A speaker device comprises a curved support member having a U shape, housings provided on both sides of the curved support member, and speaker units attached to the front surfaces of the housings, wherein the curved support member is hollow such that the insides of the housings on both sides are in communication with each other, and include drone cones at its ends, and the drone cones are configured to vibrate by receiving on the back surface side a sound wave output from the back surface side of the speaker units, and output a sound from the front surface side.

A sound system for use with a non-acoustically transparent video screen (1) is disclosed, comprising at least one loudspeaker enclosure (10) comprising a loudspeaker (15) arranged so that the main direction of propagation of the sound (33) which it emits is directed towards said screen, the sound being reflected by the surface of the screen towards an audience (2). The enclosure (10) further comprises a second sound emitter (16/20) situated at the rear of said loudspeaker (15), whereby the loudspeaker enclosure has a directivity of the cardioid type. The second sound emitter may, for example, comprise an opening, combined with a defined quantity of acoustically absorbent material (17) arranged inside the enclosure (10) between the rear of the loudspeaker (15) and the opening (16); alternatively, it may comprise at least one second loudspeaker (20) situated so as to be substantially directed towards the audience (2), said second loudspeaker (20) being connected with a reversed polarity with respect to the principal loudspeaker (15).

A method and system for communicating audio, video, and/or control signals within a home entertainment system. A plurality of audio channels is communicated between a wireless transmitter and a wireless receiver. The wireless transmitter is located proximate to a speaker housing. In some embodiments the speaker housing also encloses a center channel loudspeaker. The center channel loudspeaker transmits an audio signal to a remote loudspeaker. An exemplary remote loudspeaker is a subwoofer loudspeaker. The subwoofer loudspeaker provides one or more received audio channels to one or more surround loudspeakers.

Embodiments of systems and methods are described for estimating a position of a loudspeaker and notifying a listener if an abnormal condition is detected, such as an incorrect loudspeaker orientation or an obstruction in a path between the loudspeaker and a microphone array. For example, a front component of a multi-channel surround sound system may include the microphone array and a position estimation engine. The position estimation engine may estimate the distance between the loudspeaker and the microphone array. In addition, the position estimation engine may estimate an angle of the loudspeaker using a first technique. The position estimation engine may also estimate an angle of the loudspeaker using a second technique. The two angles can be processed to determine whether the abnormal condition exists. If the abnormal condition exists, a listener can be notified and be provided with suggestions for resolving the issue in a graphical user interface.

The present subject matter provides a technical solution to the technical problems facing sound localization by separating sounds and reproducing the separated sounds using a set of loudspeakers and a set of headphones. A general soundtrack that is meant to be experienced throughout the room would play through the loudspeakers, and specific sounds that are meant to be experienced near the listener would be played through a binaural representation in the headphones. The headphones may be selected to avoid occluding the ear, allowing sound produced at the loudspeakers to be heard clearly. This separation and reproduction of sounds using a combination of a loudspeaker and headphone provides a technical solution to the technical problem facing typical surround sound systems by localizing sounds for listeners in any location within a room. This improves reproduction accuracy of location-specific audio objects, including audio objects above or below a coplanar speaker configuration.

An audio processor configured for generating, for each of a set of one or more loudspeakers, a set of one or more parameters, which determine a derivation of a loudspeaker signal to be reproduced by the respective loudspeaker from an audio signal, based on a listener position and loudspeaker position of the set of one or more loudspeakers. The audio processor is configured to base the generation of the set of one or more parameters for the set of one or more loudspeakers on a loudspeaker characteristic of at least one of the set of one or more loudspeakers.

A networked speaker system automatically moves a speaker in one or more of the horizontal planes, the vertical plane, and elevation (z-dimension) to maintain the axis of the sound cone directed toward a listener as a listener moves about a space. In addition, or alternatively, the speaker can be moved to optimize sound performance when multiple speakers are activated.

A loudspeaker placement visualizer system includes a calibrated adjustable laser beam tool that can generate a beam cone angle corresponding to the predetermined sound dispersion angle of a loudspeaker. The tool is secured parallel to the central axis of the loudspeaker and adjusted to the predetermined sound dispersion angle to show what the acoustic coverage area of the loudspeaker will be in a particular venue. The laser beam projector has a cylindrical main body with an external reference indicator and a forward section that is rotatable relative to the main body to adjust the laser beam cone angle. The forward section has a calibrated scale proximate the reference indicator to enable the user to set and to see the beam cone angle. The tool may also be used during venue survey and acoustic design to determine the required sound dispersion angle of a loudspeaker to be installed.

Described herein are modular speaker systems including a plurality of wireless speaker modules configured to output sound in a first arrangement and in a second arrangement, in which the first arrangement is different from the second arrangement. In the first arrangement, at least one speaker module can be in physical contact with at least one other speaker module. In the second arrangement, the at least one speaker module can be physically separated from the at least one other speaker module. The plurality of wireless speaker modules may be arranged in any orientation with respect to one another.

An audio system is provided that efficiently detects speaker arrays and configures the speaker arrays to output sound. In this system, a computing device may record the addresses and/or types of speaker arrays on a shared network while a camera captures video of a listening area, including the speaker arrays. The captured video may be analyzed to determine the location of the speaker arrays, one or more users, and/or the audio source in the listening area. While capturing the video, the speaker arrays may be driven to sequentially emit a series of test sounds into the listening area and a user may be prompted to select which speaker arrays in the captured video emitted each of the test sounds. Based on these inputs from the user, the computing device may determine an association between the speaker arrays on the shared network and the speaker arrays in the captured video.