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OwnerKenneth P. Roy, Thomas J. Johnson +2inventors
InventorsKenneth P. Roy, Thomas J. Johnson, Ronald Fuller, Steve Dove
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A unique, fully integrated, fully programmable, and highly flexible sound distribution system and methodology for providing masking sound, background music, and paging capabilities in up to eight zones of a building or space is provided. The methodology embodied in the system includes internal masking sounds that are uniquely pre-filtered to provide efficient and effective masking of distracting sounds within selectable zones of the space with a minimum masking sound dB sound level and with a pleasant sounding and non-annoying masking sound. The system also incorporates the capacity to be controlled from a remote or local telephone to adjust the volume level in any zone serviced by the system by issuing appropriate DTMF codes from the telephone's keypad. Unique bi-tone diagnostic functions are provided for assuring that the entire system is correctly wired and installed and for troubleshooting operational anomalies. ⅓ octave equalization is provided to compensate for known frequency response characteristics of the flat panel radiators of the system and to compensate for varying room acoustics to provide a low special variation of sound among the various zones of the space. The result is a high quality high fidelity sound that is consistent from zone to zone.
In a sound distribution system for distributing masking sound, paging, and/or music throughout a space wherein audio transducers located in multiple zones within the space are driven by respective multiple outputs of the distribution system, a method of enhancing the quality of sounds produced by the transducers comprising:
A system for selectively distributing masking sound, music, and/or pages to a plurality of zones within a space, said system comprising:
In a sound distribution system for distributing masking sound, paging, and music throughout a space wherein audio transducers located in multiple zones within the space are driven by respective multiple outputs of the sound distribution system, a method of ensuring consistency of sound reproduced within each of said multiple zones comprising the steps of equalizing the audio signals present at each of the multiple outputs to compensate for the frequency response characteristics of audio transducers driven by the outputs and equalizing the audio signals present at each of the multiple outputs to compensate for varying acoustic properties of said multiple zones.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.