News from FlatPanel Audio
Revolutionary New Sound Technology inspires Atlanta’s King Center Visitors
San Jose, California – MLK Day January 20, 2025
“To play any part in educating the world on the life, legacy, and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is an honor,” began FlatPanel Audio Regional Channel Manager Kent Kelsey. “But that some visitors hearing Dr. King through our loudspeakers will inspire new generations to continue his unfinished work and empower change-makers hits me right in the heart.”
The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, stands as a profound tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with his speeches echoing the ideals of justice, equality, and peace. However, the reflective surfaces and challenging acoustics of Freedom Hall posed a unique challenge for preserving the clarity and emotional power of his words.
According to FlatPanel Audio CEO Denny Mayer, traditional point-source loudspeakers, with their correlated sound waves, would create destructive interactions such as room echoes and comb filtering, undermining the intelligibility and resonance of Dr. King’s iconic speeches.
After careful evaluation, both Tangela Gray, Director of Guest Services at the King Center, and William Collins, Account Executive at S&L Integration, identified FlatPanel Audio DML500 loudspeakers as the only solution capable of overcoming these obstacles.
Kelsey notes the area where the speeches are viewed and heard utilizes exclusively hard, flat, sound-reflecting materials including large expanses of glass and stone, “That’s common in museums where sound quality often suffers from beautiful design choices.”
How do FlatPanel DML loudspeakers not produce intelligibility-destroying room echoes? “Two facets of the technology achieve that,” stated Kelsey. “Their 165-degree conical coverage creates uniform sound distribution via LEA amplifiers, ensuring every listener, regardless of their location in the room, experiences the same clarity and emotional impact of Dr. King’s voice.”
But can’t similar coverage be achieved with a higher count traditional loudspeakers? “Yes, but it costs more to install and sounds way worse,” says Kelsey, adding, “More important is the second facet: entirely different sound waves the panels deliver. Uncorrelated waves behave so differently and so much better in this kind of environment, we’ve actually been accused of employing sorcery,” Kelsey concludes with a wide grin.
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About FlatPanel Audio: FlatPanel Audio is a team of industry veterans with a history of bringing breakthrough solutions to market including Auto-Tune, Mackie mixers, and the first Distributed Mode Loudspeakers. The Silicon Valley-based firm, founded in 2024, provides AV professionals, architects, and acousticians products replacing antiquated point-source loudspeakers that exacerbate room sound problems, with 21st century uncorrelated sound wave technology, yielding vastly superior audio quality without the need to substantially alter beautiful interiors. Visit FlatPanelAudio.com for more information.
Point-Source Replacement Loudspeaker Firm Launches at InfoComm 2024
Silicon Valley, California – June 11, 2024
FlatPanel Audio, makers of the FlatPanel Distributed Mode Loudspeakers (DML), announced that they’ll debut the company at InfoComm in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company will be exhibiting in booth C10156 from 12 – 14 June 2024.
When FlatPanel Audio co-founder Bryan Cole jokes, “Our loudspeakers actually work indoors,” it’s his wry way of contrasting their groundbreaking technology with some well-known inherent flaws in traditional point-source cone loudspeakers. “Unwanted echo, hot spots, dead spots, collapsed stereo, and degraded intelligibility are all products of correlated sound waves destructively interacting with reflective surfaces indoors,” the former system integrator asserted.
CEO and Founder Denny Mayer detailed the contrast, “It’s just a fact that point-source sound waves multiply reverberant room problems uncorrelated waves solve. Our main challenge at InfoComm is convincing acousticians and system designers we’re selling proven science and not science fiction,” he concluded with a broad smile.
CMO DK Sweet shared Mayer’s concern, stating, “Customers are saying things about the improved sound they’re experiencing that pros steeped in point-source-only reality find hard or impossible to believe.” Asked for examples, Sweet began with a church customer saying in a recorded interview the intelligibility difference between DML500 loudspeakers and the system it replaced in his highly reflective sanctuary was “mind-boggling”.
Bolstering the point, Cole interjected, “If I hadn’t heard FlatPanel DML for myself, I’d find the specs we’re claiming not credible, maybe laughable.” With a chuckle, Mayer related a recent anecdote from a French integrator, “At the end of the demo this guy asked with a straight face, “Is this some kind of black magic?”
Brightening, Sweet opined, “Blowing customers away so much they say stuff like that is a good problem to have.” Adding with mock solemnity, “And we welcome that challenge almost as much as we welcome the watermelon basil margaritas at (Las Vegas’) Ghost Donkey.” For more hard-to-swallow claims about room size sweet spots, absent echoes, vastly superior sound quality emerging 165° conically from 2.2” thick loudspeakers, go to https://FlatPanelAudio.com.
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About FlatPanel Audio: FlatPanel Audio is a team of industry veterans with a history of bringing breakthrough solutions to market including Auto-Tune, Mackie mixers, and the first Distributed Mode Loudspeakers. The Silicon Valley-based firm, founded in 2024, provides AV professionals, architects, and acousticians products replacing antiquated point-source loudspeakers that exacerbate room sound problems, with 21st century uncorrelated sound wave technology, yielding vastly superior audio quality without the need to substantially alter beautiful interiors. Visit FlatPanelAudio.com for more information.