This is the first in a series of “Requests For Companies” in the drone space. Meaning: I think these companies should exist, so please build them (or, better, let me know of an existing company that does this!) and email apply@drone.vc!

Most drone videos today sound awful because omnidirectional mics on a GoPro pick up mainly the sound of the motors and rotors, whose pitch changes with thrust and wind. Popular drone videos usually entirely mute any airborne audio channel, using majestic musical overlays instead. This is a terrible loss of signal. 21st century drones should be able to capture usable sound.

I’d like to see a company focus on making drone audio recording dramatically better, using tuned ESC outputs to estimate rotor/motor noise as well as using noise cancellation (subtracting the inputs of four top-of-drone hemispherical mics from four bottom-of-drone mics), small “deadcats” to muffle wind noise, mechanical damping, and phased-array microphones to “focus” audio recording on a given ground subject.

A candidate technology must be able to demonstrate >10dB SNR improvement over existing omni mics at 20m AGL in a steady hover and in calm conditions, ideally producing comprehensible recordings of regular speech at 60dB.

Discussion thread on Hacker News @ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=792699 - you can find out more about drone.vc on our AngelList syndicate page or follow us on Twitter and Facebook!