Sony Electronics Introduces a Powered Line-Array Speaker Designed for Use with Large Displays

Sony Electronics’ new high-performance line-array speaker, the SLS-1A, is purpose-built to create new sound field coverage when paired with large format displays.  It is ideal for education, corporate, retail and faith applications. The speaker solves common pain-points for large and medium spaces with large format display, for example unfavorable acoustics and architectural challenges, intelligibility, separation of visuals and sound, and the inability to create a listening experience prioritized for each participant.

“This powerful new line-array speaker offers superior, intelligible, localized audio,” said Rich Ventura, Vice President of B2B, Sony Electronics. “As a company with a rich history in sound, we’re looking forward to putting the audio back into AV with a solution that prioritizes sonic quality. We did our homework with the launch of the SLS-1A, deliberately developing and designing an immersive product that enhances listeners’ experiences and solves customers’ acoustic challenges related to uniform sound distribution, modularity and installation.”

Wide Sweet Spot to Accommodate Large Displays

One key feature of this new modular bar-style speaker is its wide sweet spot, which creates a clear sound field in larger spaces. With its compact and modular design, the newly developed SLS-1A is equipped with Sony’s unique speaker technology, in addition to an onboard DSP (digital signal processor) and power amplification providing 80W total per module.  Through this design, the SLS-1A not only suppresses the sound distortion, but also enables beam steering which controls the direction and angle of sound delivery with a high degree of accuracy. This combination of technologies and set-up options delivers a sound system that is effective not only for voice, but also for content playback, to create a uniform sound pressure and quality in large listening areas.

Flexible Installation with Compact Size

Packing eight channels of AMP/DSP into a rigid aluminum casing, the SLS-1A can be aligned vertically or horizontally, which boosts its flexibility and multiplies its potential installations in different environments and configurations. Its modular approach means that several speakers can be added to the system through a single Dante®[1] connection, while flexible fine beam control optimizes audio and allows the SLS-1A to meet the requirements of multiple installation spaces, including lecture halls and office lobbies. Additionally, the modular solution offers a simplified design that incorporates fewer components which can reduce installation times and costs.

Center Screen Sound Localization

This specially designed speaker features center screen sound localization technology using horizontally placed speaker arrays to create a “phantom” center channel effect, making it well suited to large displays where center channel localization is challenging due to speaker position.  It also creates a uniform sound experience no matter where a viewer is positioned. The SLS-1A is designed to be paired with multiple large format display types, including Crystal LED, BRAVIA® 4K Professional Displays, as well as business projectors to create a connected AV ecosystem.

Key features include:

• Magnetic fluid speaker with flat and square diaphragm for less distortion
• 96kHz fine beam control with fine beam steering by 96kHz sampling rate DSP for staircase floors
• FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter (1024tap@96KHz) integrated into each speaker unit allows fine beam control from low frequency to high frequency
• Both Dante[1] Network and analog inputs for flexible and simple installation
• Paintable speaker enclosure and grill
• PC application “Line-Array Speaker Manager” for settings control
• Sound simulation application EASE® Focus 3 and coverage optimization technology FIRmaker® 3D by AFMG® are supported[2]
• Seamless use alongside Sony and third-party large displays

The SLS-1A can also be used in partnership with Sony’s MAS-A100 beamforming microphone, to improve the performance of its speech reinforcement technology in lecture halls and classrooms.

The SLS-1A is planned to be available January 2023 in North America.  For more information about this new model and Sony’s lineup of AV technologies, please visit https://pro.sony/avsolutions.  Read Sony Electronics’ latest news at https://pro.sony/press or follow Sony’s professional business on social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

[1] Dante® is registered trademarks of Audinate Pty Ltd.

[2] EASE®, FIRmaker® and AFMG® are registered trademarks of AFMG Technologies GmbH.