In early January 2015, ALMA International (Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing & Acoustics) is presenting a 3-part loudspeaker educational series for product designers, engineers, marketers and management at the Tuscany Suites & Casino in Las Vegas.
Part 1, “Loudspeakers: Form, Function, Specs, Application. How It All Comes Together,” will present a practical review of loudspeaker construction, materials and how they influence loudspeaker performance.
In addition, the course will examine a variety of measurements and specifications, and how they can relate to both predictive performance and practical output measurement.
And, it will cover what to look for when evaluating loudspeakers for specific applications, and how to perform tests without extensive test equipment.
This course is being presented Saturday, January 3, 2015, starting at 9 am.
Part 2, “Valuable Lessons and Tools They Didn’t Teach You In School,” looks at loudspeaker education and related issues.
There is no current degree or certification for loudspeaker engineering, with college graduates are often called upon to play “catch up” when hired by loudspeaker manufacturers or design firms. This wastes time, productivity, and can be costly in terms of design time and product performance.
A veteran panel will be addressing this issue, including Tim Gladwin of Warkwyn Associates, Alan Babb of Bosch, Peter Larsen of LOUDsoft, John Busenitz of Bose, and Richard Little of Sonos.
This course is being presented on Sunday, January 4, 2015, starting at 8 am.
Part 3, “Loudspeaker Design: Concept to Product,” will introduce the basic concepts of loudspeakers and walk through several complete loudspeaker system designs. Topics to be covered include:
—Equivalent circuits, impedance and Thiele-Small parameters
—Inherent driver nonlinearities
—The effects of modal behavior and cone breakup
—Closed box and ported box system analysis, with several design examples worked through with both hand calculations and CAD
—Passive radiator, band pass, and transmission line systems
—Issues of multiple drivers and cabinet construction.
—Directivity and diffraction effects
—Crossover network design fundamentals
—Room acoustic effects on loudspeakers
This course is being presented on Sunday, January 4, 2015, starting at 2 pm.
Go here for more information and to register.