Inflatable Loudspeakers

fm6 sent in an article running at New Scientist talking about new technology that allows Inflatable Loud Speakers. The technology is apparently patented and there's not a lot of technical details, but I have to say the concept amuses me. And I somehow doubt that this technology will ever be used in high fidelity home systems.

Comments

My Inflateable Life

[MBCook]

This should go great with my inflateable couch, pillows, and girl :)

All I need now is an inflateable stero and some inflateable CDs. Seriously though, how cool is this? And wouldn't it be awesome to inflate/deflate them while their ON? Bet that would sound awesome.

Re:My Inflateable Life

[PD]

This should go great with my inflateable couch, pillows, and girl :)

With all that, I'm surprised that your ego isn't inflated.

Poor roadies?

[dimer0]

Since when do roadies complain of back problems? Is this opening the doors up to elderly women who want to travel with bands and set up stages? A 4x12 cabinet is not that heavy at all, some even have wheels, and most of them have handles. They're not awkward. I used to lug mine around when I was a 120 pound stick in high school.. Ah well.

Also, if these things are so light, it would be funny to see the speakers push so much air that the air-cabinet starts floating away.. I wouldn't dare stack these things, a gust of wind could stop a concert..

This definitely didn't have to change.. I just hope it's a proof of concept, and they'll find something better to apply this technology to at a later time.. (Pool speakers???)

Re:Poor roadies?

[fgodfrey]

You obviously haven't tried stacking a medium to large sized PA. I've helped set up stacks of TurboSound speakers 3 high/3 wide + subs (ok, I know, that's not an enormous setup, but it's not for your bedroom either) and while they have wheels, they are quite awkward and heavy. However, I strongly suspect that these speakers will sound pretty bad at high volumes when the bladder starts to vibrate, but hey, I could be wrong. They would certainly look interesting, though :)

Re:Poor roadies?

[kfg]

Most of them, actually. It is, litrally, backbreaking work.

Bear in mind also that speakers often have to be hauled to *hights.* The wheels are useless then. With inflatables you haul could haul 'em up deflated and inflate them in place. Windage wouldn't be a problem, they would be cabled in place, * just as they are now.*

One more factor is space. Did you know that when you buy a box of breakfast cereal the cereal itself only costs you about a quarter? Transporting the BOX takes up much of the rest of the price. A Smaller and lighter transport package means less space and fuel needed just to haul the buggers around.

I have hauled my own PA. It's a pain in the neck, back and elsewhere. I'd love an inflatable rig.

I've also worked on a professional crew, and let me tell you, hauling your own PA around is NOTHING compared to hauling in, setting up, and hauling out, two truckloads of speakers, day, after day, after day.

Come to think of it, I've never known a roadie who DIDN'T complain of back trouble. It's the main reason for retirement.

KFG

Helium?

[infinite9]

If you fill them with helium, will your music sound like the chipmonks?

Watch out for ricocheting guitars

[MagnaMark]

A speaker driver is mounted in a flat, rigid board bonded to a large bladder. When the bladder is inflated, it expands to form a box shape resembling a speaker cabinet.

I'd like to see the first time someone tries to dramatically smash their guitar against the speakers at the end of a set.

from the article

[geekoid]

Inflatable loudspeakers could blow out roadies
so now rock bands will want to set up there own system? including filling them full of air? what about the speaker itself, will that suddenly get lighter?

talk about trying to market to a problem that doesn't exist, sheeesh.

if all things are equal(same sound quality, etc,etc,etc...) then there only advantage is less storage space. Which is a cost savings advantge.

Re:patented?

[geekoid]

thats correct, the tech. details are disclosed in an american patent(can't speak for other countries, but its probably the same)
If this is a patented item, as opposed to patent pending, you should be able to go th the US Patent and copyright website and look them up.

Inflatable Technology

[Alien54]

And I thought that the story line in Sluggy Freelance was a joke

Now I am starting to get scared.

RealSpeakers

[Dolly_Llama]

I'll to get some to entertain my *inflate* *inflate* girlfriend..

