Simple integration and freedom of design

When loudspeakers are to be integrated in private homes two basic approaches are used: either the speakers should function as an eye-catcher or they should be positioned unobtrusively in the room, taking up as little space as possible. “Our planar speakers come with a space-saving, modular design and can be installed nearly anywhere,” says Dr. Daniel Beer of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT.

As the speakers are extremely variable in size and design, requiring a depth of enclosure of less than 2 cm, designers of furniture as well as interior designers will not be limited in their freedom of design. At imm cologne, the Fraunhofer booth showcased three versions of the speaker being integrated with another object: a picture frame, a rack, and a cabinet door. The loudspeakers can also disappear into sofas, chairs, tables, or walls – regardless of whether the surface in question is flat or curved.

Sound zones for more listening comfort

Another innovation presented at the show was what the developers refer to as their ”Personal Sound Zones”. In combination with the speakers, a special signal processing algorithm is used to direct sound to exactly defined areas in a room. This allows a living room, say, to be divided into separate sound zones into which music or spoken content can be emitted.

“We are very confident that our solution will soon be available for home use. Our idea is to have two, three, or even more listening events in a room at the same time, without the listeners being distracted by the other content.” This is how Daniel Beer explains the goal of the development work.

Other areas of application could be lobbies or spa areas in hotels, exhibition areas in museums, at trade shows, or in supermarkets – in short, wherever a number of individual sound zones need to be created with the help of unobtrusive, flexibly adjustable loudspeaker technology.