The present invention generally relates to causing luminaires to support inertial type audio actuators and more specifically to act as an audio transmission or audio emitter means.
The amalgamation of common building subsystems has helped in their overall cost reduction. In addition, amalgamating such systems has brought sought after efficiencies in material cost reduction, sharing common parts, and reducing installation time. The inventive means described herein render these as well as other benefits.
Common to almost all buildings and building systems is lighting equipment and lighting systems. Common to some buildings, whether commercial, residential or other, are audio systems. Audio systems are commonly used for background music, paging messages, sound masking and other purposes. To date, these two systems, lighting production and audio reproduction, are commonly used independently in numerous applications including but not limited to building subsystems. A luminaire, or a luminaire system has typically been installed and used as a separate technology when integrated into a building to illuminate the interior or exterior spaces. Equally, luminaries are commonly used as a stand alone system strictly for illumination, visual signaling and other purposes.
Audio systems have equally been used to bring a level of utility separate from that of a luminaire system. Improvement of audio technology as used in but not limited to building technology has been sought by those utilizing audio in the built environment. Equally, improvement of lighting technologies as used in but not limited to building technology has been sought by those utilizing and providing lighting devices.
When considering the installation of both audio and lighting into buildings, speed of installation, ease and cost of installation of the combined systems would then ideally equate to a net savings, and improvement as compared with their individual implementation.
Luminaires are often installed to or within or in the general proximity of the ceiling plenum for various types of building construction. By way of example, luminaires of various kinds are commonly installed and integrated either in suspended ceilings or ceilings fabricated of common building materials such as but not limited to gypsum board or composite ceiling tiles. Additionally, electrical power feeds are essentially collocated with the luminaire systems and are used to supply power to the luminaires.
Audio transducers of the common cone type speaker construction have been commonly used in the distribution of acoustic content in various building structures. They have the negative effect of being visually present within the environment and act independently of other systems within the environment to which they are installed or used. It shall be shown that the inventive means described herein function to visually eliminate the audio transducers and cause them to function in an integrated fashion with other systems within the building or environment in which they will be used.
Filling a space in a building using audio emitting devices other than cone type audio speakers such as distributed mode loudspeakers or inertial type audio actuators has an additional positive effect. For the purposes of this patent an inertial type acoustics transducer or inertial type audio actuators can also be construed to be a distributed mode loudspeaker. Inertial type acoustic transducers acting as a distributed mode loudspeaker more effectively fill a given space with sound as its characteristics propagate sound as a function of 1/radius as opposed to 1/radius squared as with conventional cone type speakers. Equally, full spectrum audio content is propagated more fully than conventional cone type speakers within the space as a function of the wave propagation within a substrate energized by an inertial type acoustic transducer or distributed mode loudspeaker.
What is needed is a way to employ inertial type acoustic transducers or actuators to transmit their energy through luminaires, or generally to materials which can be referred to as substrates found to be within the vicinity of the luminaires. If these substrates are energized by an inertial type acoustic actuators they can be made to act as a soundboard to emit sound.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means to cause a luminaire to transmit acoustic vibration from an inertial type acoustic actuator to a soundboard or substrate to which the luminaire is affixed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means for a luminaire to support the installation and utilization of inertial type acoustic actuators to the area in which the luminaire is installed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means to cause a luminaire to transmit acoustic vibration from an inertial type acoustic actuator to a surface forming part of the luminaire such that the surface or part of the luminaire acts as a soundboard.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a means for a luminaire to integrate with the necessary audio equipment needed to cause the surrounding substrates to function as acoustic emitters.
It is further an object of this invention to deliver desired audio content into an environment via the luminaires and without showing the audio emitters.
It is further an object of this invention to deliver audio content by way of a signal transmitted over existing electric power lines feeding the luminaire, by way of Ethernet cables, by way of wireless radio frequency transmission or by other delivery means.
