Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone Announced – 7th Order Ambisonics, 108 MEMS Microphones, Single USB-C Cable

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by Nino LeitnerToday

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Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 digital MEMS capsules in a faceted metal sphere. The encoding to 64-channel ambisonics happens inside the microphone, and one USB-C cable carries both audio and power to the URSA Cine Immersive, a computer running Fairlight Live, or an iPhone. It ships in December for $1,695.

So here it is, and it did not come out of nowhere. Blackmagic Design worked with Apple on the URSA Cine Immersive for Apple Immersive Video, and that camera has since been used on productions from a rocket launch to the BBC Proms. The picture side of immersive production has had a dedicated camera for a while. The sound side has mostly relied on separate ambisonic microphones, separate recorders and a lot of post work. The new microphone is Blackmagic’s answer to that gap, and it is built on Apple technology.

Apple’s array, Blackmagic’s hardware

The press release is unusually open about who did what. “Apple licensed their array geometry and the ambisonic encoding filters, we did the engineering and design,” says Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. According to Grant, the idea came when he first heard high resolution spatial audio during the work on the URSA Cine Immersive: “it was like hearing an acoustic reality, I was totally blown away.”

The 108 MEMS microphones sit flush in a solid, faceted body. The product page calls it rugged aluminum, and Blackmagic says the microphone is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and to mount on top of a camera. Blackmagic has not published dimensions or weight yet (Blackmagic, a full tech specs page with dimensions, self-noise and maximum SPL would help a lot here).

Why 7th order is a big step

Most ambisonic microphones that filmmakers know are first order. The Sony ECM-AX10 we covered last month uses four capsules and records four channels of first-order AmbiX, and that is also the usual format of tetrahedral location microphones. A 7th order signal has 64 channels, and the higher order gives a much more precise position for each sound source when the recording is decoded for headphones or a speaker array. The teaser on the Blackmagic website lists “108 microphones, 64 channels, 32-bit audio.”

The important part for me is where the encoding happens. An internal processor runs Apple’s encoding filters and converts the signals from all 108 capsules to 7th order ambisonics in real time. There is no breakout box and no A-format to B-format conversion step in post. The microphone is USB class compliant, so it needs no drivers or plug-ins either.

Three ways to record

Blackmagic names three hosts. On the URSA Cine Immersive, you mount the microphone on top of the camera, plug in the USB-C cable, and the spatial audio records directly into the camera’s immersive files, in sync with the picture. On a computer, Fairlight Live records and mixes the signal in real time, and the company says it supports “live mixing in true 3D audio.” The third option is the Blackmagic Camera app, which records the microphone directly on an iPhone.

There is also a fourth piece of software that the press release does not mention. Blackmagic Ambisonic Recorder for macOS is already available as a beta download on the product page. According to Blackmagic, it records and plays back 7th order ambisonic files and has a power map, level metering, spatial monitoring, orientation settings and metadata. The screenshots show upright, inverted and endfire orientation, fields for camera, reel, shot and take, and files in 64 channels at 48kHz and 24-bit with AmbiX ACN encoding. My guess is that the “32-bit audio” on the teaser refers to the internal processing and not to the recorded files, but that is only a guess until Blackmagic publishes full specifications. A test recording in the same format is available on the product page too, so you can load it into your own spatial audio tools before you order.

Broadcast and live immersive audio

The microphone fits a strategy that Blackmagic showed at NAB this year, with the URSA Cine Immersive 100G for live Apple Immersive Video and Fairlight Live as a free software mixer for formats up to full immersive and ASAF spatial audio. A USB to SMPTE-2110 converter for broadcast workflows is also announced, but Blackmagic gives no price or date for it. For live sports or concerts in Apple Immersive, that converter is probably the missing link between a microphone on a camera and an IP mixing setup.

What we do not know yet

There are open questions. Blackmagic has not published self-noise, maximum SPL, frequency response, dimensions or weight. The microphone does not record on its own, so it always needs a host: a camera, a computer or a phone. Blackmagic Ambisonic Recorder is a macOS beta, and Blackmagic does not mention a Windows version. And the post-production side of 7th order audio is a separate question. The teaser names DaVinci Resolve Studio as the “editor,” but how far the Fairlight page in Resolve handles 64-channel ambisonics is something we want to look at when we have a unit.

The price is the surprise for me. $1,695 for a 7th order array with built-in encoding is far below what I expected for a product made with Apple’s licensed technology. For URSA Cine Immersive owners, it looks like an obvious add-on. For VR producers and sound designers who work with first-order microphones today, it is a serious alternative.

Price and availability

The Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone will be available in December 2026 for $1,695, excluding local duties and taxes, from Blackmagic Design resellers. It includes the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone Mount. In Europe, Blackmagic lists €1,475, and in the UK £1,305, both before VAT. The Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone Kit adds a windshield for location work and a locking USB-C cable. Blackmagic lists the kit for €1,925 or £1,659 before VAT, and for $2,405 on its US website, which includes duties. At the time of writing, B&H and CVP do not list the microphone yet.

Will you record spatial audio for your next immersive project, or does ambisonics stay a niche for VR and sound design? Let me know what you think in the comments below!