Tech Feature

Energy is integral to every aspect of life, including professional audio. Energy also has a swirling tornado of political, economic, and environmental considerations that kick up quite a cloud of confusion when trying to make sense of how to think about this important topic. For this month’s column, I have the ambitious goal of conveying an engineer’s perspective on the myriad details surrounding the production and use of energy. My hope is that, by touching broadly on a number of different disciplines, FRONT of HOUSE readers will gain a clearer perspective about the big picture surrounding the present and future of energy.

Sound is fundamentally about change. Changes in pressure on the eardrum lead to bone movement in the inner ear that triggers changes in neurons that cause the brain to perceive sound. And for pro audio, the initial change in air pressure results from a loudspeaker whose physical movement caused the change in pressure.

Sometimes, Placement is Everything

Some of the most common questions I’m asked when teaching the Smaart measurement software classes for Rational Acoustics concern microphone placement. Among these are: “Where do I put my mic to get a useful measurement,” “does the position/aim of the mic matter,” and “how many measurement positions do I need?” When you think about it, it’s an interesting proposition to assume we can make a useful measurement of complex electro-acoustical systems loaded into a performance space having a volume in the thousands of cubic meters and have the result somehow summed up at tiny microphone capsule points in space.

While big subwoofers tend to get the attention of both sound companies and audiences, the compression driver keeps its intricacies hidden from view, as shown in Fig. 1. This month, we’ll tease out some of the components within compression drivers and help explain why these small devices are every bit as complex — and often more expensive — than their booming big brothers. Along the way, we’ll talk a little bit about how the way something is made influences the cost of production.

Previously in FRONT of HOUSE, we discussed some of the complications behind getting product certified — such as UL — for safety or electromagnetic emissions. That topic quickly devolves into alphabet soup, and can become rather expensive headache for companies designing product. It also drives tradeoffs beyond those involving the raw performance of a product.

When new audio gear arrives, the box is opened, the manual briefly scanned, but then many people just start making noise. Even the most meticulous reader of manuals will typically skip the preamble and “declaration of conformity” pages at the front of the manual. Yet locked within these pages are much of the blood, sweat and engineering tears shed during the design of your favorite pro audio products.

How to Set Up Your Own Private Wireless Network

The majority of digital console manufacturers offer one or more ways to control your console remotely. In some cases, this can be done from a laptop running an offline/online editor, and in other cases, it can be done from a tablet or smartphone application.

To say that the now-murky future of wireless audio for pro applications is somewhat clouded is somewhat of an understatement. With constantly changing Federal Communications Commission rulings, proceedings and a constant barrage of legalese of every type, what seemed clear yesterday is a completely different picture today. And at risk are not just frequency bands for RF microphones, but also those used on wireless rigs for musical instruments, in-ear monitors, production intercoms and now even systems such as Alto Professional’s Stealth series and AirNetix AiRocks Pro, designed to wirelessly transmit console feeds to mains or delay towers.

With the apparent ease of predicting vented loudspeaker response, it is tempting to blindly follow the software and assume that the curve on the screen is representative of what the loudspeaker will produce at any volume level. But the reality of loudspeaker performance is more complicated than is indicated from some piece of software found on the Internet.