DPA 5100 Mobile Surround Microphone

Plug-and-play solution
Lightweight and portable
Rich, smooth and fully enveloping sound
Discrete 5.1 analog output – no processing needed

The DPA 5100 is an exciting new mobile surround microphone whose compact size and ease of use come at no sacrifice to its stunning sound quality. It can be regarded as a surround ambience adder, ideal for bringing truly engaging surround ambience to sport events, documentaries and other ambience applications for especially HDTV production. No external signal processing is required. The versatile 5100 can be mounted on a camera or microphone stand, suspended, or simply handheld via a hand grip. Extremely lightweight and portable, the unit sports a surprisingly robust build quality that is also highly resilient to inclement weather conditions.

A completely self-contained “plug and play” solution for 5.1 audio capture, the 5100 employs five miniature pressure transducers that exhibit extremely low sensitivity to wind and mechanical noise, low distortion, highly consistent low frequency response and large dynamic range. Appropriate channel separation and directionality are achieved through a combination of DPA’s proprietary DiPMic™ (Directional Pressure Microphone) technology, which mounts interference tubes on the L/C/R omni capsules, and the use of acoustic baffles that further preserve the accuracy of levels between the discreet analog output channels.

The 5100’s three front microphones are time coincident to eliminate comb filtering and ensure paramount frequency consistency when downmixing to stereo or mono. In contrast, the rear microphones, which feature standard omnidirectional patterns, are optimally spaced from both each other and the front array to simulate the most natural time arrival differences. The LFE (.1) channel is comprised from a L/R sum, which is then attenuated 10 dB in comparison with the signal from the main channels, in accordance with the 5.1 format.

The end result of DPA’s innovative design approach is a surround atmosphere that is rich, smooth and fully enveloping, great in its coherence, channel separation and localization accuracy.

The 5.1 output of the 5100 runs through a multi-pin Lemo connector carrying all six channels electronically balanced, while an enclosed five-meter (16 ft), six-pair Mogami cable breaks out to six Neutrik XLR-M connectors.