A soundbar speaker for transmitting reflected sound waves off an upper surface down to a listening environment, comprising: a cabinet containing a plurality of audio drivers, direct-firing drivers within the cabinet oriented to transmit sound along a horizontal axis substantially perpendicular to a front surface of the cabinet, and a pair of upward-firing slotted drivers placed proximate to ends of an top surface of the cabinet and oriented at an inclination angle relative to the horizontal axis. The slotted drivers are configured to create an overlapping reflected sound projection for high frequency sound when reflected down to a listening position located at a distance in front of the speaker pair. Such a speaker projects reflected sound that provides wider horizontal or side-to-side dispersion to better cover the listening area.

A speaker assembly broadly comprising a housing, an input circuit, and a number of speakers. The housing includes a lower section configured to be positioned at least partially below a ground surface and an upper section extending upwards from the lower section. The input circuit receives audio signals from a sound system or other controller and actively or passively sends the audio signals to the speakers. The speakers include a low-range speaker positioned in the lower section of the housing and a relatively higher-range speaker positioned in the upper section. The speaker assembly is configured to be spaced from other speaker assemblies within a listening area with each speaker assembly generating low frequency soundwaves and relatively higher-frequency soundwaves. This reduces or eliminates out-of-phase crossover frequency wave cancellation effects within the listening area.

Aspects of a multi-orientation playback device including at least one microphone array are discussed. A method may include determining an orientation of the playback device which includes at least one microphone array and determining at least one microphone training response for the playback device from a plurality of microphone training responses based on the orientation of the playback device. The at least one microphone array can detect a sound input, and the location information of a source of the sound input can be determined based on the at least one microphone training response and the detected sound input. Based on the location information of the source, the directional focus of the at least one microphone array can be adjusted, and the sound input can be captured based on the adjusted directional focus.

Methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamically reproducing audio content at an optimal level using a plurality of heterogeneous speaker devices are disclosed herein. The method comprises operations including: comparing the first performance information associated with a first speaker device to second performance information associated with a second speaker device, determining which of the speaker devices is a preferred output device based at least in part on the comparison, and reproducing filtered audio signals via the preferred output devices in response to a request to playback audio content.

A system is provided herein that includes a hub and one or more speakers in communication with the hub and configured to transmit one or more filter parameters to the hub. The hub is configured to filter audio that is output to each respective speaker using the one or more filter parameters. A speaker selector module is configured to allow a user to select a slot based on a position of each respective speaker. The hub is operable to transmit audio signals to each of the one or more speakers as a function of the slot setting.

Apparatus and associated methods relate to a wireless receiver module, and a plurality of transmitter modules, the receiver module configured to convert a wireless protocol signal to an audio baseband signal, each transmitter module operable to receive the audio baseband signal, and adapted to convert the audio baseband signal to a unique wireless protocol signal for transmission over an independent communication channel to a respective wireless audio output device. In an illustrative example, a wireless repeater hub (WRH) may pair a master transceiver (within the WRH) with a master audio source. The master transceiver may demodulate the audio information, and send it to a plurality of slave transceivers. Each slave transceiver within the WRH is paired to a respective individual audio transducer. Various embodiments may facilitate a wireless music data-stream from a personal electronic device (PED) to be played on multiple wireless audio transducers via unique and distinct wireless channels.

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.

Practical speaker connection is identified using a device having a sound channel of a 5.1 channel or 7.1 channel, and a device is provided that can easily reproduce the optimum multiple channels. Actual speaker arrangement can be identified by, for example, measuring the impedance of a terminal at the side of an audio amplifier. If incorrect connection is found, a warning is issued. This information is transmitted to a signal source with an EDID and a signal with the optimum a number of sound channel is sent. The EDID is also used for the connection with a display unit and the speaker connection with which the display unit is provided uniquely. For example, a sound through the 7.1 channel is easily reproduced using the speaker of the display unit in the channel of the front speaker.

Embodiments are described for a method for localizing a set of speakers (106) and microphones (108), having only the times of arrival between each of the speakers and microphones. An autodiscovery process (107) uses an external input to set: a global translation (3 continuous parameters), a global rotation (3 continuous parameters), and discrete symmetries, i.e., an exchange of any axis pairs and/or reversal of any axis. Different time of arrival acquisition techniques may be used, such as ultrasonic sweeps or generic multitrack audio content. The autodiscovery algorithm is based in minimizing a certain cost function, and the process allows for latencies in the recordings, possibly linked to the latencies in the emission.

A method and a system for calibrating a surround sound system are disclosed. The calibration system can provide a graphical user interface for display comprising a visual representation of the room hosting a multichannel surround sound system. The graphical user interface can permit user input of gestures to place or make changes to the placement of icons representing one or more loudspeakers and a listener. The calibration system can estimate the positions of the one or more loudspeakers or the listener based on the placement of the icons in the model room. A spatial calibration based on the estimated positions can then be performed such that the multichannel surround sound system can render sound scenes more accurately.