Sennheiser has become the Official Sound Provider of Formula E, opening a multi-year partnership with the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. The agreement brings Sennheiser’s professional audio solutions and its AMBEO immersive audio technology into Formula E live broadcasts, along with a range of fan experiences.
Sennheiser joins Formula E as Official Sound Provider
The Sennheiser Formula E partnership sets out to develop new ways of capturing and reproducing the sound of electric racing. The agreement makes Sennheiser the Official Sound Provider of Formula E, with technical integration tied both to the championship’s broadcast operations and to selected trackside experiences. In Spain, Magnetron distributes Sennheiser.
One of the aims is to study how advanced audio capture, processing and encoding systems can bring viewers closer to the sound of the cars and the circuit, whatever device they follow the racing on.
Dan Cherowbrier, CTO of Formula E, believes Sennheiser can help the championship redefine its soundscape through professional audio technologies and workflows, with AMBEO in a leading role. “Sennheiser is the perfect partner to help us redefine the audio landscape of our championship,” he says.
Video: Sennheiser in Formula E
Sennheiser presents its new collaboration with Formula E in this video as the championship’s Official Sound Provider.
AMBEO immersive audio in Formula E live broadcasts
AMBEO in Formula E will be one of the main technical threads of the collaboration. Sennheiser’s immersive audio ecosystem handles the capture, processing and reproduction of three-dimensional sound to build a more natural and enveloping listening experience.
Applying Sennheiser AMBEO to Formula E live broadcasts opens the way to new soundscapes recorded both from inside the cars and from different points around the track.
Kai Detlefsen, Manager, AMBEO at Sennheiser, notes that these solutions can help viewers at home feel more closely connected to the racing environment and to their favourite teams. “AMBEO enables the capture, processing and reproduction of natural, three-dimensional sound,” he explains.
Instalia.EU has followed earlier stages of this technology, from the binaural Beethoven recording made with the Sennheiser AMBEO microphone
- Through to the Sennheiser AMBEO VR microphone and Neumann KU 100 binaural head used by Michael Marquart for immersive audio.
- The Sennheiser AMBEO Clarity solutions for professional audio productions are also worth revisiting.
- And the AMBEO 2-Channel Spatial Audio live rendering plug-in.
The Sennheiser Formula E partnership
The Sennheiser Formula E partnership reaches beyond the broadcast. The company’s technology will also be present in the championship’s fan zones and VIP hospitality areas.
Andreas Sennheiser, CEO of the Sennheiser Group, highlights what the collaboration can reveal about the part sound plays in electric racing, and the scope it offers to build an acoustic identity of the sport’s own. For him, the partnership is a chance to “rethink the role sound can play in electric racing”.
Through this Sennheiser collaboration with Formula E, the two organisations will treat the coming seasons as a working environment in which to explore new applications of professional audio and immersive sound at live sporting events.
Who is the Official Sound Provider of Formula E?
Sennheiser is the Official Sound Provider of Formula E, under a multi-year partnership that integrates its professional audio and AMBEO technologies into the championship.
How will Sennheiser AMBEO be used in Formula E?
Sennheiser AMBEO will be used to explore new ways of capturing, processing and reproducing three-dimensional sound in Formula E live broadcasts.
Sennheiser and AMBEO reshape the sound of Formula E
With Sennheiser named Official Sound Provider of Formula E, work begins on AMBEO in Formula E live broadcasts, with the aim of delivering a more immersive listening experience from inside the cars and around the track. The Sennheiser Formula E agreement runs across several seasons, so its results will be measured race by race rather than announced in a single launch.
