Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

GMA350 "3D" intercom (and voice calls over Iridium)

Just seen this.

Different sound sources are routed to different ears, so to speak.

Quite clever.

It does seem a little short of buttons e.g. no way to select DME or ADF for ident

I wonder if PS Engineering are going to do this in their more full featured boxes?

This ones wastes two buttons on "music" inputs - I wonder how many pilots fly with music, especially without asking if their passengers like the same stuff

But then I don't think most aircraft have their headset circuits wired for stereo - there was never any need originally.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

2 years later, has anyone installed one of these “3D sound” intercoms?

GMA350
GMA350H

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

PS engineering has now a product with similar technology, the PMA 450:
http://www.ps-engineering.com/PMA450.shtml

A more generic consideration: I have been recently doing a contract for a company called Auro (http://www.auro-3d.com/consumer/platforms-devices/)
The headphone codec of this company is exactly doing what these intercom are doing, mapping the sound tracks in the 3D space around your head. Rendering the audio tracks in 3D space with this algorithm was producing a WOWW effect for some when other people could not/barely hear the difference with a normal stereo rendering. When using a 9.1 setup with distinct speakers, everybody was able to hear the difference. The form of the ear (internal and external) has a clear influence on the capability of people to distinguish the 3D source of the sound with a headphone.

Potentially the algorithms of Garmin and PS engineering are better tuned to satisfy a larger population, but I would personally like to hear it with my own headset before purchase it.

Belgium

4 years later has anyone installed one of these Garmin “3D sound” intercoms?

PS Engineering also do one – a somewhat abortive pop-up advertisement was posted here.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Yes I have just had a GMA345 installed but have only done one flight (which was picking it up from the Avionics shop) and now I am away on business.

I only had time to play with the Bluetooth phone function which is great. I’ll report on the 3D audio in 10 days when I’m back.

United Kingdom

I’ve had this for a few hundred hours now. It’s good enough that when picking up ATIS on box 2 I can listen to and understand ATC on box 1 without any problem. That’s with Zulus or A20s.

On music: I fly with music, and it’s very nice to share a playlist with the kids (or listen to theirs).

EGTF, LFTF

Tried it for the first time last month. First having considered it a gimmick, it is actually much more useful than I imagined. And no, it is not just feeding different radios to different ears, it is digitally creating a precise sense of which direction the sound is coming from. So COM 1, COM 2 and intercom are coming from different directions. I am told that talk from back seat pax will actually sound as coming from behind. A very real advantage is the ability to read the ATIS on COM2 coming from the right while stille monitoring the busy TWR frequency sounding from the left. On one flight my “copilot” next to me could do that easily while I had a mono headset and was completely unable to distinguish the two and so could not read the ATIS.

huv
EKRK, Denmark

I said I would give some feedback when I’d tried it.

Like the post above, I am very impressed, it is great when listening to the ATIS on COM 2 whilst monitoring COM 1 which is often the same time you are just about to get handed over to another frequency to request entry to Class D Airspace.

Previously I had to mute COM 1 and worry about missing a call from ATC. Now I can clearly hear the ATIS in one ear – it is like listening into a conversation. …..very good.

United Kingdom

I have about 30 hours on this. We installed because we needed the TEL feature, not specifically for the 3D, but I agree that it’s very nice, mainly for the ATIS split.

It goes without saying, of course, that you need stereo headsets as well.

I am not sure that I would invest in a new audio panel just for the feature, but if you have an excuse to change panel, it’s certainly worth going for.

You do need to configure it, though. A long press on something, I forget what. If you don’t, you will be initiatally disappointed.

Also, if you are only listening to one source, it goes back to the middle.

EGKB Biggin Hill

I am lazy here, I know … but what is the TEL feature for?

huv
EKRK, Denmark
14 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top