Dotterel Secures $3M Product Expansion Funds for Konos Microphone’s Optimized Sound Technology

The ground-breaking Konos Microphone, which is known for its optimum sound filtering technology, secured $3 million for its product expansion as confirmed by Dotterel Technologies in a recent announcement.

The high-end digital microphones were considered to be outstanding in terms of clarity, polar pattern at long distances, and frequency response in a crowded and noisy environment. The investment was led by companies and private sectors such as Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures, RocketLab founder Peter Beck, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, US-backed NZVC, Dotterel’s Chairperson, and Sean Simpson’s carbon capture business Lanzatech.

The Konos Microphone expansion plan includes safety and industrial manufacturing ventures. This involves the installation of the said product on emergency vehicles, private places with CCTVs, factories, government agencies, and even inside houses. The goal is to improve security, workforce management, and communication among members of each institution.

A pre-trial of this action was already made when early versions of the 23-cm Konos were used in the United States and the United Kingdom studios. They tested out its ability to record audio under loud conditions. The sound engineers of Konos exposed the mic to different creative and production settings, such as filming, recording, and live performance. Hence, the 80-element microphone array of Konos was fully displayed.

Icehouse Ventures CEO Robbie Paul said, “The strength of the Dotterel team, which was born from New Zealand’s first ‘deep tech’ unicorn Lanzatech, together with their mission to improve and save lives puts the company on pace to be New Zealand’s next significant exporter of ground-breaking technology.”

Dotterel also relocated one of its pioneer laboratories to a new manufacturing warehouse in Penrose. It is led by a research and development team that is comprised of 13 persons, with a growth expectation of 20 people by the end of the year.

Shaun Edlin, the co-founder, and CEO of Dotterel said in an interview that they aspire to improve and open the world to a new way of capturing sound and communicating with other people.

“Dotterel is transforming the way we listen and talk to machines and people. We can capture mission-critical audio clearly and from a safe distance, mounting Konos onto police cars, drones, and other machinery, which can boost public safety and ultimately save lives,” says Shaun.

He also claimed that the innovative audio capture technology of Konos is a decade worth of research until his whole team reached a breakthrough. He hopes that with the investment funds, they can finally resolve the lag behind the mic’s visual sensor technology.

The Konos Microphone also has a two-way communication feature with the use of Amazon Alexa. This voice automation is between the operator and the mic’s position. In addition, it has many potential applications in a variety of industries, which appealed to the abovementioned investors. Konos claimed that they were able to estimate a prospect of $1 billion in the entertainment industry, more than $500 million in industrial applications.

“It is exciting to see this breakthrough development pioneered in New Zealand and I am delighted to be an investor,” says Peter Beck. “Dotterel has developed a highly differentiated product, filling an unmet need for small, portable, high-fidelity microphones in the many industries constrained by sound recording challenges.”

The Konos Microphone is available as pre-production units in the market, with a general plan for release later this year.