Garmin yesterday unveiled the GMA 350 series digital audio panel for helicopters and fixed-wing applications, with two unique new features for aviation, voice-recognition controls and 3D audio. The new GMA 350 series fits in a box that is pin-compatible with Garmin's GMA 340 series and also audio panels made by other manufacturers. The GMA 350H and 350 are similar, but the helicopter unit includes support for a third com, NVG-compatible green annunciation and new split-com modes.
The new features, said Garmin engineer and test pilot Sean Doyle, “are all about reducing pilot workload and improving safety.” The 3D audio function mimics the way humans process audio, delivering a more natural-sounding result to stereo headphones. Based on research done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 3D audio spatially separates two different audio inputs. With current audio panels, if a pilot is listening to ATC on one radio and ATIS or weather on another, it is difficult to separate the two audio streams. With 3D audio, each channel is separated and piped towards opposite sides of the headphones. During a demonstration of the GMA 350H, I found that 3D audio is much more like hearing multiple conversations and being able to pick out which one I wanted to hear. Switching back to ordinary 2D audio highlighted the differences. And back on 3D audio, I was easily able to pick out which audio stream to focus on and which one to ignore, but they weren't stepping over each other like in 2D audio. “It's kind of subtle,” Doyle said. Garmin has demonstrated 3D audio with three audio streams, he added, “ and that's incredibly impressive because you really can listen to any one of those three conversations.”
