This report shall serve as an introductory background to SotonArray, the microphone array system at the University of Southampton. It covers the practical aspects only; namely the instrumentation setup and the beamforming software. It aims to give a basic level of understanding of the system to the researcher who wants to use it, and especially to highlight both the capabilities and limitations of the system. Since the microphone array system is a new capability for the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics research group (AFM), the hardware and software is constantly being upgraded, and the details given here are correct only at the time of going to print
