Right now, if you happen to find yourself in a honkin’ German SUV and you want a great sound system, you’re in luck. Audi will be happy to supply you with a Q7 that boasts a Bang & Olufsen sound system with a dizzying 14 speakers, but that’s child’s play compared to what the Four-Rings are up to with the Institute for Digital Media Technology. The two have partnered to create a special Q7 prototype with 62 speakers, including five woofers and five tweeters. This isn’t some Pimp My Ride exercise, though. Each one of those speakers is individually driven by an advanced computer to create a universal audio sweet spot in the cabin.
IDMT calls the technology wave field synthesis, and the system can individually delay speaker impulses to keep the sound in check. It’s less of a cacophony and more of personalized stereo experience no matter where the listener is sitting inside the vehicle.
The wave field tech has been applied to the Linden Lichtspiele Cinema with an epic 192-speaker system. The only downside is that neither movie companies nor the recording industry are creating material with wave field encoding.
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