About
I'm an independent acoustics consultant specializing in:
- Signal processing for spatial audio
- Binaural audio using HRTFs
- Ambisonics workflows
- Personalized audio
- Loudspeaker and microphone (array) modeling
- Precision measurements
I work with hardware teams, immersive media companies, and research labs to turn complex acoustic challenges into reproducible, engineering-ready results.
What you get:
- End-to-end acoustic modeling
- Pre-prototype simulation of acoustic designs
- Algorithm design and prototype integration
- Reproducible, version-controlled pipelines
- Documented deliverables your engineers can extend
- Code and data, not just reports
Background:
- Dr.-Ing. in Technical Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University
- Former Senior Research Engineer at Huawei
Developed expertise in acoustic field modeling, electro-acoustics, and signal processing at RWTH Aachen. Transformed this knowledge to advance real-world products, such as earbuds, headphones, wireless loudspeakers, and home entertainment systems from research to working prototypes at Huawei.
If you're developing spatial audio systems, acoustic hardware, or immersive rendering pipelines and need rigorous modeling combined with real-world validation, let's talk.
Services
Spatial Audio System Design
Spatial audio pipelines accumulate small errors — truncated order, HRTF mismatch, arrays not matched to the processing — that together degrade the experience.
End-to-end review and design of spatial audio chains — microphone and loudspeaker array algorithms (beamforming, spatial filtering, directivity control, source separation), Ambisonics encoding and decode, and binaural or loudspeaker reproduction. Higher-order Ambisonics, head-tracked and head-locked binaural, perceptual assessment. Includes HRTF simulation from 3D head geometry, spherical harmonic decomposition and interpolation, near-field HRTF modeling, and personalization workflows.
Acoustic Simulation
Simplified models miss both the diffraction and near-field effects and the electrical-mechanical coupling that together determine real transducer performance.
Full-field boundary element (BEM) simulation on your actual geometry — microphone arrays, loudspeaker baffles, headphone cups, enclosures. 3D directivity, radiation impedance, surface pressure maps, and HRTF simulation. Combined with coupled lumped-element electroacoustic models of loudspeakers and microphones — frequency response, sensitivity, and enclosure performance from electrical drive to far-field output. Once validated, the model lets you explore design variants at a fraction of the cost of building and measuring each one.
Audio Data Pipelines
Simulation, measurement, and processing tools live in separate workflows that are hard to reproduce, audit, or hand off.
Integrated Linux-native pipelines connecting CAD geometry through BEM simulation, electroacoustic modeling, and signal processing — scripted, version-controlled, and documented. Bridges digital signal processing and real-world analog measurements: impulse responses, directivity, near-field and far-field surveys — structured to close the loop between simulation and physical reality. Deliverables your engineers can run and extend. Results you understand, not just data files.
Typical Engagements
Simulation Study
2–5 days
Design validation, pre-build analysis
Measurement Campaign
2–5 days
Prototype characterization, model grounding
Pipeline Development
1–4 weeks
Reproducible simulation or processing workflow
Design Review
1–2 days
Second opinion on acoustic model or spatial audio chain
R&D Collaboration
Ongoing
Research labs, funded projects, co-investigation
Fixed-scope projects available · Remote or on-site (Europe)
Selected Publications
-
M. Pollow —
Directivity Patterns for Room Acoustical Measurements and Simulations
Logos Verlag Berlin (Aachener Beiträge zur Technischen Akustik), 2015. RWTH repository -
M. Pollow, K.-V. Nguyen, O. Warusfel, T. Carpentier, M. Müller-Trapet, M. Vorländer, M. Noisternig —
Calculation of Head-Related Transfer Functions for Arbitrary Field Points Using Spherical Harmonics Decomposition
Acta Acustica united with Acustica, Vol. 98, 2012, pp. 72–82. DOI -
M. Pollow, P. Dietrich, M. Kunkemöller, M. Vorländer —
Synthesis of Room Impulse Responses for Arbitrary Source Directivities Using Spherical Harmonic Decomposition
IEEE WASPAA, New Paltz NY, 2011, pp. 301–304. DOI -
M. Pollow, G. Behler, B. Masiero —
Measuring Directivities of Natural Sound Sources with a Spherical Microphone Array
Proceedings of the Ambisonics Symposium, Graz, 2009, pp. 166–169. PDF -
I. Ben Hagai, M. Pollow, M. Vorländer, B. Rafaely —
Acoustic Centering of Sources Measured by Surrounding Spherical Microphone Arrays
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 130 (4), 2011, pp. 2003–2015. DOI
Full publication list on Google Scholar
Contact
Available for project-based engagements. If you have an acoustic or spatial audio problem and want to discuss whether I can help, get in touch.
References and project examples available on request.