INDUSTRY & PRODUCT NEWS

Powersoft Launches New Quattrocanali Series Amplifiers at ISE 2017
Following the success of the eight-channel Ottocanali series, launched at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) two years earlier, Powersoft has again chosen ISE (RAI, Amsterdam, February 7-10) as the forum to launch its new Quattrocanali Series, with three models, all in a 1RU format. The launching of the new range completes the Powersoft Installation Series that includes Duecanali (2-channel) and Ottocanali (8-channel) series.   Read More


John and Helen Meyer Share Summer Of Love Golden Anniversary
2017 promises to be an interesting year for Meyer Sound. While the Californian company continues to innovate and expand its market worldwide, its founders and audio pioneers, John and Helen Meyer, celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love, when both met. Meyer Sound has festivities and events planned throughout the year, starting with the launch of a new website. But John and Helen Meyer have many surprises planned, and they started with a special event in Amsterdam...   Read More

Peerless by Tymphany Speaker Drivers Available Worldwide from Digi-Key
As a result of a new distribution agreement, Peerless by Tymphany's high-end drivers are now available worldwide through global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Electronics.
Since 2005, Tymphany has manufactured drivers under the Peerless, Vifa, and Tymphany brands. Recently all these brands were unified under a single brand name: Peerless by Tymphany. "Digi-Key, with their outstanding customer service and broad customer base, is the perfect distribution partner," says Phil McPhee, VP, Sales and Marketing at Tymphany
.   Read More


Bang & Olufsen Opens Up BeoLink SmartHome System to Third Party Control Systems
The BeoLink SmartHome solution enables users to connect Bang & Olufsen proprietary systems with other technology products in the home and offers full direct IP control with all of the existing home integrators such as Crestron, Control4, and Savant and completely new possibilities in the connected world such as Danfoss Link, DoorBird, Ecobee, OpenWeather, and many more.    Read More
 

Audio Networking Management Gets Serious with Audinate's New Dante Domain Manager
One of the main requests from users and implementers of audio networking technology has been the need for better security. When Audinate promotes education sessions about its Dante media networking technology, integrators and IT/network specialists frequently express their concerns regarding the need to protect and manage user access and different network domains. Now, Audinate has announced Dante Domain Manager, a new enterprise-wide, IT-grade platform to simplify AV Network Management.   Read More


Skyworks Partners with Libre Wireless Technologies to Deliver Audio and Smart Home Technology Solutions
Skyworks Solutions announced it has partnered with embedded Wi-Fi and wireless technology specialist, Libre Wireless, to deliver advanced products for wireless audio and smart-home applications. Libre Wireless is leveraging multiple RF solutions from Skyworks to enable its leading media modules targeting wireless audio, smart voice services, and assistants, among other smart-home applications.  Read More


Harman Professional Solutions Introduces the Connected PA Concept
With people now storing their personal profiles on smartphones and wearable devices, getting connected to the cloud and having smart systems at home and at the office automatically adjusting to their preferences, why not enable the same level of connectivity to the tools musicians need to do their daily work? That's the concept Harman pioneered with a the Connected PA, demonstrated at NAMM 2017.   Read More


L-Acoustics Announces New Syva Line Source Plug-and-Play Speaker System
L-Acoustics announced a new addition to its extensive catalog of sound reinforcement solutions with the new Syva line source speaker system and the accompanying Syva Low and Syva Sub. The new design brings L-Acoustics line source heritage to a sleek, plug-and-play system, featuring a new patent pending transducer arrangement called segment source, producing an ultra-wide directivity pattern, and offering 35 m of throw capability with 142 dB maximum SPL.  Read More






Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific)




Guest Editorial


Heads Up - The Next Generation of Active Noise Cancellation

SoundChip, established in 2010, is a solution provider for active noise cancellation and product engineering. The team has decades of patents and product experience from its previous endeavors working with TI, Nokia, and at Phitek. SoundChip operates not as consultants but as solution providers and collaborators, enabling product development teams to access a vertically integrated portfolio of technologies, devices, tools, and services. Solutions and reference designs are available for analog, USB-C, and Bluetooth wireless noise canceling applications. Working closely with manufacturers throughout their products' lifecycles - from the concept phase through development, mass production, and onto long-term product performance stability.

Noise canceling headphone projects involve substantially greater levels of commercial risk than conventional headphones.

For almost two decades, Asian headphone manufacturers such as Foster, Gamma i-Gear Infotech, Long Prosper , and others have struggled to develop and manufacture high-performance noise canceling headphones for their OEM/ODM customers. Often at the start of their design and manufacturing journeys, they were not fully aware of the complexities associated with active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones. It is optimistic and ambitious for a headphone engineering team to possess the expertise in system-level audio, headphone electro-acoustics, network control theory, and signal processing needed to master this product category - and then hang onto it in the form of a cohesive team. To be frank, talented headphone engineers are a seller's market in Asia and a game of musical chairs. Every trip to Asia I see the same faces but in different places all of the time.

Many headphone factories' original core competencies were centered around the injection molding of cables and buzzer manufacturing. Best practices for passive headphones simply do not include consideration of aspects such as structural leakage between the headphone driver to the feed-forward ambient noise pickup microphone, or how plastic housing eggshell resonances influence active noise canceling, or the microphonics of microphone wires running through a baffle plate. The consistency of the passive attenuation of a headphone's fit on the ears with different wearers, or even the repeatability with the same wearer are also critical factors - especially with feed-forward designs.

