ASCENDO Immersive Audio GmbH will debut its DIRECTOR LED Wall Loudspeaker System at CEDIA Expo, September 5–7, at the Colorado Convention Center in ASCENDO Sound Room 3.
The European manufacturer points out that LED video walls, increasingly popular in residential media systems, pose audio challenges because speakers can’t be placed directly behind the acoustically transparent screen as in many home theater setups. ASCENDO’s DIRECTOR is a patent-pending solution that are designed to offer high levels of performance from a flush-mount, in-ceiling speaker used as part of a larger ASCENDO immersive audio system.
“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, co-managing partner, ASCENDO. “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 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, but the company points out that line source speakers require audience members to sit in select seats for optimal sound. Other speakers, ASCENDO continues, 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 the German company asserts.
The company emphasizes that it designed, developed, and tested 3D-printed special waveguides for the DIRECTOR LED Wall Speaker System’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 its sound pressure levels (SPL) are capable of exceeding 130dB.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
ASCENDO states that in rooms with high ceilings where steep listening angles exist, it uses psychoacoustics through a time-aligned, equalized, and level-matched balancing speaker positioned below the LED wall to lower the perceived phantom sound source.
“ASCENDO continues to innovate with application-specific solutions for challenges like this one,” says Todd Sutherland, owner of Sutherland AV Marketing, distributor for ASCENDO in the United States and Canada. “The DIRECTOR is unlike anything available, giving the audience a realistic and exciting LED wall audio experience from an in-ceiling system that lives up to ASCENDO’s reputation for sublime sound.”
ASCENDO adds that CEDIA Expo 2024 attendees are invited to experience The DIRECTOR in ASCENDO’s Sound Room 3, in combination with StormAudio’s ISP Evo20 processor for audio. For video, Seymour-Screen Excellence’s Ambient Visionaire Black screen and Christie M 4K15 Pure Laser projector and madVR’s Envy Mk2 video processor will deliver state-of-the-art images. Other demo partners include German-made moovia bespoke seating, which will show its LYON media sofa inspired by the French countryside. Kaleidescape will also hold hourly demonstration comparisons between video streaming and its video and audio performance for source material.
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