ON DIRECTIVITY OF A CIRCULAR ARRAY WITH DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONES

Circular microphone arrays have a broad range of applications in teleconferencing and hands-free telecommunication systems. Directional microphones are extensively used to construct the circular arrays to obtain superior sound quality. However, the 360-degree coverage ability of this type of circular arrays is seldom investigated. In this paper, we develop a circular array with the use of four first-order supercardioid microphones to obtain 360-degree coverage of sound recording in teleconferencing environments. Through analyzing the directional response of this array, we derive an optimal range of the array radius for uniform 360-degree coverage of sound capturing. Experiments are carried out in an anechoic chamber to test the performance of the developed microphone array.