Manufacturers have experienced these mysterious effects and the related complexities associated with noise canceling headphones for years now, and have begun to realize that they need support to excel in this product category. Even the most experienced headphone manufacturers have faced significant challenges when developing their products, including:

- Correctly specifying a headphone's acoustical-mechanical configuration such that it is conducive to delivering effective noise canceling;
- Optimizing a headphone's electro-acoustic performance such that it is conducive to delivering effective noise canceling;
- Managing the many complex cause-and-effect relationships resulting from a noise canceling headphone's "closed" loop behavior;
- Accessing design tools that offer a simple means to tune audio and noise canceling filters and observe resulting behavior;
- Specifying production test requirements and deploying suitable equipment for efficiently performing such tasks; ; including both test and calibration of production units, and identifying the root cause of non-compliant behavior and applying appropriate counter-measures.
 
Since overcoming these challenges often leads to longer product development cycles, higher product development costs, lower production yields, and disappointing performance outcomes, noise canceling headphone projects involve substantially greater levels of commercial risk than conventional headphones and represent a territory outside of both engineering and management's comfort zones.

Swiss-based SoundChip SA supplies reference designs and engineering support to manufacturers of noise canceling headphones.


The SoundChip ANC Program
SoundChip has spent five years working to address these challenges through the development of a close support package of reference designs and engineering support, ANC chips from its semiconductor partner STMicroelectronics, and the near-completed development of a second generation SoundStation Production automated high-speed test, calibration, programming, and diagnosis tool.

Such a comprehensive solution enables participating headphone manufacturers with the skills and experience needed to develop and produce, at scale, high-performance noise canceling headphones. To participate in this program, the manufacturer is required to embrace noise canceling headphone development best practices, engage SoundChip's technical resources to support new designs, and employ integrated components, acoustics, and software that have been qualified as being viable for ANC applications. This will enable those companies to establish a dedicated ANC production line and lab, equipped with the indispensable technology, services, and tools.
 
One last note. Noise canceling headphone projects involve substantially greater levels of commercial risk than conventional headphones not just from design and assembly, but due to intense patent coverage accompanied by aggressive patent protection. SoundChip's innovative and comprehensive hybrid digital-analog ANC patent portfolio provides a safe path through these woods and by partnering with major IC vendors, such as STMicroelectronics, it is capable of delivering innovation at speed and with confidence.

SoundChip is discussing opportunities to partner with prospective manufacturers as well as quality headphone brands and welcomes inquires.
www.soundchip.ch

Sound Control
Smartphone Apps for Sound Measurement
By Richard Honeycutt
 
In audioXpress' November 2015 Sound Control article, Richard Honeycutt addressed the topic of Smartphone Apps for Sound Measurement. In this article, Honeycutt explores some modern-day sound measurement apps that can be downloaded to most smartphones running iOS (Apple), Android, and Microsoft Windows.  Some apps are just useful, others are fun to use, but many are surprising for the variety of tools and possibilities, especially when combining the mobile device with an external measurement microphone. "In comparison to the test and measurement behemoths of the past, today's assortment of smartphone-based sound measurement apps outshine Dick Tracy's fictitious wrist TV in terms of increased functionality per unit of weight! These apps comprise a vast range of tools, some intended for amateurs, and some for professionals. Their measurement capabilities extend from simple noise level measurements to comprehensive acoustical/electro-acoustical test platforms," the author writes.Touching on the challenges and benefits of the smartphone approach as a mobile test and measurement device, as well as reviewing available apps, this an article that needs to be broadly shared while it is still up to date. This article was originally published in audioXpress, November 2015.   Read the Full Article Available Here

Voice  Coil Test Bench
Dayton Audio CF120-4 Woven Carbon Fiber Midwoofer 
By Vance Dickason
 
In this Test Bench, Voice Coil characterizes Dayton Audio's new 4.5" diameter carbon fiber cone midwoofer, the CF120-4. This new midbass driver from Dayton Audio features a pin-cushion style four-spoke cast-aluminum frame. While the area below the suspended spider mounting shelf is closed, cooling is provided by an 8 mm pole vent. For the cone assembly, Dayton Audio chose a rather stiff curved profile woven carbon fiber cone with a 1.13" diameter convex woven carbon fiber dust cap. Carbon fiber has some interesting acoustic properties, but the "cool" factor is pretty intense. Compliance is provided by an nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) surround, which is nicely designed with a shallow discontinuity where it attaches to the cone edge. The remaining compliance comes from a 2.5" diameter elevated black cloth spider. The CF120-4's motor design incorporates an 88 mm × 15 mm ferrite magnet sandwiched between black emissive-coated T-yoke backplate and frontplate. This also includes a copper cap shorting ring (Faraday shield) installed on the pole piece. The CF120-4 uses a black anodized 25.4 mm diameter aluminum voice coil former, wound with round copper wire, and terminated to a standard set of solderable terminals. In terms of physical appearance, this is very good-looking driver. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2016.   Read the Full Article Online

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VC February 2017: Digital Login
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