San Diego, Calif.-based Sony Electronics’ new high-performance line-array speaker, SLS-1A, helps create new sound field coverage when paired with large format displays. It is thus ideal for education, corporate, retail and faith applications. The speaker solves common pain points for large and medium spaces with large format display. For example, it addresses unfavorable acoustics and architectural challenges, intelligibility, separation of visuals and sound, and inability to create a prioritized listening experience for each participant.
“This powerful new line-array speaker offers superior, intelligible, localized audio,” says Rich Ventura, vice president of B2B, Sony Electronics. “As a company with a rich history in sound, we’re looking forward to putting the audio back into AV with a solution that prioritizes sonic quality. We did our homework with the launch of the SLS-1A, deliberately developing and designing an immersive product that enhances listeners’ experiences and solves customers’ acoustic challenges related to uniform sound distribution, modularity and installation.”
Wide Sweet Spot to Accommodate Large Displays
One key feature of this new modular bar-style speaker is its wide sweet spot, which creates a clear sound field in larger spaces. With its compact and modular design, the newly developed SLS-1A also features Sony’s unique speaker technology. Additionally, it comes with an onboard DSP (digital signal processor) and power amplification providing 80W total per module. Through this design, the SLS-1A helps suppresses the sound distortion. It also enables beam steering which controls the direction and angle of sound delivery with a high degree of accuracy. This combination of technologies and set-up options delivers a sound system that is effective not only for voice, but also for content playback. As a result, the solution creates a uniform sound pressure and quality in large listening areas.
Flexible Installation with Compact Size
Packing eight channels of AMP/DSP into a rigid aluminum casing, the SLS-1A can align vertically or horizontally. This boosts its flexibility and multiplies its potential installations in different environments and configurations. Its modular approach also means that users can add several speakers to the system through a single Dante connection. Meanwhile, the flexible fine beam control optimizes audio and allows the SLS-1A to meet the requirements of multiple installation spaces. This includes lecture halls and office lobbies. Additionally, the modular solution offers a simplified design that incorporates fewer components which can reduce installation times and costs.
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Center Screen Sound Localization
This specially designed speaker features center screen sound localization technology using horizontally placed speaker arrays to create a “phantom” center channel effect. This makes it well suited to large displays where center channel localization is challenging due to speaker position. It also creates a uniform sound experience no matter the viewer’s position. The SLS1A can pair with multiple large format display types, including Crystal LED, BRAVIA 4K Professional Displays, as well as business projectors to create a connected AV ecosystem.
Key features include:
- Magnetic fluid speaker with flat and square diaphragm for less distortion
- 96kHz fine beam control with fine beam steering by 96kHz sampling rate DSP for staircase floors
- FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter (1024tap@96KHz) integrated into each speaker unit allows fine beam control from low to high frequency
- Both Dante Network and analog inputs for flexible and simple installation
- Paintable speaker enclosure and grill
- PC application “Line-Array Speaker Manager” for settings control
- Sound simulation application EASE Focus 3 and coverage optimization technology FIRmaker 3D by AFMG are supported
- Seamless use alongside Sony and third-party large displays
The SLS-1A can also be used in partnership with Sony’s MAS-A100 beamforming microphone, to improve the performance of its speech reinforcement technology in lecture halls and classrooms. The SLS-1A will be available January 2023 in North America.
