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QFlex Set to Steer Tannoy into New Market
After a series of high profile international trade show launches for QFlex over the latter half of this year, Tannoy's eagerly anticipated new digital beam-steering array product is now available. QFlex defines a new set of performance benchmarks including class-leading steering capability, and control over the widest possible bandwidth - delivering unheralded intelligibility and musical fidelity in even the most acoustically imposing spaces.
To fully appreciate the unique benefits of QFlex we must first consider why the digital beam-steering approach to loudspeaker design is beneficial to designers, specifiers and architects. When faced with highly reverberant, acoustically challenging spaces, such as houses of worship or major transportation hubs; the biggest challenge is in designing a system which will deliver high direct to reverberant sound ratio. In other words, we need to maximise the sound that arrives directly at the listener's ear, while avoiding reflective surfaces. Achieving this with conventional loudspeakers is extremely difficult, especially where there is a specific requirement to minimise architectural or aesthetic impact.
QFlex uses multiple channels of advanced amplification and DSP to produce beams of acoustic energy, which are directed on user defined target areas. With this ability to focus acoustical output in target areas where needed, comes better speech intelligibility in highly reverberant spaces - effectively increasing the ‘hall radius' beyond which reverberant sound becomes dominant. The multi-beam capability allows for multiple audience areas to be targeted from a single QFlex column, such as within auditoria where the stalls and gallery need to be considered separately.
There are limitations to what can be achieved with existing beam-steering solutions, particularly with regards to higher frequencies (eg. >2kHz) where effective beam control is compromised due to the incidence of lobing (spatial aliasing). This is where strong side beams occur, often stronger in intensity than the main beam - particularly when steering at extreme angles. Additionally, the extent to which beams can be steered is generally limited to angles of 20-30 degrees at most, restricting the height at which the loudspeaker can be located in a space, while the software used to program the array tends to be complicated and unintuitive. In instances where the room demands a larger array, there are often restrictive considerations to be given to transportation and physical installation due to the cumbersome nature of huge columns.
This all changes with the arrival of Tannoy's QFlex range.
Thanks to its advanced design featuring densely spaced transducers, integrated cutting edge DSP and powerful Regularised Least-Squares Multi-channel Inversion software algorithm, QFlex boasts state-of-the-art beam control, even at high frequencies (up to 12kHz). This means it's effective for full-range material rather than just being restricted to voice only applications. Combining this with the flexible and highly intuitive GUI of the BeamEngine software, the ability to steer up to +/- 70 degrees and a modular design (based around small eight or 16 channel ‘easy to transport' units which can be combined to form longer arrays of up to 48 channels), QFlex offers acoustic designers a genuine breakthrough in capability when it comes to dealing with reverberant spaces. This is before we consider the fact that QFlex is fully networkable with other Tannoy VNET products allowing full optimisation and control with other compatible products such as VNET subwoofers.
In the context of what's available on the market at the moment, perhaps the most significant factor to consider with QFlex is the cost. For any given array size within the QFlex range, the pricing is highly competitive against any equivalent competitor product, delivering far superior performance and flexibility for increased value.
QFlex has recently been announced as a finalist for the inAVation 2009 awards, in the commercial loudspeaker category. Winners to be announced on 2nd February on the eve of ISE Show in Amsterdam.
24th November 2008
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