Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2001-March 2006) | Subject: TMS320C2000
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 October 2005
Controllers add intelligence to
subwoofers
Velodyne Acoustics is using TI's TMS320C2000 platform of digital signal controllers across all new subwoofers - including the latest SPL-R Series.
Velodyne Acoustics, the leading supplier of high performance subwoofers, is now using TI's TMS320C2000 platform of digital signal controllers across all new subwoofers - including the latest Small, Precise, Loud (SPL-R) Series Velodyne has now incorporated TI digital signal processing (DSP)-based controller technology in subwoofers ranging in price from $399 to $14,999
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 14 Dec 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Digital Drive (DD) Series and Distortion Limiting Series (DLS-R) subwoofers introduced in 2004 already feature C2000 controller technology.
The latest subwoofer series, the SPL-R, features a small cabinet size of just 10 x 10 x 12in yet delivers 2000W of dynamic power with one-sixth the amount of distortion level of competitive systems.
Critics have been universal in their praise of Velodyne's state-of-the-art technology enabled by TI DSP-based controllers.
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Home Cinema Choice Magazine notes: "The technology and digital signal processing used on this product leaves all that have come before it in the dark ages".
Sterophile magazine states: "My strongest recommendation - after using Velodyne's Digital Drive software, I don't understand how anyone will be able to go back to tuning a subwoofer by ear".
Robb Report's Home Entertainment Magazine comments: "Velodyne's Digital Drive DD-15 subwoofer improves bass reproduction as much as the jet engine improved air travel".
Velodyne's digital high gain servo technology is used in all Digital Drive subwoofers.
This patented technology uses a sealed digital accelerometer to measure the actual movement of the subwoofer cone.
The C2000 controller then compares the cone movement to the input signal at a rate of 15,800 times per second and instructs the 1250W amplifier to modify its signal, keeping the cone's motion under control.
This system enables the construction of subwoofers with exceptional definition and low distortion.
Typical distortion rates at normal listening levels are well below 0.5% - many times less distortion than that found in competing products.
A subwoofer faces two main challenges when combined with a home theatre or music system - integration with the main speakers and overcoming acoustic room anomalies.
Integration is achieved through adjustments to volume, crossover and phase adjustments as well as subwoofer placement in the room.
Velodyne uses TI's C2000 controllers and a real-time video output to display volume, crossover and phase adjustments enabling a perfect match with subwoofer and the main speakers every time.
Acoustic room anomalies are overcome through automatic digital equalisation to adjust six- and eight-band EQs in the SPL-R and Digital Drive series, respectively.
The subwoofer generates a sweep tone that the included microphone detects and then automatically adjusts the digital EQ in order to minimise the effects of room modes.
This process is totally automated via the C2000 controller and provides cost-effective, dramatically improved room equalisation and adaptation to bass room anomalies than previously available.
"By integrating TI's C2000 controllers into all new subwoofers we make, we've taken a big step forward in bass reproduction".
"We can leverage the feature set and integration capabilities of the C2000 line into digital calibration and setup options that allow our subwoofers to perform unlike any other subwoofer", said Bruce Hall, President, Velodyne Acoustics: "We quickly realised that all subwoofers would eventually be digitally controlled".
"The benefits over conventional analogue control are too great to ignore".
Combining the real-time performance of TI's leading digital signal processors (DSP) with the peripheral integration, C-language efficiency and ease of use of a microcontroller (MCU), C2000 controllers integrate up to 256Kbyte of Flash memory for simple reprogramming during development and in-field software updates.
Optimised control peripherals include PWM generators, programmable general-purpose timers, capture modules for time stamping and glueless quadrature encoder interfaces.
The C2000 platform also features up to 12bit analogue-to-digital convertors (ADC) that provide fast conversions - up to 12.5Msample/s - for tight control loops.
Up to five different on-chip standard communication ports, including CAN, provide simple communication interfaces to hosts, test equipment, displays and other components or networks.
All program code for Velodyne's digitally controlled subwoofers was written by Velodyne's engineers using TI's Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE) and debugger.
Velodyne also leveraged TI's full range of analogue products including hex invertors, op amps, dual D-type positive-edge-triggered flip-flops and triple three-input positive-AND gates.
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