone appear unexpectedly in the 360º video would greatly affect the image. At first we planned to place the microphone on top of the camera.

We have covered the microphone element in a metallic mesh for the purpose of protecting the element and preventing wind sound when using it outdoors. We have also prepared a dedicated wind screen as an accessory.
We have adopted a signal processing to reduce wind noise as much as possible for the built-in microphone. However, it is more effective to physically cover it with a wind screen to prevent wind noise. When you quickly want to use the camera outside, quickly recording with a single touch of a button is best with the camera alone.
The bottom of the TA-1 has a tripod hole so when you are deliberately aiming to record high quality sound, you should make use of this. There is also a guide for connecting a USB cable to the camera. It is now possible to shoot while supplying power through the USB even with the TA-1 connected.