The Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone will go on sale in December, and you can record its spatial audio directly to an iPhone with the Blackmagic Camera app. It uses Apple’s licensed array geometry and encoding filters to turn 108 microphones into 7th order ambisonics in real time.
Blackmagic Design announced the microphone on November 11 as a tool for immersive video production. Apart from the iPhone, the microphone records into a Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera or into a computer running Fairlight Live.
Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty also presented the microphone on an Apple stage, as Sigmund Judge posted on X.
Grant Petty has given so much innovation to the filmmaking community and to see him on an Apple stage is a sight long overdue. Ladies and gentlemen, the BlackMagic Ambisonic Microphone for Apple Spatial Audio capture. $1,695, available in December. https://t.co/IYafj4W1Uj
— Sigmund Judge (@sigjudge) November 11, 2026
Apple Licensed the Array Design
Petty says the microphone started while Blackmagic worked with Apple on the URSA Cine Immersive camera, where he first heard high resolution spatial audio capture. Apple licensed its array geometry and ambisonic encoding filters to Blackmagic, which handled the engineering and design.
Blackmagic built it as a palm-sized array of 108 digital MEMS microphones set flush in a faceted metal body that you can mount on top of a camera. An internal processor running Apple’s encoding filters converts all 108 signals into 7th order ambisonics in real time, so you can capture spatial audio without encoding software or a breakout box.
The microphone outputs 64 channels of 32-bit audio, which is what a 7th order ambisonic signal needs. Apple’s lead immersive audio architect has said that most Apple Vision Pro content is made up of fifth order ambisonics along with audio objects, so this microphone records at a higher order than that.
It Records to iPhone Directly
The microphone connects and draws power over a single USB-C cable, and because it is USB class compliant you install no drivers or plug-ins. You can record directly to an iPhone with the Blackmagic Camera app.
On a Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera, you mount the microphone on top and plug it in, and the spatial audio records into the camera’s immersive files in sync. Those immersive files are made for Apple Immersive Video on Apple Vision Pro.
On a computer, you can record and mix in real time in true 3D audio with Fairlight Live. Blackmagic will also sell a USB to SMPTE-2110 converter for broadcast workflows.
Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone Launches in December
The microphone will be available in December from Blackmagic Design resellers for US$1,695, excluding local duties and taxes. In the United States, Blackmagic lists it at $1,909, which includes duties but not sales tax or shipping.
A $2,405 kit adds a windshield and a locking USB-C cable to the microphone and its mount, and the mount comes with both versions.
