February 2025

Love It Or Hate It, 2025 Is About AI
Wireless mics are a critical market segment too.
Editorial By J. Martins

  There was so much we had planned to talk about in this issue of audioXpress... But as always, there's only a certain number of pages. We will definitely be coming back to the topic of microphones this year, given that a lot is happening in "conventional" and wireless microphones. And likewise, we will need to cover so much of what is happening in artificial intelligence (AI) and microphone integration for audio processing. Just as we are sending this issue to the printers, pre-CES news in this field continues to flow.

In this issue's Market Update, we have discussed developments in the cutting-edge MEMS microphone space that represents a massive amount of business when it comes to capturing sound sources for recording or transmission. But that doesn't mean that the established non-MEMS microphone manufacturers have been sitting still. In 2024, we have seen important new designs and a lot of innovations that challenge established models in use.

At the same time, we are seeing more and more examples of real-time processing circuits driven by machine learning (ML) and AI, as well as trained models applied to DSP in the microphone space (any microphone type). The trend started with smartphones and communication devices that had the pressing need to dramatically improve signals captured under the most difficult conditions. Audio signal processing, including multiband gain compensation, filters, and dynamic compression, can only do so much, but when complemented with AI, are now able to do the unimaginable. And we are seeing this migrating to conference systems, gaming products, reporter gear for professionals, and obviously the thriving content creators space.

Obviously, you need processing power, which still comes at a cost, but the consumer electronics industry is already driving economies of scale, envisaging enormous potential also for health monitoring, hearing augmentation, and more.

As a result, what is already possible to do with consumer devices rivals what used to be only possible with professional audio equipment (used by experienced professionals). And of course, professional microphone manufacturers are not oblivious to this threat and are quickly adopting the most useful technologies directly for their own solutions.

I don't even want to go into the "creative" possibilities that this convergence or AI processing is enabling. Modeling microphone circuits and sound response signatures? That's now possible embedded in affordable hardware that musicians and home studios can explore. Getting the sound of that rare German tube microphone on the vocals? A $5 plug-in can do that.

And speaking of professional results, professional wireless microphones remain a critical market segment, struggling with RF challenges, regulatory constraints, and the scarcity of frequency spectrum. The biggest news in 2024 was the announcement by Sennheiser of the first bidirectional wideband microphone and in-ear monitoring (IEM) solution leveraging Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems (WMAS) technology. For this issue, we had planned an extensive technical overview of the Sennheiser Spectera system and WMAS technology.

Sennheiser, in fact, does a great job of providing an inspiring introduction to what WMAS enables and their roadmap for the technology. We just couldn't find the pages to even digest so much of what is available, and we will need to schedule that for later in 2025, when Sennheiser plans the market introduction for live audio and broadcasting applications.

As compensation, we have included Shure's own perspective of the WMAS technology, which shares an interesting perspective about its future in the industry. Interestingly, what Sennheiser has revealed shows a very unique and ambitious perspective of how WMAS will be available in its future products, while Shure seems determined to bring the benefits of WMAS as an evolutionary approach that can benefit its existing multichannel audio customers. Whatever will happen just shows how this is a decisive technology to ensure the future of professional production and live performance.

And since we are talking about microphone innovation, don't miss the review of the mh acoustics Eigenmike em64 sixth-order ambisonics microphone and software suite that Philipp Paul Klose wrote for this issue. You will understand how exciting and vast the microphones space is.

J. Martins
Editor-in-Chief

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