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US 12,684,279 B2Granted
Bidirectional multi-channel audio link for transducers
AssigneeSound Devices LLC
InventorsMatthew G. Anderson, Francois Morin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An audio transducer system, such as in-ear monitors, are connected to an audio base unit, such as a receiver body pack, using a bidirectional serial time-division multiplexed link. The bidirectional connecting cable has a single active conductor and a ground wire, a detachable connector to the receiver body pack and, preferably, a detachable connector to the sin-ear monitors. The invention provides for bidirectional communication between the audio base unit (receiver body pack) and the audio transducer system (in-ear monitors) and enables simultaneous and automatically configured DC power supply depending on the identified requirements.
Claims19
A multi-channel audio system comprising:
- an audio base unit having an RF receiver capable of communicating wirelessly in the VHF or UHF frequency ranges and further configured to output base device data and multi-channel digital audio data, wherein the base device data comprises at least control data;
- an audio transducer system comprising an audio transducer processing unit, a receive and transmit unit with a phase-locked loop, a plurality of transducer amplifiers and a plurality of acoustic output elements, said audio transducer processing unit also configured to output transducer device data, wherein the transducer device data comprises at least control or status data;
- a bidirectional connecting cable with an active line, a ground line and a connector for removably connecting the cable to a port on the audio base unit;
- wherein the base device data and the multi-channel digital audio data are transmitted over the active line in the bidirectional connecting cable to the audio transducer system and the transducer device data from the audio transducer processing unit is also transmitted over the active line to the audio base unit, and transmitted data is digital data and is transmitted bidirectionally over the active line as time-division multiplexed serial data words;
- and
- wherein the bidirectional time-division multiplexed serial data words are transmitted over the active line during a synchronized sample period having a constant frequency with a start of each sample period ts and an end of each sample period te, and further wherein the base unit emits a predetermined start synchronizing word at the start of each sample period ts on the active line of the bidirectional connecting cable that facilitates locking of the phase-locked loop in the the audio transducer system to generate a word clock reference and then emits data words of the multi-channel digital audio data, and the base device data is followed by a transition synchronizing word to notify the transducer processing unit to begin transmitting the transducer device data from the audio transducer processing unit over the active line to the audio base unit.
3 more elements
An audio system comprising:
- an audio base unit having an RF receiver capable of communicating wirelessly in the VHF or UHF frequency ranges and further configured to output DC power, base device data, and digital audio data, wherein the base device data comprises at least control data;
- an audio transducer element comprising an audio transducer processing unit, a receive and transmit unit with a phase-locked loop, at least one transducer amplifier and at least one acoustic element, said audio transducer processing unit configured to output transducer device data, wherein the transducer device data comprises at least control or status data;
- a bidirectional connecting cable with an active line, a grounded line and a
- connector for removably connecting the cable to a port on the audio base unit;
- wherein the DC power output from the audio base unit, the base device data and the digital audio data are transmitted over the active line in the connecting cable and the transducer device data from the audio transducer processing unit is also transmitted over the active line, and transmitted data is digital data and is transmitted bidirectionally over the active line as time-division multiplexed serial data words and
- wherein the bidirectional time-division multiplexed serial data words are transmitted over the active line during a synchronized sample period having a constant frequency with a start of each sample period ts and an end of each sample period te, and further wherein the base unit emits a predetermined start synchronizing word at the start of each sample period ts on the active line of the bidirectional connecting cable that facilitates locking of the phase-locked loop in the audio transducer system to generate a word clock reference and then emits data words of the digital audio data, and the base device data is followed by a transition synchronizing word to notify the transducer processing unit to begin transmitting the transducer device data from the audio transducer processing unit over the active line to the audio base unit.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.