Patent Application
20240031735
The present invention relates to audio signal processing and reproduction, and in particular to a loudspeaker system with at least four sound generators for generating a dual mode signal comprising common mode components and push-pull components. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a sound system for a presentation area, and to a presentation area.
Typically, acoustic scenes are recorded using a set of microphones. Each microphone outputs a microphone signal. For example, 25 microphones may be used for an audio scene of an orchestra. A sound engineer then mixes the 25 microphone output signals, e.g., into a standard format such as a stereo format, a 5.1 format, a 7.1 format, a 7.2 format, or any other corresponding format. In case of a stereo format, e.g., the sound engineer or an automatic mixing process generates two stereo channels. In the case of a 5.1 format, mixing results in five channels and one subwoofer channel. Analogously, in case of a 7.2 format, e.g., mixing results in seven channels and two subwoofer channels. If the audio scene is to be rendered in a reproduction environment, a mixing result is applied to electrodynamic loudspeakers. In a stereo reproduction scenario, there are two loudspeakers, the first loudspeaker receiving the first stereo channel and the second loudspeaker receiving the second stereo channel. For example, in a 7.2 reproduction format, there are seven loudspeakers at predetermined positions, and two subwoofers, which can be placed relatively arbitrarily. The seven channels are applied to the corresponding loudspeakers, and the subwoofer channels are applied to the corresponding subwoofers.
The use of a single microphone arrangement when capturing audio signals, and the use of a single loudspeaker arrangement when reproducing the audio signals typically neglects the true nature of the sound sources. European patent EP 2692154 B1 describes a set for capturing and reproducing an audio scene, in which not only the translation but also the rotation and, in addition, the vibration is captured and reproduced. Thus, a sound scene is not only reproduced by a single capturing signal or a single mixed signal but by two capturing signals or two mixed signals that, on the one hand, are recorded simultaneously, and that, on the other hand, are reproduced simultaneously. This ensures that different emission characteristics of the audio scene are recorded compared to a standard recording, and are reproduced in a reproduction environment.
To this end, as is illustrated in the European patent, a set of microphones is placed between the acoustic scene and a (imaginary) listener space to capture the “conventional” or translation signal that is characterized by a high directionality, or high quality.
In addition, a second set of microphones is placed above or to the side of the acoustic scene to record a signal with lower quality, or lower directionality, that is intended to represent the rotation of the sound sources in contrast to the translation.
On the reproduction side, corresponding loudspeakers are placed at the typical standard positions, each of which has a omnidirectional arrangement to reproduce the rotation signal, and a directional arrangement to reproduce the “conventional” translational sound signal. In addition, there is a subwoofer at each of the standard positions, or there is only a single subwoofer at an arbitrary location.
European patent EP 2692144 B1 discloses a loudspeaker for reproducing, on the one hand, the translational audio signal and, on the other hand, the rotatory audio signal. The loudspeaker has, on the one hand, an arrangement that emits in an omnidirectional manner, and, on the other hand, an arrangement that emits in a directional manner.
European patent EP 2692151 B1 discloses an electret microphone that can be used for recording the omnidirectional or the directional signal.
European patent EP 3061262 B1 discloses earphones and a method for manufacturing earphones that generate both a translational sound field and a rotatory sound field.
European patent application EP 3061266 A0, which is intended for grant, discloses earphones and a method for producing earphones configured to generate the “conventional” translational sound signal by using a first transducer, and to generate the rotatory sound field by using a second transducer arranged perpendicular to the first transducer.
Recording and reproducing the rotatory sound field in addition to the translational sound field leads to a significantly improved and therefore high-quality audio signal perception that almost conveys the impression of a live concert, even though the audio signal is reproduced by the loudspeaker or headphones or earphones.
This achieves a sound experience that can almost not be distinguished from the original sound scene in which the sound is not emitted by loudspeakers but by musical instruments or human voices. This is achieved by considering that the sound is emitted not only translationally but also in a rotary manner and possibly also in a vibrational manner, and is therefore to be recorded and reproduced accordingly.
