Extron Granted Loudspeaker Patent
Extron Electronics officials announced that that the company was granted a United States patent for its Flat Field technology.
Extron FF 220T
Extron Electronics officials announced that the company was granted a United States patent for its Flat Field technology. Flat Field is a loudspeaker technology that helps sound system designers address the challenge of ensuring uniform delivery of audio content to all participants in a classroom, conference room, or boardroom. Extron officials said that although this can be achieved by spacing a sufficient number of ceiling speakers throughout a room, designers often have to limit the quantity of speakers due to budget concerns. The result is inadequate coverage where the level is too high in some areas and too low in others.
Flat Field technology solves the problem with a proprietary speaker design that produces even sound pressure levels over a sound field much wider than a conventional ceiling speaker, according to the company. With this uniform sound distribution, two Flat Field speakers can deliver the same audio coverage that would have required four or more typical ceiling speakers. This technology is available in the Extron FF 120, FF 120T, and FF 220T ceiling tile speakers.
“AV system designers are frequently challenged with delivering optimized speaker coverage without gaps or hot spots in rooms with low ceilings,” said Casey Hall, vice president of sales and marketing for Extron, in a statement. “Extron’s patented [technology] not only provides wide coverage for improved sound quality, but we’ve incorporated it into an easy-to-install, drop-in speaker enclosure that saves time and money.”
The Extron FF 120, FF 120T, and FF 220T are full-range ceiling tile speakers that offer an wide dispersion area of 170 degrees, which can be important for rooms with low ceilings. The FF 120 and FF 120T feature a 1-by-2-foot aluminized composite enclosure that’s 3.25 inches deep. The FF 220T has a larger 2-by-2-foot enclosure. All three are UL 2043 plenum-rated and sized to drop easily into standard suspended ceilings, providing quicker installations and reduced labor costs.
The FF 120 is only available with Extron PoleVault and WallVault classroom AV systems, or with the VoiceLift microphone systems. It features 8 ohm nominal impedance, while the FF 120T and FF 220T can operate in 70/100 volt or direct 8 ohm modes.