To the contrary

[Bud Dwyer]

And I somehow doubt that this technology will ever be used in high fidelity home systems.

I fancy myself something of an audiophile, and I can say with all certainty that the inflatable loudspeaker is the most exciting new development in the home audio world of the last 5 years.

Last month's issue of Home Audiophile Review carried an interesting article on the possiblities of the new, inflatable enclosures. Essentially, we will be able to get distortion down to unheard of low levels. The possiblities presented by speaker enclosures in novel shapes is also interesting. Imagine a spherical, or for that matter, tetrahedral, enclosure. You can't do that with wood. Another plus: the enclosures could be filled with nitrogen so as to minimize corrosion of the internal speaker components, thus lengthening product-life and improving sound quality.

YAIP (Yet Another Inflatible Pun)

[The Iconoclast]

Pump up the Jam! Pump it Up! Pump it UP!!

Terminology is wrong

[dwlemon]

"..rock groups need roadies to hump.."

No. Those are groupies.

here's the patent info...

[chthonicphage]

Patent Number: WO0154541 (UK)
Publication date: 2001-08-02
Inventor(s): WIENER DAVID
Applicant(s):: SOUNDTUBE ENTERTAINMENT INC (US)

A speaker assembly (100) is provided including a rigid front speaker mounting element (102) defining at least one speaker mounting opening (103), at least one speaker driver (104) coupled to the at least one speaker mounting opening (103) of the speaker mounting element (102), at least one flexible bladder (106) at least partially forming the sides and rear of the enclosure and coupled to the speaker mounting element (102), and a valve (108) coupled to the flexible bladder (106). The flexible bladder (108) has a first wall portion (110) and a second wall portion (112) defining a substantally air-tight interior space (114) therebetween and may take any desired shape when inflated. Together, the speaker mounting element (102) and the bladder (106) form at least one interior chamber (116) at least partially surrounding the speaker driver (104). The valve (108), which provides a substantially air-tight seal when closed, is in fluid communication with the interior space of the flexible bladder (106) and can be used for inflation and deflation of the bladder (106). The bladder (106) is inflatable by providing either pressurized gas or expandable foam within the interior space. Alternatively, the bladder may be formed as a plurality of independently inflatable cells, or may be evacuatably-formed from a material having shape retaining memory properties. After use, the bladder (106) enclosure may be removed from the speaker mounting elemet (102), and deflated for reuse, or disposed of.

If it worked, I bet smaller bands could use this.

[Mustang Matt]

Think of all the bands that can't afford to fly their equipment around. Now they could.

I bet there is some really interesting things that could be done with this technology.

For instance, could you change the response of the speakers by adding more air pressure inside of the enclosure? Seems like you could easily tune for each song if you wanted to.

Almost Certainly Bullshit

[crucini]

The audio world is crawling with hopeful inventors who don't understand much about sound and electro-accoustics. I've had the privilege of seeing many of these "inventions" first hand. The article failed to address the key issue behind "inflatable speakers": rigidity. In a vented box, which is the most common type of low-frequency and very-low-frequency system, the walls need to be pretty rigid to prevent distortion and energy loss. If these inventors have some way to make a balloon as rigid as 3/4" birch plywood with closely spaced transverse braces, the article doesn't mention it.

The only kinds of speaker enclosure that aren't concerned with rigidity are those that simply enclose rigid horns made of fibreglas, plastic or wood. In these situations, the enclosure merely protects the components from dust, water and damage and does not serve an accoustic funciton. JBL among others has realized this and is making a series of touring speakers which are simply frames of metal tubing with no side walls. Again, inflatable walls would add nothing to such a system.

