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Subwoofer Positioning, Orientation, and Calibration for Large-Scale Sound Reinforcement

It is often difficult to achieve even coverage at low-frequencies across a large audience area. To complicate matters, it is desirable to have tight control of the low-frequency levels on the stage. This is generally dealt with by using cardioid subwoofers. While this helps control the stage area, the audience area receives no clear benefit. This paper investigates how careful positioning, orientation and calibration of a multiple subwoofer system can provide enhanced low-frequency coverage, both in the audience area and on the stage. The effects of placement underneath, on top of and in front of the stage are investigated as well as the performance of systems consisting of both flown and ground-based subwoofers.

Authors: Hill, Adam J.; Hawksford, Malcolm O.; Rosenthal, Adam P.; Gand, Gary
Affiliations: Gand Concert Sound, Glenview, IL, USA; University of Essex, Colchester, UK(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention:128 (May 2010) Paper Number:7971 Import into BibTeX
Subject:Sound Reinforcement and Room Acoustics

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