DPA Intros CORE Mics for Onfield Audio

New nano-amplifier technology is driven largely by broadcast audio

Danish manufacturer DPA Microphones used the recent AES Show in New York to introduce its CORE microphone-amplifier technology. The point of CORE is to reduce distortion and increase dynamic range, thereby increasing clarity and intelligibility. Although that’s a desirable goal for the traditional theatrical and general-broadcast applications of DPA’s lavalier microphones, the company is also targeting deeper penetration into broadcast-sports audio with CORE.

DPA Microphones’ Christopher Spahr: “Everyone wants smaller and more durable and better sound. We think CORE is a huge step in that direction.”

“We’ve had good market share in sports broadcast, especially in Europe, where our shotgun and lavalier microphones are used by sports broadcasters like Sky Sports in the UK and TV2 in Denmark,” says Christopher Spahr, VP, sales and marketing, U.S., adding that both ESPN and Fox Sports also use its lavalier and headset mic elements. “But demand for onfield and on-player audio is increasing, and, with it, the need for more clarity in that audio. When you get to the point where you have four, six, or eight players on a field all with open microphones, the combined noise floor can interfere with the clarity of the sound on television.”

That’s what CORE is designed to accomplish, which will be initially available on the company’s miniature mics, such as its d:screet 4061 and d:fine 4066 lavs.

“We’ve always had an amplifier that small; it was just making it better with CORE,” Spahr says. “Part of our heritage comes from the hearing-aid industry, so getting things into a smaller package is what we do best.”

The amplifiers are so small, bordering on nano territory, that, during the press conference introducing them, company President Kalle Hvidt Nielsen used a pair of tweezers to hold one up. The result, however, is outsized, the company asserts, increasing dynamic range by as much as 14 dB at 1% THD.

“With this increased dynamic range, we get an increased workable range — noise floor to max SPL — for the mics and less vulnerability to overloads or clipping,” Spahr explains. “So, for instance, a legacy 4061 lavalier has a current dynamic range of 97 dB, but the CORE version of the 4061 has an increased dynamic range of 111 dB.”

Big Demand for Small Sound
According to Spahr, demand for onfield and on-player audio is steadily increasing, but the migration to digital wireless systems for those applications has put a new premium on sonic quality, because digital platforms do not need companding circuits and thus are innately quieter. “Digital has gotten to the point where it almost sounds like you’re wearing a wire,” he says. That reveals any additional noise the microphone itself can introduce into the signal path.

The CORE technology, he adds, is also better able to withstand high-SPL environments, such as the interior of race cars, handling up to 160 dB without distortion. CORE-fitted microphones will also provide water- and moisture-resistance through nano coatings and hermetic sealing of the electronics, achieving an IP 58 waterproof rating. That will allow them to be used in such applications as outfield grass and the turf on pitch and gridiron.

Pricing has not been announced, but Spahr says the premium over the company’s legacy lavalier products will be minimal, in the single digits in terms of percentage.

The demand for more-intimate sound from the field and from athletes has driven a small but intense scrimmage to develop smaller and better bodypack transmitters by such companies as Quantum 5X and Zaxcom. DPA’s CORE technology seems poised to open a new front on the transducer side.

“Everyone wants smaller and more durable and better sound, and we’re all trying to find ways to do that,” says Spahr. “We think CORE is a huge step in that direction.”