HIDDEN TALENT?

Will hidden or integrated speakers always lack a little bit of performance when compared to stand-alone, or are we passed that now? Wayne Hyde, Technical, Sales and Marketing Support at distributor CAVD has a listen.

Well, you’d think it would be lacking, wouldn’t you? After all, most of us have grown up believing that a good loudspeaker is box-shaped and sits on a stand, a shelf or on the floor. And contrary to that, custom installation speakers that fit in a chopped-out hole in the wall or ceiling are a compromise, a stripped-back version of a real loudspeaker.

The thing is, there’s an advantage that speakers installed like this can have over a typical HiFi speaker, and it’s all about the bass, and predictable results! Imagine a traditional speaker with a tweeter and woofer drivers in the front baffle, and both have the same sensitivity rating - i.e. they give you 90dB output, for 1W of power. A phenomenon occurs, whereby the bass signal leaves the box-shaped cabinet of the speaker omnidirectionally, but the mid and high frequencies are more directional and fire towards the speaker. The designer has to build in something called baffle-step compensation into the crossover network, which effectively brings down the mid and high levels in line with the bass or LF levels. This could be as much as 6dB of attenuation.

But how much compensation should be allowed for? The designer can only guess at where the speaker will be placed in a room, and if it’s close to a rear wall, there’ll be more bass anyway, thanks to the boundary effect. If the speaker is brought out further away from the wall, then the perceived bass output will reduce. So, as you can see, its very hard to produce a speaker that will sound good in all living rooms, in various positions. And especially if the customer or installer doesn’t have the time to find the perfect position or is simply unable to because of interior design limitations.

A DIFFERENT OPTION

Now, in steps the custom install speaker, which will be placed in a wall or a ceiling, period. As long as the surface area around the speaker is nice and flat, 1-2m away from corners or dropped-ceiling edges, then this surface is beginning to act like an infinite baffle, the speaker is firing into half space and all bass, mid and highs are heading forward, only towards the listener. If sound is leaving the in-wall speaker from behind, it doesn’t get to interfere with the sound we hear at the front, because there’s a wall surface surrounding the CI speaker.

The speaker performance matches that which was measured and intended by the manufacturer, plus the designer has not had to incorporate baffle step compensation into the crossover network. We get a predictable result with the direct sound from the CI speaker, that’s repeatable as you place more speakers around the property.

CAVD supplies a wide array of advanced loudspeaker systems for CI along with design support services.

THE SPITFIRE SERIES

A powerful, modular range, designed specifically for single or multiple row cinema rooms with a focused audio beam, avoiding unwanted reflection and a more efficient, controlled dispersion.

AUDIO ANALYSIS

Predict performance with our audio analysis service, using heat mapping and in-room frequency curves.

POWERFUL

The Artcoustic Spitfire Series has been created for the most demanding applications, designed specifically to deliver reference SPL within a controlled dispersion pattern for any high performance cinema room. Capable of Dolby Atmos reference of 105db output at up to 12m distance, the Spitfire Series for cinema is incredibly powerful.

SCAL ABLE

Artcoustic’s Spitfire Series is designed to be scalable to any room size. Built on the foundation of the A4 and A6, combinations can be created to suit the specific requirements of any cinema room. Output and dispersion changes depending upon the configuration, allowing the correct design to be installed for one, two, three or even more rows.

DYNAMIC

Artcoustic’s Spitfire Series faithfully reproduces the incredible dynamic range for many movie soundtracks. With sensitivity above 100db, they act fast and play loud, allowing the audience experience every whisper through to every explosion. Our unique combination of industry leading sensitivity (100db – 104db) and SPL (122db – 126db), with controlled vertical dispersion from 27–39 degrees, allows the correct speaker to be installed in any cinema project.