ASCENDO Immersive Audio GmbH will debut its DIRECTOR LED Wall Loudspeaker System at the CEDIA Expo in Sound Room 3. LED walls, increasingly popular in residential media systems, pose audio challenges because speakers can’t be placed directly behind the screen. ASCENDO’s DIRECTOR is a patent-pending solution that offers audio from a flush-mount, in-ceiling speaker used as part of a larger ASCENDO immersive audio system.
The DIRECTOR was developed based on ASCENDO’s research that found engineering shortcomings in competing LED wall speaker systems. Some use a mix of line and point source speakers, yet line source speakers require audience members to sit in select seats for optimal sound. Others reflect frequencies off the wall itself, introducing timing and phase issues. LED wall audio systems that deploy smaller speakers suffer from poor performance and inadequate sound pressure levels.
ASCENDO’s DIRECTOR direct-radiating point source speaker tackles engineering hurdles to provide consistent and powerful sound to every seat. Its flush-mount in-ceiling design integrates invisibly for more elegant home theater and media room designs that keep the focus on the LED wall or non-acoustically transparent video screen.
“Our design approach, as always, is using a point source. In this case, we are using an asymmetrical, controlled-dispersion pattern waveguide to achieve our goals,” says Geoffrey Heinzel, ASCENDO co-managing partner. “Only point source speakers can deliver the desired seat-to-seat performance consistency in multi-seat home theater environments, and only a direct-radiating system is capable of the highest-performance results.”
The company designed, developed, and tested 3D-printed special waveguides for the DIRECTOR’s tweeter and woofer to find the best coupling between them without significant lobing or cancellations. The speaker’s AMT-driven waveguide has asymmetrical horizontal and vertical sound dispersion and HF dispersion lens. Its performance is scalable and can exceed 130 dB SPL.
In rooms with high ceilings where steep listening angles exist, ASCENDO uses psychoacoustics through a time-aligned, equalized, and level-matched balancing speaker positioned below the LED wall to lower the perceived phantom sound source.
CEDIA Expo attendees are invited to experience The DIRECTOR in Sound Room 3, in combination with StormAudio’s ISP Evo20 processor for audio. For video, Seymour-Screen Excellence’s Ambient Visionaire Black screen is brought to life by the Christie M 4K15 Pure Laser projector and madVR’s Envy Mk2 video processor. Other demo partners include German-made moovia bespoke seating, which will show its one-of-a-kind LYON media sofa inspired by the French countryside. Kaleidescape will hold hourly demonstration comparisons between video streaming and their video and audio performance for source material.
For more information, visit www.aia-cinema.com.
