Design and implementation of a microphone array system with flexible array geometry

In this paper, a microphone array system capable of real-time capture of distant sound or speech with the help of large aperture microphone arrays will be discussed. The system consists of a platform for the placement of microphones, a multi channel signal processing unit, microphone PCBs, and a control (and user) computer. The platform with the dimensions of 2m × 2m let the placement of any 1D and 2D microphone arrays with maximum number of 3000 microphones. It has the ability of rotation in azimuth and elevation. The system has the hardware and firmware background to form five beams in the directions of five different angles at the same time. The system is tested using a 1D linear array and a 2D randomly placed array and the source separation is achieved using beamforming. The results of this work are also reported in the paper.