FlatPanelSpeakers
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EOps i24R3Portable speaker is mad, bad, and waterproof
Think of a soundbar rolled into a circular, battery-powered body and you'll have a pretty good idea of what we're looking at here. The product's name -- EOps i24R3Portable Wireless Waterproof Digital Speaker Platform -- should tidy up any further queries you may have. Michael Young's latest design for EOps, whose appearance only hints at its i24R3 heritage, is a fully sealed noisemaker that can communicate via wireless USB or Bluetooth, depending on the model. You should pick your poison with care as there are no options for wired hook-ups. With a Li-Pol battery pack and an array of flat panel speakers and passive radiators inside, this could well be the ultimate in portable weatherproof speaker design, but even if it isn't, we'd still consider mounting it on a wall and worshipping it as our Sun God.
New flat-speaker tech could make public places even louder
Flat-panel speakers are nothing new, but a new version of the tech could one day replace boomy public address systems with hidden speakers that produce easier-to-hear audio in large spaces. Under development at the University of Warwick, FFL ("flat flexible loudspeaker") speakers are actually a thin laminate made of layers of conducting and insulating material that resonate when electricity is passed through them -- the crisper, clearer audio is a result of the entire surface creating sound in phase at once, which allows it to produce highly directional audio. Since they're so thin and flexible, FFL speakers can be hidden nearly anywhere -- behind signage, in the ceiling, or even painted and hung directly on the wall. Of course, this'll all come to nothing if the sound quality isn't up to snuff, but we'll find out more when the first commercial FFL product goes on sale later this year.[Via PhysOrg]
