I have been interested in 360-degree cameras for a long time. Earlier this year, we published a paper at SMC comparing the image formats of four different 360-degree cameras (GoPro MAX, Insta360 X3, Garmin VIRB 360, and Ricoh Theta S). Now, we have just presented a follow-up study comparing the spatial audio of the same devices.

While three of them claim to have spatial audio support (GoPro, Insta360, Garmin), this is only partially true. Only the GoPro camera exports Ambisonics files. As the anglegram below shows, this actually enables detection of horizontal (sonic) motion.

Anglegrams for four cameras

Unfortunately, the GoPro lacks a Z channel, which means it cannot be used for vertical sound placement. This is a pity. As far as I know, there are still no commercially available 360-degree cameras that actually capture true spatial audio. Hopefully, that will change in the near future.

Abstract

This paper investigates the spatial audio recording capabilities of various commercially available 360-degree cameras (GoPro MAX, Insta360 X3, Garmin VIRB 360, and Ricoh Theta S). A dedicated ambisonics audio recorder (Zoom H3VR) was used for comparison. Six action sequences were performed around the recording setup, including impulsive and continuous vocal and non-vocal stimuli. The audio streams were extracted from the videos and compared using spectrograms and anglegrams. The anglegrams show adequate localization in ambisonic recordings from the GoPro MAX and Zoom H3VR. All cameras feature undocumented noise reduction and audio enhancement algorithms, use different types of audio compression, and have limited audio export options. This makes it challenging to use the spatial audio data reliably for research purposes.

Reference

  • Riaz, Maham, Jinyue Guo, and Alexander Refsum Jensenius. “Comparing Spatial Audio Recordings from Commercially Available 360-Degree Video Cameras.” ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation, Springer, Cham, 2025, 160–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97254-6_12.