A disadvantage of the concept described is that recording the additional signal that reproduces the rotation of the sound field represents a further effort. In addition, there are many pieces of music, for example classical pieces or pop pieces, where only the conventional translational sound field has been recorded. Typically, the data rate of these pieces is heavily compressed, e.g., according to the MP3 standard or the MP4 standard, contributing to an additional deterioration of quality, however, which is typically only audible for experienced listeners. On the other hand, there are almost no audio pieces that have not been recorded at least in the stereo format, with a left channel and a right channel. Rather, the development goes towards generating more channels than only a left and a right channel, i.e. generating surround recordings with five channels or even recordings with higher formats, for example, which is known under the keyword MPEG surround or Dolby Digital in the technology.
Thus, there are many pieces that have been recorded at least in the stereo format with a first channel for the left side and a second channel for the right side. There are even more and more pieces where recording has been done with more than two channels, e.g., for a format with several channels on the left side and several channels on the right side and one channel in the center. Even higher level formats use more than five channels in the horizontal plane and in addition also channels from above or channels from obliquely above and possibly also, if possible, channels from below.
In particular, the provision of loudspeakers for reproducing the translational component, or common-mode component, and the rotatory component, or the push-pull component, has been elaborate and not very compact. This is not critical if there is enough space for large loudspeakers. However, if more compact loudspeakers are to be used, the existing concept with separate sound generators for the translational component on the one hand and for the rotatory component on the other hand is not optimal.
Thus, the object of the present invention is to provide an improved concept for high-quality loudspeaker systems.
According to an embodiment, a loudspeaker system may have: a first sound generator with a first emission direction, and a second sound generator with a second emission direction, wherein the first sound generator and the second sound generator are arranged with respect to each other such that the first emission direction and the second emission direction intersect in a sound chamber; a third sound generator with a third emission direction, and a fourth sound generator with a fourth emission direction, wherein the third sound generator and the fourth sound generator are arranged with respect to each other such that the third emission direction and the fourth emission direction intersect in the sound chamber; and a housing that accommodates the first sound generator and the second sound generator, the third sound generator and the fourth sound generator, and the sound chamber, wherein the housing has a gap configured to enable gas communication between the sound chamber and a surrounding area of the loudspeaker system.
According to another embodiment, a sound system may have: a first inventive loudspeaker system configured as mentioned above; and a second inventive loudspeaker system configured as mentioned above, wherein the second loudspeaker system is arranged on top of the first loudspeaker system, and wherein the housing of the first loudspeaker system is configured to be separate from the housing of the second loudspeaker system.
According to another embodiment, a presentation area may have: a sound system having: a first inventive loudspeaker system configured as mentioned above; and a second inventive loudspeaker system configured as mentioned above, wherein the second loudspeaker system is arranged on top of the first loudspeaker system, and wherein the housing of the first loudspeaker system is configured to be separate from the housing of the second loudspeaker system; and a listening area, wherein the listening area has a first listening row and a second listening row, wherein the second listening row is arranged above and offset with respect to the first listening row.
According to another embodiment, a method for manufacturing a loudspeaker system having a first sound generator with a first emission direction, and a second sound generator with a second emission direction, a third sound generator with a third emission direction, and a fourth sound generator with a fourth emission direction, may have the steps of: arranging the first sound generator and the second sound generator with respect to each other such that the first emission direction and the second emission direction intersect in a sound chamber; arranging the third sound generator with a third emission direction and the fourth sound generator with a fourth emission direction such that the third emission direction and the fourth emission direction intersect in the sound chamber; and accommodating the loudspeaker system with a housing that accommodates the first sound generator and the second sound generator, the third sound generator and the fourth sound generator, and the sound chamber, wherein the housing has a gap configured to enable gas communication between the sound chamber and a surrounding area of the loudspeaker system.
The present invention is based on the finding that, with respect to the loudspeaker system, a first sound generator with a first emission direction and a second sound generator with a second emission direction and a third sound generator with a third emission direction and a fourth sound generator with a fourth emission direction are used, wherein the sound generators are arranged with respect to each other such that a first emission direction of the first sound generator and a second emission direction of the second sound generator intersect in a sound chamber and advantageously have an intersection angle that is greater than 60° and smaller than 120°. In addition, the third sound generator and the fourth sound generator are arranged such that they also emit into the same sound chamber into which the other two sound generators emit as well. Furthermore, the at least four sound generators and the sound chamber are accommodated in a housing, wherein the housing comprises a gap that is configured to enable gas communication between the sound chamber and a surrounding area of the loudspeaker system.