As for the "beach ball" idea, this can be interpreted in two different ways, due to the lack of detail in the article. If you make a conventional (sealed or vented box) speaker system with spherical form, it will have a sharp resonant peak related to the diameter of the sphere. This peak can be reduced by increasing the absorbent material inside the enclosure, but still reflects a design mistake. A sphere is the worst possible shape for a conventional speaker enclosure. A second application of a sphere is to place it in front of a speaker (possibly a tweeter) creating in effect a radial horn. By careful positioning, two or even three transducers could share one sphere. An inflated beach ball could work for high and even mid frequencies. As the frequency gets lower, however, the need for rigidity of the sphere increases. In general, the sphere should be hard and rigid.

Such a system will never work as well as separate, properly designed horns for the separate transducers. Its only benefit is visual gimmickry and possible cost savings.

Re:Almost Certainly Bullshit

[Reality Master 101]

If these inventors have some way to make a balloon as rigid as 3/4" birch plywood with closely spaced transverse braces, the article doesn't mention it.

I think most of us probably have an image of some cheap inflatable pool float, but we don't really know what materials this is made out of or what pressure it is inflated to. Put it this way, what if the enclosure were made of tire rubber and inflated to 250 pounds pressure, with cross braces etc? It would probably be pretty rigid.

Now, I doubt that scenerio that I just laid out would give you any weight or cost savings, but it's an idea of how this might go if that used more interesting materials. :)

Unclear on the concept.

[blair1q]

If you could make speakers and enclosures out of lightweight materials, it would have been done long before now.

They're made out of 3/4th-inch plywood to take the stress of constant packing and unpacking.

I predict the first tour that tries to use these things will end up with what looks like the first all-duct-tape speaker enclosures by the end of the trip.

--Blair

Bull Shit

[HEbGb]

I don't believe it for a minute.

Distortion down to 'unheard of low levels'? Hype city. There is absolutely no plausible mechanism to support this claim. As for transdcuer shapes, such as tetrahedral, it's almost completely irrelevant as far as sound quality goes.

Loudspeakers don't have a limited lifetime because of corrosion. It's usually fatigue of the constituent materials, of which an inflatable plastic would certainly be about the worst.

These might be a good gimmick, but nothing more. I think their egos need a bit of deflating.

They're apparently using NXT flat panel techniques. No wonder this is so full of mindless hype.

Hype city

[HEbGb]

I think it's time to deflate the hype surrounding these things a bit.

They basically use an inflatable structure (not unlike a beachball) as a loudspeaker enclosure, and attach a flat-panel loudspeaker to the front. Voila.

Performance of these will be questionable, at best, and they will certainly not have the performance they're claiming. Utter nonsense. They've provided absolutely nothing to support their claims.

Loudspeaker enclosured are designed to be rigid for a reason - they're essentially used as baffles and resonant structures, that, when properly designed, will provide a reliable, efficient, output of sound. An inflatable loudspeaker will not have any rigidity, thereby eliminating its use as a baffle, and severely diminishing low frequency performance. Second, the fact that the air will be expected to leak over time will change the resonant structure significantly, eliminating any possibility of consistent performance, if it even could be attained in the first place.

Now, an inflatable loudspeaker might be a nice gimmick, but it will absolutely not be a performance product. Not even close.

This is all hype, folks, nothing to see here - move along.

Oh, they're apparently VC funded? Go figure with the outlandish claims!

But, but...

[Fear the Clam]

What will raveGrrrls stand on top of to dance? What will dweebBoyz jump from to crowd surf? My whole '90s world -- gone!

At least I'll always have my tribal tattoo.

similar to inflatable guitars!

[guidobot]

There's actually already an inflatable acoustic guitar on the market, I've played it and it works very well. My ex-girlfriend was going to work for the guy making them, but the company is quite poor and couldn't afford to pay her. He was a real nice guy though, and had been trying to make one since 1979. Its based on the physics of an insect wing... there's quite a lot of information about it on the site mentioned above.

Anyways, don't discount the inflatable speakers as things that wouldn't work... these guitars worked really well. I saw them first in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts...

Ellula Sounds Ltd.

[frantzdb]

The article mentions Ellula Sounds Ltd. (not to be confused with EULA). A quick google search gives an article with a picture. See also Ellula's corporate page.

--Ben