The implementation of an audio system used in large spaces found in a building or other open spaces, would best benefit from audio technology able to fill the space evenly. The disclosure of the invention herein focuses on but shall not be limited to the use of inertial type acoustic actuators. It should be noted that other more common audio transduction means can be used such as standard cone type speakers. The benefits of using the inertial type audio actuator to radiate sound from a substrate and evenly fill a space with sound is at least partially due to the fact that they act like planar radiators. The combination or association of the audio system and the luminaire system form one embodiment of the invention disclosed herein.
Building environments including those where luminaires are integrated often incorporate a number of substrates conducive for the use of inertial type acoustic actuators. Using the luminaire as a transduction means for the acoustic energy of the inertial type acoustic actuator and delivering that energy to the substrate generally collocated to the luminaire is detailed herein.
Luminaires can be used in various inventive ways to support the transmission of acoustic energy to sound emitting substrates found in areas where luminaires are used. Many inventive benefits can be realized by this. With the goal of acoustically energizing the substrates, the luminaries can be used either as support structures for said inertial type acoustic actuators, or as an actual transmission means of audio energy to the substrate such that the material or substrate can act as a soundboard to emit audio.
Associating inertial type acoustic actuators with luminaires or to materials found in the built environment and, in turn, to various substrates, causes desired audio content to be delivered to the actuators and then into the building materials or substrate they are affixed to, whereby the materials or substrate reproduce the desired audio content. The actuators induce mechanical energy into the substrate, causing the substrate to vibrate at audio frequencies emitting sound.
If the luminaire's own structure is conducive to be excited by an inertial type acoustic actuator, then the actual structure of the luminaire may emit the desired sound. The structure referred to may be any part or combination of parts of the luminaire. Various ways of accomplishing these objectives to create environments wherein normal substrates are converted to sound emitters are described in detail below.
a is a top elevational view of a luminaire assembly with a slide mount embodiment of the present invention;
b is a side elevational view of luminaire assembly of
The non-restrictive preferred embodiment now described will focus on within-plenum recessed luminaires for the purposes of illustrating the inventive means of a preferred embodiment, but is not limited to same and may be applied to a wide variety of luminaires such as suspended luminaires, luminaires affixed to walls, independent luminaires generally located in the proximity of a substrate which can be used as a soundboard, as well as all types of luminaire styles and configurations with varied light emitting elements. The inventive means described herein applies to all luminaires, regardless of the environment to which they are installed, or placed.
Generally, and referring now to
Now referring more specifically to
Preferably the clamping means 113 is height adjustable. The height adjustment may be achieved by employing any of a number of means known to one of ordinary skill in the art such as an adjustment screw found within the housing. As the screw is turned, the upper portion of the clamping means 113 is pulled downwards creating a downward and generally vertically oriented force as shown by arrows 116.
By way of example in the preferred illustrative embodiment, the inertial type audio actuator 112 may be mounted on a top portion 121 of the luminaire 110. Said transmission means 118 may comprise an intermediary mounting disc 122 which also acts as an intermediary connecting means whereby the disc 122 may be mechanically or adhesively affixed to the top portion 121 of the luminaire housing 111, and the audio transducer 112 may be affixed to the mounting disc 122 mechanically or adhesively by way of a variety of means including but not limited to a screw type means.
When the audio transducer 112 is excited by an audio signal, it vibrates and transmits this energy through the somewhat rigid luminaire housing 111 to the flange 114 and by way of the clamping means 113 tightly securing the luminaire assembly 110 to the substrate 115, the mechanical energy is transferred to the substrate 115 which will act as a soundboard to emit desired audio content. The substrate 115 then acts as a distributed mode loudspeaker. For the purpose of all illustrative figures, the figures will show a cross sectional view of the substrate 115 taken on or about the transverse centerline of the luminaire 110.
Alternatively, the inertial type audio actuator 112 may be affixed directly or indirectly to any part of the luminaire 110. The actual luminaire may then be energized acoustically by the inertial type audio actuator 112 whereby the actual luminaire or any one or more parts thereof acts as a sound emitting soundboard resulting from the vibrational energy induced therein by the inertial type audio actuator 112. Parts of the luminaire can be chosen which are compliant enough to vibrate in the appropriate manner.
