Dotterel Technologies co-founder and CEO Shaun Edlin. Photo / Supplied
Dotterel Technologies co-founder and CEO Shaun Edlin. Photo / Supplied
Could a revolutionary new shotgun mic developed by an Auckland startup have helped to defuse the anti-mandate protest at Parliament before things got violent?
Dotterel Technologies' co-founder and CEO Shaun Edlin says his company's new "Konos", which it hopes to deliver this year after a $3 million funding roundsupported by Peter Beck and others - would help in that sort of situation.
"The sooner you can start dialogue, the more likely you are to de-escalate a situation," Edlin says.
But it has to be done safely, which often means talking to protesters from afar.
"You can overcome the stand-off distance by shouting through a megaphone, but that can be hostile by nature."
Sending in a drone might seem a little Terminator to some, but Edlin says it would allow for more conversational speech. And it would not have to be a drone. It could be a ground robot.
The Konos builds on Dotterel's existing product, which came out of noise-dampening technology it developed for drones on Hollywood film sets (see clip above).
It uses 80 microphones to cleaning capture sound from a remote subject, filtering out background noise. It can also be used for two-way conversations.
Film studios in the US and UK are trialling pre-production versions, but Edlin also sees applications in law enforcement and search-and-rescue.
Dotterel is also working on a version for high-noise factories, where it will pick up voice commands as an "Alexa for industry".
Shotgun or directional microphones are nothing new. But Edlin says the Konos, via hardware and software, lets you adjust the cone, or area from which it captures audio.
Sound engineers usually carry a bagful of different mics, whereas the Konos will be one-size-fits all.
And he says that having developed technology to filter out noise from industrial-strength drones - "one of the loudest things you can place a mic on; they're like a flying lawn mower" - Dotterel captures crisp audio in extreme situations.
He sees security as a potentially big market. He says there are roughly a billion security cameras in the world. Only about 10 per cent have audio capability - and then they're usually bad at capturing audio that's far away, such as the end of dark alley. And the bad stuff usually happens far away.
LanzaTech co-founder and chief science officer Sean Simpson is an investor in Dotterel - founded by four ex-LanzaTech staff - and chairs its board. Photo / Supplied
The $3m funding round was led by Icehouse Ventures with support from Beck, LanzaTech co-founder Sean Simpson, Sir Stephen Tindall's K1W1 and NZVC - a new fund created by Ukrainian-in-Queenstown Mark Pavlyukovskyy.
The new money will be used for product development and bringing on more bodies.
Dotterel has recently shifted premises from a lab in Parnell to a new manufacturing warehouse in Penrose, where its team of 13 is anticipated to grow to 20 by year's end, its CEO says.
Edlin sees the entertainment market alone as a $1 billion addressable market.
"Sound capture technology hasn't fundamentally changed in decades. Cameras have seen a huge amount of innovation, but they're surrounded by fixed-pattern microphones that have been around since the 1970s."
"It is exciting to see this breakthrough development pioneered in New Zealand," says Peter Beck.
"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."
Icehouse Ventures CEO Robbie Paul says, "The strength of the Dotterel team, born from New Zealand's first 'deep tech' unicorn LanzaTech, combined with their vision to improve and save lives puts the company on track to be New Zealand's next major exporter of ground-breaking technology.
The Konos can be used to capture clean audio from a remote subject with a noisy background, or for two-way conversations. Photo / Supplied
While LanzaTech is no doubt a unicorn - a privately held company that's shot to a US$1 billion or higher valuation - it's no longer so Kiwi. It's now registered in the US, with most of its staff now based in Illinois. A Nasdaq listing is in the works at a US$2.2b valuation.
But Dotterel forms part of Exhibit A for successful Kiwi techs recycling money into the local ecosystem even as they move offshore. LanzaTech founder Simpson is now based in the US as the biofuel company's chief science officer, but Edlin says as well as financial support he also offers a lot of mentorship.
Photo / Supplied
Dotterel features no less than four ex-LanazTech staff on its leadership team. Ex-LanzaTech staff also feature in two other startups - Avertana (harvesting minerals from steel slag) and Mint Innovation (extracting copper and gold from old phones and laptops) - which are involved in environmental tech, and both also bankrolled by LanzaTech investors.
Beck has followed a similar path to Simpson and his peers. The Rocket Lab founder has put money into a number of fast-growing, local startups, including HeartLab, Halter and Partly.
"They're fantastic companies using deep technology to provide answers to real-world problems," Edlin says.
