Technology

AIA Speaker Management

Imagine a passive speaker placed in a home theater where the amplifier is installed in a rack and long speaker wires usually between 10 often up to 50 meters drive the speaker all adding up to the losses, not to mention the passive crossover inside the speaker, which combined can eat sometimes up to 50% of the power.

Not only, is power destroyed, but also control due to high resistance, capacitance, and inductance. Imagine how even the best speakers suffer from this.

The active speaker design principle offers many benefits.

Not only is each transducer driven by its optimized amplifier. Furthermore, the digital electronic crossover allows splitting the audio signal into separate frequencies that are sent to individual power amplifiers, which are connected by short, high-quality speaker cables to specific transducers optimized for this frequency band. Each driver-specific power amplifier now sees only a limited frequency range because the power amplifier is placed after the active crossover.

This also leads to a reduced power requirement for each amplifier channel because no power is lost in long speaker wire runs, passive crossovers, or connection terminals. Our active speaker design offers up to 3dB more acoustic output power. This is not the only improvement; the transient response of the system is enhanced dramatically by compensating transducer-specific anomalies, enclosure-related effects, and overall phase-related problems not possible to adjust in passive speakers. There is left to mention the sophisticated protection circuitry of each drive unit and amplifier channel.

AIA Creator (For Dealers / Installers / Professionals)

With the AIA Creator software, even complex installations are centrally, controlled, managed, and monitored.

The AIA Creator TM software connects with all active speakers, subwoofer,s and external amplifier modules. They can be combined into one system controlling master and group functions as well as all millions of individual parameters in real-time. Systems can exist of single up to huge Immersive home theater or networked audio over IP systems. Each speaker comes with powerful internal audio processing and multiple preset memory functions. Those DSP functions are meant to compensate for room correction and speaker alignments. Useful functions such as level and gain adjustment, delay time, matrix routing, bass management, and speaker group voicing can be performed at different user levels. Naturally, also standard settings as X-curve calibrations or specific loudness curves can be stored in each speaker. AVB streams could be split to double up on a surround channel with different time alignment, retrieve other preset settings switching between different surround formats such as Dolby Atmos, DTSX Pro, or Auro3D, or change the setup for various listening positions altogether, which becomes easy.

Setup Wizard

The setup wizard makes it quick and easy to configure even large cinema systems with 32 or more channels. By clicking on a speaker field, the unassigned speaker starts to flash for identification. Pull the speaker into the appropriate position using “drag & drop”. The loudspeaker receives all necessary connectivity and preset parameters automatically. This makes a very complex process very easy.

Calibration of the various loudspeakers

• Time correction
• Sound adjustment
• Room acoustic correction
• Volume control
• Gain

Group function

After every single speaker has been perfectly adjusted with the Creator's extensive optimization tools, the ingenious Group function adjusts the overall sound of the home cinema.

Main group

The Main groups assign to all connected speakers the same changes. If, for example, a recording sounds too dull, the Main group containing all loudspeakers has its treble level raised and the fundamental range lowered. All amplifiers are switched on and off via the Main group. Often, however, only specific cinema speakers need to be changed. For example, all subwoofers are required to play louder and/or the ceiling speakers have to perform a bit more powerful, in order to let the thunderstorm seem more realistic. These changes are effected in the subgroups Front / Surround / HiSurround / Top / Sub. With the Group function, even very large installations can be easily and orderly adapted to the existing room acoustics, as well as to the different requirements of different film genres, recording qualities, and surround formats. The real-time control makes it possible to make all changes instantly noticeable and also to facilitate the operation.

Overwiev

Excellent overview of all speakers
Centralized control and monitoring of all speakers

COAX

AIA CCRM6 coaxial directivity plot

Coaxial designs offer the advantages of a single point source for a consistent acoustic centre and a symmetrical dispersion pattern resulting in homogenous reproduction with perfect transient response and highest intelligibility.

Traditional multi-way, non-coaxial speaker designs have long been the way to go in speaker applications. But they suffer from the changing distances between the listener and the speaker elements: When you move around in the coverage area, the sound is inconsistent. Even more troublesome, the crossover point between the drivers can sometimes be audible. This is especially troublesome in a cinema, where the multiple listeners are positioned in a wide horizontal and vertical array.

Coaxial systems solve this by having the drivers on the same axis, thus providing a single point source for a consistent acoustic centre.

This results in symmetry of response on both the horizontal and vertical axis, at any given angle. The crossover transition is seamless (inaudible) at all angles. (By “symmetry,” we mean that whatever response is observed at a given angle with respect to the axis, the same response will be observed at that angle in the opposite direction. The loudspeaker’s behaviour is “mirrored” about its axis.) Non-coaxial loudspeakers are not able to display this symmetry.

Tablet based Real Time Control

Web browser based
Runs on any operating system / computer / smartphone
No installation of software required

The lightning fast command & control system that provides networked based access to each speaker ensures a glitch free integration in any home automation system. System integrators can manage and remote all parameters easily with the multiple interfaces provided such as Jason, XML, or KNX.

Control of individual speakers
Volume level adjustment and room acoustics correction