Essential Install | Sponsored Section: Genesis
The original dARTS
Theater was
unveiled in 2005
The dARTS demo
at EI Live! is
always popular
If we look once again at the story of power, we can see
that many companies solved the problem of delivering
high SPL by moving to ‘controlled directivity’ speaker
designs. These use horn loaded tweeters or multiple
drivers to create arrays which focus the sound energy
towards the listener. These designs almost exclusively
have a relatively narrow vertical dispersion and a very
wide horizontal dispersion which has a massive impact
on the timbre of the refl ections created by the speakers
and which are an inevitable part of listening to sound in a
home cinema.
It is also extremely diffi cult to create a speaker with
even dispersion across the frequency response range.
This again impacts those all-important refl ections. When
examining the guidelines and trying to understand the
performance achieved in those fi rst immersive audio
demos (Genesis Technologies opened the fi rst immersive
demo room in Europe back in 2013), I quickly came to the
conclusion that controlled directivity speakers could not
deliver the immersive experience that we promised. The
sound had a tendency to jump between the top and bed
speakers and effects like cars sounded as though they
were wrapped around the room rather than travelling
through it in three dimensions. In other words, the stereo
panning effect between the bed and top channels was
not convincing.
The solution seemed to be to move towards a more
classical speaker design with a single dome tweeter
which would deliver broad and consistent dispersion
in all channels so that stereo panning would be equal
in both the horizontal and vertical planes. I also felt that
the natural frequency response of the tweeter without
comb fi ltering or breakup effects found in arrays and
horns would be a great benefi t. Of course this approach
was completely contrary to everything I had previously
advised our dealers on projects and in numerous training
classes. Not something to be taken lightly!
The big challenge with such a speaker design is
fi nding a way to deliver high SPL and broad dispersion
and consistent frequency response. Luckily I was aware
of a solution that I thought might be able to rise to this
challenge – dARTS Digital Theatre System.
The soft dome tweeter (US Patent # 3328537 – 1967)
may be Phase Technologies best-known innovation, and
has been the most widely used tweeter design worldwide
for the last 50 years.
Phase Technology closely monitored the
advancement of DSP (digital signal processing)
technologies and envisioned their use in active,
digitally amplifi ed speakers, enabling complete
control over their performance. Fifteen years
of research and development followed this
initial idea. Finalising the concept for a digitally
controlled and powered speaker, Phase Tech
collaborated with Audyssey Laboratories to create
a home theatre system that would provide optimal
performance regardless of room conditions.
The result was dARTS Theater – a “Digital Audio
Reference Theater System”. The original dARTS Theater,
unveiled in 2005, was met with amazement by reviewers
– it was the fi rst speaker system with predictable results in
b oth the lab and the listening room.
The dARTS system has been continuously developed
since its introduction and the most recent version has
received a number of outstanding reviews with Doug
Blackburn in Widescreen review concluding, “The dARTS
system is simply the best home theatre sound system I’ve
heard so far.” So why is dARTS so exceptional?
1. Fully active system where the output is matched exactly
to the driver
2. Speakers are factory profi led and matched to +-0.5dB
across the frequency range
3. Massive power handling designed to deliver the 105dB
reference level in rooms up to 500m3
4. Perfect frequency response with custom room EQ to
factory target curves
5. Perfect dispersion with unicell treatment to match
tweeter to woofers.
When I fi rst heard the dARTS system I was amazed
by the envelopment that it delivered. Sound was
everywhere in the room not just coming from where
I knew the speakers to be. This is an experience that
we have recreated many times including at the EI Live!
Show. Sound and Vision Magazine stated of the dARTS
CEDIA demo, “The Dolby Leaf demo never sounded so
directionally startling in its 360° surround bubble.” For
me, that is what immersive audio is all about. The fi nal
point is that the dARTS system offers incredible value for
money with fully active 7.2.4 ATMOS packages, including
32x250W channels of DSP amplifi cation, starting at
£30,000+VAT end user.
Neil Davidson, [email protected]
+44 787 941 2280
Neil Davidson is the owner and MD of Genesis
Technologies Ltd and Cinema Acoustic Treatment
Systems Ltd and co-owner and MD of Display
Technologies Ltd. Neil has specialised in B2B design,
training and sales for high end residential cinema
solutions since entering the industry in 2005.
October 2017 | 35