Sony Electronics’ new high-performance line-array speaker, the SLS-1A. It is designed 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,” the announcement states.
“This powerful new line-array speaker offers superior, intelligible, localized audio,” says 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.”
One key feature of this new modular bar-style speaker is a “wide sweet spot,” designed to create a clear sound field in larger spaces. Featuring a 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 suppresses sound distortion and enables beam steering, which controls the direction and angle of sound delivery accurately. This combination of technologies and set-up options is designed for voice as well as content playback, to create a uniform sound pressure and quality in large listening areas.
With eight channels of AMP/DSP in a rigid aluminum casing, the SLS-1A can be aligned vertically or horizontally to boost flexibility and multiply 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 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.
A 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.
Sony Lists Key features as:
- 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
- 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.
