One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a two-way loudspeaker design that forces a condensed geometry between low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) drivers and then “floats” a midrange waveguide in front of the LF driver. This is a hybrid design meant to benefit from the close proximity of acoustic centers without introducing a central axis obstruction for the LF driver. In addition, the LF and HF waveguides and associated acoustic elements are used to redirect very low frequency energy not supported adequately by the LF waveguide to exit freely using other paths.

A sound pickup device includes microphone elements arranged three-dimensionally in a distributed manner. A total number of effective microphone pairs is greater than a total number of the microphone elements, the effective microphone pairs each being a combination of two microphone elements having a distance less than a distance D between each other. The distance D is represented by D=c/2f, where f represents a frequency of a target sound obtained from each of the microphone elements and c represents a velocity of the target sound. Any one of straight lines each of which connects the two microphone elements of a different one of the effective microphone pairs is not parallel to any other of the straight lines.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for optimizing user content consuming experience by recognizing and classifying different sounds while a user views a program. The system may have or may access information related to the program audio being presented, enabling it to distinguish between conversations occurring in the program audio and conversations between users in the viewing environment. The system may turn the program volume down on one or more sound producing devices if it detects a conversation. The system may turn the program volume up if it detects an interrupting noise. The system may also adjust the program content based on locations of various objects within the listening or viewing environment, and types of users in the environment.

A flat-panel display device described herein includes a display screen; a display backplate; a chassis slidably arranged on the display backplate; a fixing support, a motion module arranged on the chassis, wherein the motion module includes a first telescopic assembly and a second telescopic assembly arranged on the fixing support; a first speaker arranged on the chassis; and a second speaker connected to the second telescopic assembly. The first telescopic assembly is matched with the display backplate and configured to drive the chassis, the first speaker, the second speaker and the second telescopic assembly to move back and forth in a first direction relative to the display backplate. The second telescopic assembly is configured to drive the second speaker to move back and forth in a second direction relative to the display backplate and the first speaker.

An example method of operation may include initializing a microphone array in a defined space to receive one or more sound instances based on a preliminary beamform tracking configuration, detecting the one or more sound instances within the defined space via the microphone array, modifying the preliminary beamform tracking configuration, based on a location of the one or more sound instances, to create a modified beamform tracking configuration, and saving the modified beamform tracking configuration in a memory of a microphone array controller.

A processor configured to: receive a plurality of sounds signals from a respective plurality of microphones; apply one or more localization algorithms to the received plurality of sound signals in order to determine a plurality of source directions; determine a plurality of tracking directions based on: current values for the determined plurality of source directions; and previous values for the determined plurality of source directions; apply an onset detection algorithm to the received plurality of sound signals, and in response to detecting an onset the processor is configured to determine an onset direction that represents the direction from the microphones to the source of the detected onset; attribute a score to each of the determined plurality of tracking directions based on any determined onset directions; and provide the one of the determined plurality of tracking directions that has the highest score as a direction-output-signal.

Provided is a direction of arrival estimation device wherein: a calculation circuit calculates a frequency weighting factor for each of a plurality of frequency components of signals recorded in a microphone array, on the basis of the differences among unit vectors indicating the directions of the sound sources of each of the plurality of frequency components; and an estimation circuit estimates the direction of arrival of a signal from the sound source, on the basis of the frequency weighting factors.

Embodiments include a microphone assembly comprising an array microphone and a housing configured to support the array microphone and sized and shaped to be mountable in a drop ceiling in place of at least one of a plurality of ceiling tiles included in the drop ceiling. A front face of the housing includes a sound-permeable screen having a size and shape that is substantially similar to the at least one of the plurality of ceiling tiles. Embodiments also include an array microphone system comprising a plurality of microphones arranged, on a substrate, in a number of concentric, nested rings of varying sizes around a central point of the substrate. Each ring comprises a subset of the plurality of microphones positioned at predetermined intervals along a circumference of the ring.

Endfire linear array microphone systems and methods with consistent directionality and performance at different frequency ranges are provided. The endfire linear array microphone includes a delay and sum beamformer and a differential beamformer. The delay and sum beamformer may produce pickup patterns with good directionality at higher frequency ranges, but cause the pickup patterns to become more omnidirectional at lower frequencies. The differential beamformer may produce pickup patterns with good directionality at lower frequencies. By combining the delay and sum beamformer and differential beamformer within the linear array microphone, the overall directionality of the linear array microphone may be maintained at different frequency ranges while using the same microphone elements.

A microphone array system or microphone array unit for a conference system is provided that includes a front board, side walls and a plurality of microphone capsules arranged in or on the front board mountable on or in a ceiling of a conference room. The microphone array system or unit is adapted for generating a steerable beam within a maximum detection angle range. The microphone array system or microphone array unit includes a processing unit which is configured to receive the output signals of the microphone capsules and to steer the beam based on the received output signal of the microphone array. The processing unit is configured to control the microphone array to limit the detection angle range to exclude at least one predetermined exclusion sector in which a noise source is located.