(August 16, 2024) Despite the hype surrounding microLED video walls and their large, dazzling images drenched with deep blacks and high levels of brightness, deploying sound to match has proven to be difficult. The truth is projectors have maintained a presentation advantage in the big-screen department because speakers can be positioned behind acoustically transparent screens, allowing for optimized audio playback. The solid, nonporous nature of microLED panels makes that kind of arrangement impossible.
Thus far, solutions to improve audio matched with large microLED screens have included a mix of line and point source speakers, and systems that reflect frequencies off the wall itself; both have issues that impact seating location or time/phase alignment, forcing owners to make sacrifices. Today, Ascendo is throwing its hat in the ring with a patent-pending in-ceiling speaker system – The DIRECTOR – that can be used in tandem with a larger Ascendo-crafted immersive audio system. It's a direct-radiating point source speaker that's packaged in a flush-mount in-ceiling design for discrete invisibility.
“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, Ascendo's co-managing partner. “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.”
During development, Ascendo worked to limit lobing and cancellation issues by crafting and testing 3D-printed waveguides for the speaker's tweeter and woofer. The end result is an AMT-driven waveguide with asymmetrical horizontal and vertical sound dispersion and a high-frequency dispersion lens. Ascendo says the waveguide's performance is scalable and can easily exceed 130dB SPL.
For rooms with high ceilings and steep listening angles, Ascendo says its DIRECTOR system uses psychoacoustics with a time-aligned, equalized, and level-matched speaker positioned below the LED wall to lower the perceived phantom sound source. In other words, an additional speaker is located below the screen to improve the illusion of sound radiating from the center of the screen.
“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.”
CEDIA Expo attendees can experience The DIRECTOR in Ascendo's Sound Room 3 at this year's show. There, it will be used in combination with StormAudio’s ISP Evo20 processor, Seymour-Screen Excellence’s Ambient Visionaire Black screen, a Christie M 4K15 Pure Laser projector, and madVR’s Envy Mk2 video processor. Other demo partners include German-made moovia's bespoke seating, which will show its ultra-luxurious, one-of-a-kind LYON media sofa inspired by the French countryside. Also, Kaleidescape will hold hourly demonstration comparisons between video streaming and their unparalleled video and audio performance for source material.
Related Reading:
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- Ascendo and Sutherland AV Marketing Join Kaleidescape as Partners in Bass Hunters
- CEDIA 2023: Just Video Walls Didn't Like the Micro-LED Buying Experience, so It Changed It and Made It Better!
- $500K Video Wall? Yup, Planar Systems Shows Mind Blowing Luxe microLED Technology at CEDIA 2022!
- CES 2021: Sony Introduces New microLED Displays, Debuts Bravia Core, Announces new TV Models, and More!
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