Once energy from the audio transducer 112 is induced into or transferred to the substrate 115, it is desirable to isolate the substrate 115 from other elements in the ceiling plenum which may include a T-bar suspension system 123 or other ceiling tiles 124. Such isolation will improve the sound transmission and can be accomplished by using various means. One example is to employ an elastomeric material 125 which is desirable. The elastomeric material controls the acoustic output of the substrate 115, without transferring acoustically dissonant vibration to surrounding elements.
Now referring to figure to
In an additional preferred embodiment, shown in
There are many other variations for the transmission of audio energy that would function well for the purposes intended and would be obvious to someone skilled in the art. Essentially the means for mechanically associating 113 must comprise features and materials well suited to transmit the audio energy into the substrate 115 and may include increasing the surface contact between means for mechanically associating 113 to the transducer 112 to more fully or equally distribute the compression load into the substrate 115. It should also be noted that for transmission efficiency, means for mechanically associating 113 may be used mechanically or adhesively, or combinations of other means to affix the luminaire 110 to the substrate 115.
It should be stated that in all instances where any luminaire such as but not limited to luminaire 110 is used as an audio transmission means, all parts forming the luminaire assembly 110 are preferably firmly affixed one to the other. If any parts are not either mechanically, adhesively affixed, welded or otherwise rendered unable to vibrate between each other, then a vibration dampening material such as but not limited to an elastomeric foam should be placed between the vibrating parts mating surfaces to attenuate any unwanted vibration, thereby preserving and propagating more true representation of the audio energy.
Referring now to
The non-restrictive preferred embodiment described herein often include associated electronics such as but not limited to, ballasts, transformers, power supplies, controllers, and other electronic means to assist with the functioning of the light output means or audio control and generation.
Now referring to
Referring to
Referring to
This support structure 610 typically comprises at least one and preferably two slidably assembled tracks 611a and 611b offset a distance “Y” typically by the luminaire housing 111 itself. The support structure 610 may be able to telescope in order to be able to be affixed at its extremities 621a, 621b, 622a and 622b to commonly found ceiling structures such as beams 619a and 619b which may also represent the frame of a ceiling grid structure or other in plenum structures. This housing module 615 can house luminaire electronics, acoustic electronics, or both. Another housing 625 can be seen in
The support structure 610 positions the luminaire housing 111 relative to the substrate 115 and hole 117 horizontally, the position adjusting means 613a, and 613b may serve to position the luminaire 110 in a vertical axis relative to substrate 115 as more fully represented in
This provides a variation of the inventive means described herein. Utilizing the inventive integration of luminaire technology integrated with audio technology, the luminaire may carry the audio equipment, including but not limited to content delivery means, audio amplifier, and audio control means in housing module 615 or 625. It should be noted that the housing modules 615 or 625 may form part of or be integrated into the luminaire 110 in a variety of ways which would be known to someone skilled in the art. From either housing module 615 or 625 a speaker output wire 420 can be linked to the inertial type acoustic actuator 112 and power, audio control, audio content, and luminaire control can be supplied by cable 412a and 412b. Housings 615 and 625 as well as cables 412a, 412b, 419 and 420 would function at least in the same way housings 411 and 414 and said cables 412, 419 and 420 of
Attenuating vibration in all elements in general vicinity of the substrate 115 and the luminaire structure 610 is advisable. All mating surfaced between the varied parts forming the system should be either firmly fastened so as not to vibrate between one and other, and which may use materials and hardware commonly used for this purpose. Referring to
The present invention has been described in an illustrative manner. It is to be understood that the terminology which has been used is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation. Many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. Therefore, the present invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/IB2010/002416 | 9/15/2010 | WO | 00 | 3/14/2012 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61276684 | Sep 2009 | US |