With respect to the signal processor, the first sound generator and the second sound generator are driven such that a common-mode signal supplied to the first sound generator and the second sound generator is overlapped with a push-pull signal so as to obtain the control signal for the first sound generator. Furthermore, the common-mode signal is overlapped with a second push-pull signal so as to obtain the control signal for the second sound generator. The two push-pull signals differ from each other. Advantageously, the third sound generator is driven on the basis of the same signal as the first sound generator, and the fourth sound generator is driven on the basis of the same signal as the first sound generator. Thus, a line sound source is created from two point sound sources that would be emitted by only one pair of sound generators each. This effect becomes greater the more pairs of sound generators are arranged in the same housing and emit into the same sound chamber. Therefore, it is of advantage to arrange even more than two pairs, e.g., more than three pairs or more than five pairs or 8 eight pairs, of sound generators in the same housing above the other so that all of the sound generators emit into the same sound chamber. This results in respective rear chambers behind the sound generators, which may be separated from each other and which also separated from the sound chamber communicating with the gap.
This achieves that each pair of sound transducers together reproduces the common-mode signal, i.e. the translational component, and the push-pull signal, i.e. the rotatory component. Due to the fact that the sound emission of the four or more sound generators is mixed in the sound chamber, and due to the fact that a gap is provided in the housing, through which the sound can exit from the sound chamber into the surrounding area of the loudspeaker, it is achieved that the exiting sound has translational and rotatory components, i.e. common mode parts and push-pull parts. In particular, it has been shown that, when leaving the gap, the sound has sound particle velocity vectors that represent the translational component, directed away from the propagation direction of the sound transducer. These sound particle velocity vectors representing the translational component are directed towards the source or away from the source, and change their length, however, they do not rotate. It has been found at the same time, however, due to the arrangement of the sound generators in the sound chamber, the generated output sound signal also comprises sound particle velocity vectors that rotate, and therefore generate a rotatory sound signal in the surrounding area of the loudspeaker, which, together with the translational sound field, leads to the audio perception becoming particularly natural. Due to the plurality of pairs of sound generators, listeners have the impression of a line sound source. This is of particular advantage if several loudspeaker systems are arranged together in a presentation area and are to reproduce a special channel, such as the center channel, in a spatially limited manner.
In contrast to conventional transducers that only generate a translational sound field, the quality of the inventive loudspeaker system is superior because, in addition to the translational sound field, the rotatory sound field is generated as well, creating a particularly high-quality almost “live” impression. On the other hand, the generation of these particularly natural sound fields with translational and rotational components, i.e. with linear and rotating sound particle velocity vectors, is particularly compact because two sound generators arranged obliquely to each other in one sound chamber generate the combined sound field that exits through a gap.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the loudspeaker system is arranged to be separate from the signal processor. In such an embodiment, the loudspeaker system has two signal inputs that may be wired or wireless, wherein a signal for one sound generator in the loudspeaker system is generated at each signal input. The signal processor providing the control signals for the sound generators is arranged remotely from the actual loudspeaker system and is connected to the loudspeaker system via a communication link, such as a wired link or a wireless link. The two or more pairs of sound generators are each driven by the same signals. This means that, when the pairs of sound generators are each arranged one above the other, one sound generator of a pair always receives the first signal and the other sound generator of the pair always receive the second signal as the control signal. This is also done for the other pairs.
In an another embodiment, the signal processor is integrated into the loudspeaker system. In such a case, in the loudspeaker system with the integrated signal processor, the common-mode signal is derived and, according to the implementation and the embodiment, the push-pull signal is derived separately, or from the common-mode signal. An aspect of the present invention therefore concerns the loudspeaker system without a signal processor. Another aspect of the present invention therefore also concerns the signal processor without a loudspeaker system, and a further aspect of the present invention concerns the loudspeaker system with an integrated signal processor.
