Identifying noise sources in the workplace is essential to ensure workers’ health and safety. This often relies on advanced acoustic sensing systems. Among these, spherical microphone arrays (SMAs) are widely used due to their capability to localize sound sources across a full three-dimensional space. Commercial SMAs typically employ rigid shells combined with spherical harmonic beamforming, while open SMAs utilize conventional beamforming. Only a limited number have been explored in the literature. Although both commercial and custom-made SMAs are frequently employed in the development of source localization algorithms, the design criteria–such as the choice between an open versus a rigid shell, the number of microphones, the array diameter and the positioning of microphones–remain largely under-investigated. In this study, we address this gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis of over 300,000 SMA configurations to evaluate performance in terms of mainlobe width and mainlobe-to-sidelobe ratio. The methodology involves ranking simulated SMA configurations over a broad range of operational frequencies, enabling us to identify key performance trade-offs and critical design parameters. The results offer practical guidelines for designing and selecting SMA configurations that optimize beamforming performance based on specific application requirements, such as the number of microphones, the frequency range, and the chosen beamforming algorithm. The comprehensive codebase, made available together with the analysis reported here, can serve as a benchmark for future studies, promoting more informed decisions in the design and implementation of advanced SMAs.
Rouard et al. (2026) studied this question.