Distributed wireless speaker system with automatic configuration determination when new speakers are added

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9288597-B2
Application number	US-201414159155-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2014
Priority date	Jan 20, 2014
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

In an audio speaker network, setup of speaker location, sound track or channel assignation, and speaker parameters is facilitated by an application detecting speaker locations and prompting a user to input rough room boundaries and a desired listener location in the room. Based on this, optimum speaker locations/frequency assignations/speaker parameters may be determined and output.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device comprising:
at least one computer memory that is not a transitory signal and that comprises instructions which when executed by at least one processor result in:
determining that one or more audio speakers are present on a network of audio speakers in a speaker arrangement, each speaker being associated with a respective network address so that each speaker may be addressed by a computer accessing the network;
receiving dimensions of at least one enclosure in which the network at least partially is disposed;
receiving at least a desired listening position and/or a number of listeners;
determining whether the speaker arrangement meets at least one acoustic requirement;
responsive to a determination that the speaker arrangement does not meet the acoustic requirement, indicating on a computerized display device that the speaker arrangement does not meet the acoustic requirement and prompting the user to adjust one or more of speaker location, orientation, frequency assignation, speaker parameters, or automatically adjusting one or more of frequency assignation, speaker parameters; and
determining whether a basic setup is complete, and responsive to a determination that the basic setup is complete, launching a speaker control user interface on the display device.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable for, responsive to a determination that the speaker arrangement meets the acoustic requirement, establishing at least one speaker delay and/or volume based at least in part on the speaker arrangement.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable for, responsive to a determination that the basic setup is not complete, determining whether one or more measurement microphones are available, and responsive to determining that one or more measurement microphones are available, outputting an interface guiding a user through a measurement routine.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the measurement routine includes causing at least one speaker to emit a test chirp, and determining a location of at least one speaker and/or at least one surface distanced from a speaker based at least in part on the test chirp.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executable for receiving user input respective labels for each speaker.

6. A device comprising:
at least one computer memory that is not a transitory signal and that comprises instructions which when executed by at least one processor configure the processor for:
determining that one or more audio speakers are present on a network of audio speakers in a speaker arrangement, each speaker being associated with a respective network address so that each speaker may be addressed by a computer accessing the network;
receiving dimensions of at least one enclosure in which the network at least partially is disposed;
receiving at least a desired listening position and/or a number of listeners;
determining whether the speaker arrangement meets at least one acoustic requirement;
responsive to a determination that the speaker arrangement does not meet the acoustic requirement, indicating on a computerized display device, via a user interface, that the speaker arrangement does not meet the acoustic requirement and prompting the user to adjust one or more of speaker location, orientation, frequency assignation, speaker parameters or automatically adjusting at least one speaker parameter; and
determining whether at least one speaker is to be used for multiple spaces, and responsive to a determination that the at least one speaker is to be used for multiple spaces, controlling the computerized display device to present at least one user interface to guide a user through secondary assignments for the at least one speaker.

7. A device comprising:
at least one computer memory that is not a transitory signal and that comprises instructions which when executed by at least one processor result in:
determining that one or more audio speakers are present on a network of audio speakers in a speaker arrangement, each speaker being associated with a respective network address so that each speaker may be addressed by a computer accessing the network;
receiving dimensions of at least one enclosure in which the network at least partially is disposed;
accessing at least a desired listening position and/or a number of listeners;
determining whether the speaker arrangement meets at least one acoustic requirement;
responsive to a determination that the speaker arrangement does not meet the acoustic requirement, indicating, using a user interface presented on at least one computerized display device, that the speaker arrangement does not meet the acoustic requirement and prompting the user to adjust one or more of speaker location, orientation, frequency assignation, speaker parameters and/or automatically adjusting at least one speaker parameter;
wherein the determining whether the speaker arrangement meets at least one acoustic requirement is executed at least in part using wave interference analysis.

8. System comprising:
at least one computer readable storage medium bearing instructions executable by a processor which is configured for accessing the computer readable storage medium to execute the instructions to configure the processor for:
presenting on a display at least a first user interface (UI); and
receiving from the first UI at least one user input, the first UI comprising:
an indication of a boundary of an enclosure for containing an audio speaker network; and
indications of speaker locations within the boundary;
presenting a second UI comprising at least one prompt to select an additional space a speaker is to be used for in addition to the enclosure.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first UI includes indications of identities of speakers.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further configure the processor for presenting a third UI, the third UI including:
at least one prompt to activate at least one speaker to emit at least one test chirp.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one speaker is presented on the third UI as one of a group of speakers.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein at least the first, second, or third UI includes a chirp selector element selectable by a user to activate the speaker to emit the at least one test chirp.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein at least one of the UIs includes a selector selectable to indicate that a speaker will be used for no additional spaces in addition to the enclosure.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Carlsson Gregory Peter
• Richman Steven Martin
• Milne James R

Classifications

• H04R2420/07

  Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones · CPC title

• H04R2227/003

  Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet · CPC title

• H04S7/301

  Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone · CPC title

• H04R27/00

  Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F) · CPC title

• H04R1/00

  Details of transducers, {loudspeakers or microphones} · CPC title