In embodiments, the two push-pull signals are derived from a base push-pull signal by using two all-pass filter processes, wherein, in an embodiment, the base push-pull signal is filtered with a first all-pass filter so as to generate the first push-pull signal directly or, possibly, by using further processing steps. The base push-pull signal is filtered with a second all-pass filter that differs from the first all-pass filter so as to generate the second push-pull signal for the second sound generator in the loudspeaker system directly or, possibly, by using further processing steps.
According to the implementation, filterbank processing may be performed in the push-pull signal processing, wherein two interleaved, or interlocked, or “interlaced”, filterbanks are provided in the two processing branches for the two push-pull signals. Through this, the push-pull signal of the two sound transducers is interleaved in terms of frequency, so to speak, or is brought into the sound chamber in a frequency-multiplexed way. It has been shown that, in such a case, to at least partially separate the sound output of the first sound generator from the sound output of the second sound generator, a partition wall in the sound chamber is not required. In contrast, if interleaved filterbank processing is not carried out, but the two push-pull signals essentially have identical frequency components across the entire frequency range, it is of advantage to provide a partition wall in the sound chamber, which leads to an increase of the ratio of the rotating sound particle velocity vectors in the output signal and, at the same time, to an overall more efficient sound output.
The base push-pull signal processed by using advantageously two different all-pass filters to generate the two push-pull signals for the two sound generators in the loudspeaker system may be obtained in different ways. It is one possibility to record this signal directly in a separate way with certain microphone arrangements and to generate it as a combined audio representation together with the translational or common-mode signal. This ensures that the common-mode signal for the translational sound component and the push-pull signal for the rotational sound component are not mixed in the inventive signal processor on the way from the recording to the reproduction.
In an alternative embodiment, e.g., if the separate rotatory component signal is not present and there is only a mono signal or one channel signal, the base push-pull signal may be derived from the common-mode signal by high-pass filtering and/or, possibly, attenuation or amplification.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, when there is a multi-channel signal, e.g., a stereo signal or a signal with three or more channels, the push-pull signal is derived from this multi-channel representation. In the case of a stereo signal, e.g., a side signal representing the difference of the left and the right channel is calculated, wherein, if applicable, this side signal is then attenuated or amplified accordingly, and, according to the implementation, is mixed with a common-mode signal that is not high-pass filtered or is high-pass filtered. In principle, the side signal itself may already be used as the base push-pull signal if the output signal is a stereo signal. If the output signal has several channels, the base push-pull signal may be generated as the difference between any two channels of the multi-channel representation. Thus, for example, a difference between the left rear side and the right rear side (right surround) could be generated, or, alternatively, a difference between the center channel and one of the other four channels of a five-channel representation. In case of such a five-channel representation, a difference between left and right may be determined to generate the side signal, as is the case in a stereo representation. In a further embodiment, certain channels of the five-channel representation may be added, i.e. a two-channel downmix may be determined, from which the base push-pull signal may be obtained through calculating a difference. An exemplary implementation for generating a two-channel downmix signal consists of the addition, possibly with weighting factors, left rear (left surround!), left, and center, so as to generate a left downmix channel. To generate the right downmix channel, the right surround channel, the right channel and the center channel are again added up, possibly with weighting factors. The base push-pull signal may then be determined from the left downmix channel and the right downmix channel by calculating the difference.
Thus, there are different possibilities to derive a separate push-pull signal from conventional common-mode signals if such a push-pull signal does not (yet) exist.
Embodiments of the present invention are subsequently described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The sound chamber 10 is formed by the area between the membrane of the first sound generator 11 and the membrane of the second sound generator 12, the membrane of the third sound generator 13, and the membrane of the fourth sound generator 15, and a frontal wall of the housing 14, indicated with 14a. A gap 16 configured to enable gas communication between the sound chamber 10 within the loudspeaker system and a surrounding area of the loudspeaker system is provided in the housing 14, or in the frontal wall 14a of the housing 14. In particular, in the embodiment shown in
Through the reference numerals,
The right side in
In embodiments of the present invention, the partition wall 18 is provided if the signal generation for the push-pull signal for the respective sound generator is carried out such that the frequency content of the two push-pull signals is essentially equal. In such an implementation, interleaved band-passes are not used, with such an exemplary push-pull signal generation being illustrated in
While the push-pull signal generation without interleaved band-pass filters uses a high-pass filter with a cut-off frequency of 150-250 Hz and advantageously 190 to 210 Hz, it is of advantage to not use high-pass filtering when using the interleaved filters, but to also use the low frequency range for generating the two different push-pull signals.
Furthermore, in the embodiment shown in
In embodiments of the present invention, the gap 16 in the frontal area 14a is configured such that the frontal area 14a is separated, in a top view, into a left part arranged left of the gap in
In addition, as is shown in
The partition wall 18 shown in
In the loudspeaker system, the first sound generator 11 and the second sound generator 12, the third sound generator 13, and the fourth sound generator 15 are fixed in the housing 14. The housing 14 includes a lid 14e, a bottom 14d, a frontal wall 14a, or a rear wall 14h, and/or side walls 14g. The gap 16 is configured continuously from top to bottom in the frontal wall 14a, with the lid 14e, or the bottom 14d, or the rear wall 14h or the side walls 14g being configured continuously. The sound chamber 10 is also configured continuously from top to bottom.
In addition, a first rear chamber 10a communicating with a rear side of the first sound generator 11 and a rear side of the third sound generator 13 is configured continuously from top to bottom. The second rear chamber 10b communicating with a rear side of the second sound generator 12 and a rear side of the fourth sound generator 15 is also configured continuously from top to bottom. The first rear chamber 10a, the second rear chamber 10b, and the sound chamber 10 are separated from each other.
The third sound generator 13 with the third emission direction 23 and the fourth sound generator 15 with the fourth emission direction 25 are arranged with respect to each other such that the third emission direction 23 is essentially equal to the first emission direction 21, and the fourth emission direction 25 is essentially equal to the second emission direction 22. In embodiments, in addition to a first pair of the first sound generator 11 and the second sound generator 12 and the second pair of the third sound generator 13 and the fourth sound generator 15, at least one further pair of sound generators 41a, 41b, 421, 42b, 43a, 43b, 44a, 44b, 45a, 45b, 46a, 46b is arranged in the housing 14 above or below with respect to the first pair or the second pair.
In
Advantageously, a height of the housing 14 is between 30 cm and 60 cm and/or a width of the housing 14 is between 10 cm and 30 cm and/or a depth of the housing 14 is between 5 cm and 20 cm and/or the gap 16 has a width of between 1 cm and 3 cm.
Due to the simpler manufacturing, it is of advantage to arrange the transducers of the respective pairs in parallel so that the emission directions of the generators arranged on top of each other are the same. Thus, all sound generators 11, 13, 41a, 42a, 43a, 44a are aligned in the same way and are arranged above one another in a column-like manner. Analogously, the respectively other sound generators of the pairs, i.e. the sound generators 12, 15, 41b, 42b, 43b, 44b are aligned in the same way and are arranged above one another in a column-like manner so that they all emit into the same sound chamber, according to the embodiment, having arranged therein the partition wall 18 that also extends through the housing 14 continuously from top to bottom.
Subsequently, on the basis of
In an embodiment, the signal processor includes a combiner 50 configured to overlap a common-mode signal supplied via an input 71 with a first push-pull signal. In the embodiment shown in
The first push-pull signal processing includes all-pass filtering, as is illustrated by “AP” in
In embodiments, the signal processor is further configured to provide the base push-pull signal for the input 72 of the push-pull signal generator 60. This is achieved by a base push-pull provider 80 that obtains an input signal via an input 81. Different variations for implementing the base push-pull signal provider 80 are illustrated in
In an alternative implementation, in which the rotating sound field has not been recorded separately, the base push-pull signal may be obtained from the side signal of a center-side signal processing. Thus, the base push-pull signal provider is configured to obtain the common-mode signal 71 via the input 81, and any other channel signal, as will be illustrated on the basis of
In yet another alternative implementation, illustrated in
There are further possibilities for generating a base push-pull signal, wherein a rotating sound field component is always generated, since the first push-pull signal and the second push-pull signal are overlapped with the common-mode signal so that the two sound generators 11, 12 and 13, 15, in the loudspeaker system perform a push-pull signal excitation that can be perceived outside of the gap 16 as a rotating sound field. According to a special generation of the push-pull signal, the rotating sound field will always correspond more to the original physical rotating sound field. Thus, it has been shown that a derivation of the push-pull signal from the common-mode signal at a corresponding overlap through the signal combiner 50 already leads to a significantly improved hearing impression compared to an implementation in which the two sound generators are only driven with a common-mode signal and operate in a common mode-manner.
The two band-pass filter implementations 320, 340 differ from each other, as is schematically illustrated in
Other subdivisions, or implementations, of the band-pass filters in a digital way, e.g. by means of a filterbank, a critically sampled filterbank, a QMF filterbank, or any type of Fourier transformation, or a MDCT implementation with subsequent combination or different processing of the bands can also be used. Similarly, the different bands may also have a constant bandwidth from the lower end to the upper end of the frequency range, e.g. from 50 to 10,000 Hz or above. In addition, the number of the bands may also be significantly larger than 20, e.g. 40 or 60 bands, so that each plurality of band-pass filters reproduces half of the entire number of bands, e.g. 30 bands in the case of 60 bands overall.
In addition,
To obtain a difference formation, a phase reversal 372 may be applied to the other channel at the input 73, achieving a phase shift of 180°. Advantageously, this is achieved if the signal is available as a difference signal between two poles. Then, the phase reversal 372 is simply achieved by plugging in the channel in a “reverse” manner into an adder 371, so to speak. The adder 371 is therefore advantageously configured such that the common-mode signal is plugged in at its one input “correctly”, and the other channel signal is plugged in at its other input “incorrectly”, so as to achieve the phase shift of 180° indicated by the phase shifter 372. In other implementations, other phase shifts may be used if an actual phase shifter is used instead of the “incorrect plug-in”.
The difference signal at the output of the adder then represents the base push-pull signal 72, which may then be further processed. In the embodiment illustrated in
In addition, the use of the all-pass filters has the advantage that the partition wall in the sound chamber 10 can be omitted, as is illustrated in
According to the implementation, the mobile telephone, or the signal processor or signal generator 105, may be configured, as has been illustrated on the basis of
Alternatively, the side signal may also be obtained by subtraction of LS and RS, without using the push-pull signal. To calculate the side signal, any number of channel pairs or a downmix channel and an original channel, etc. may be used, and, as illustrated in
In addition, the signal generator includes a signal conditioning stage 69 configured to adjust an input signal 70 from which the common-mode signal 71, or the first push-pull signal, or the second push-pull signal is derived, or to adjust the first sound generator signal 51 for the first sound generator 11 and the third sound generator 13, or the second sound generator signal 52 for the second sound generator 12 and the fourth sound generator 15 with respect to a signal power and/or with respect to an amplification of higher frequencies compared to lower frequencies. Thus, the signal conditioning stage 69 in
As can be seen in
A sound system includes at least one first loudspeaker system 201 and one second loudspeaker system 202 configured according to any of claims 1 to 28, wherein the second loudspeaker system 202 is arranged on top of the first loudspeaker system 201, and wherein the housing of the first loudspeaker system 201 is configured to be separate from the housing of the second loudspeaker system 202. In
The first loudspeaker system 201 has a first signal conditioning stage 69 and the second loudspeaker system 202 has its own second signal conditioning stage, wherein the first signal conditioning stage 69 and the second conditioning stage are adjusted such that a sound level of a sound signal emitted by the first loudspeaker system 201 is lower than a sound level of a sound signal emitted by the second loudspeaker system 201, or such that higher frequencies of a sound signal emitted by the first loudspeaker system 201 are amplified less than higher frequencies of a sound signal emitted by the second loudspeaker system 201.
As is illustrated in
The first signal conditioning stage 69 and the second signal conditioning stage are adjusted such that a sound level of a sound signal emitted by the first loudspeaker system 201 is lower than a sound level of a sound signal emitted by the second loudspeaker system 201, and/or that higher frequencies of a sound signal emitted by the first loudspeaker system 201 are amplified less than higher frequencies of a sound signal emitted by the second loudspeaker system 201.
In particular, the first signal conditioning stage 69 and the second signal conditioning stage are adjusted such that a first sound level adjustment or an amplification of higher frequencies is implemented proportionally depending on the first distance and the second distance.
The first loudspeaker system 201 and the second loudspeaker system 202 are connected to a sound signal source in order to reproduce a center channel of a multi-channel sound format. In addition, between the sound system and the listening rows, a display wall 220 is arranged, e.g., a screen or any other image display means that may also include a screen. It is more permeable for sound emitted by the sound system in the area in front of the sound system than in an area adjacent to the sound system. In the case of a screen, such as a cinema screen, configured to show an image or a movie, perforations 230 are formed in an area in front of the sound system, as can be seen in
In general, it is of advantage to provide a separate loudspeaker system for each listening row. Furthermore, the position in the center behind the screen is particularly predestined for the reproduction of the center channel of a multi-channel format, as is also shown in
Even though some aspects have been described within the context of a device, it is understood that said aspects also represent a description of the corresponding method, so that a block or a structural component of a device is also to be understood as a corresponding method step or as a feature of a method step. By analogy therewith, aspects that have been described within the context of or as a method step also represent a description of a corresponding block or detail or feature of a corresponding device. Some or all of the method steps may be performed while using a hardware device, such as a microprocessor, a programmable computer or an electronic circuit. In some embodiments, some or several of the most important method steps may be performed by such a device.
Depending on specific implementation requirements, embodiments of the invention may be implemented in hardware or in software. Implementation may be effected while using a digital storage medium, for example a floppy disc, a DVD, a Blu-ray disc, a CD, a ROM, a PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM or a FLASH memory, a hard disc or any other magnetic or optical memory which has electronically readable control signals stored thereon which may cooperate, or cooperate, with a programmable computer system such that the respective method is performed. This is why the digital storage medium may be computer-readable.
Some embodiments in accordance with the invention thus comprise a data carrier which comprises electronically readable control signals that are capable of cooperating with a programmable computer system such that any of the methods described herein is performed.
Generally, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented as a computer program product having a program code, the program code being effective to perform any of the methods when the computer program product runs on a computer.
The program code may also be stored on a machine-readable carrier, for example.
Other embodiments include the computer program for performing any of the methods described herein, said computer program being stored on a machine-readable carrier.
In other words, an embodiment of the inventive method thus is a computer program which has a program code for performing any of the methods described herein, when the computer program runs on a computer.
A further embodiment of the inventive methods thus is a data carrier (or a digital storage medium or a computer-readable medium) on which the computer program for performing any of the methods described herein is recorded. The data carrier, the digital storage medium, or the recorded medium are typically tangible, or non-volatile.
A further embodiment of the inventive method thus is a data stream or a sequence of signals representing the computer program for performing any of the methods described herein. The data stream or the sequence of signals may be configured, for example, to be transmitted via a data communication link, for example via the internet.
A further embodiment includes a processing unit, for example a computer or a programmable logic device, configured or adapted to perform any of the methods described herein.
A further embodiment includes a computer on which the computer program for performing any of the methods described herein is installed.
A further embodiment in accordance with the invention includes a device or a system configured to transmit a computer program for performing at least one of the methods described herein to a receiver. The transmission may be electronic or optical, for example. The receiver may be a computer, a mobile device, a memory device or a similar device, for example. The device or the system may include a file server for transmitting the computer program to the receiver, for example.
In some embodiments, a programmable logic device (for example a field-programmable gate array, an FPGA) may be used for performing some or all of the functionalities of the methods described herein. In some embodiments, a field-programmable gate array may cooperate with a microprocessor to perform any of the methods described herein. Generally, the methods are performed, in some embodiments, by any hardware device. Said hardware device may be any universally applicable hardware such as a computer processor (CPU), or may be a hardware specific to the method, such as an ASIC.
While this invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which fall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and compositions of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2021 203 639.2 | Apr 2021 | DE | national |
This application is a continuation of copending International Application No. PCT/EP2022/059310, filed Apr. 7, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and additionally claims priority from German Application No. 10 2021 203 639.2, filed Apr. 13, 2021, which is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/EP2022/059310 | Apr 2022 | US |
| Child | 18481396 | US |
