Exciters - Structure-Bourne Sound Drivers

By VISATON 89

Exciters - Structure-Bourne Sound Drivers

VISATON's exciters, or bodyshakers, are basically loudspeakers without a membrane. They consist of three main components, including the oscillating mass (1), the contact pins (2) to connect to the amplifier, and the mounting plate (3) to hook up to the surface to be excited. By applying a voice or music signal to the contact pins, the oscillating mass starts shaking with the frequency of the applied signal. This oscillation is transmitted to the mounting plate and from there, onto the surface that the exciter sticks to. The excited surface will emit the voice or music signal. The functionality of an exciter is similar to the functionality of a conventional loudspeaker. There are some differences in how the sound is emitted. The excited surface is very large and heavy compared to a lightweight cone membrane, making it unable to oscillate coherently. This means that not every point of the surface moves in the same direction with the same amplitude at the same time. The exciter generates a bending wave which propagates towards the edge of the excited plate. From there, it is reflected towards the exciter.

To illustrate this behavior, imagine a stone thrown into a basin of water. From the point where the stone hits the surface of the water, a circular bending wave propagates towards the seam of the basin where it is reflected. The original wave and the reflected wave interfere with each other, causing a chaotic wave pattern on the water surface. The same applies to the excited surface. The original wave from the exciter interferes with the reflected waves from the edges of the plate resulting in an incoherent emission of sound. This incoherent sound emission is the main reason for the ultra-wide, uniformly distributed sound field of an excited surface. The quality of the reproduced music or voice signal is strongly dependent on the characteristics of the excited surface, including the material, the shape, and the dimensions.

Features
  • "Invisible" loudspeaker: no interference with design issues
  • Ideal protection against environmental influences such as weather, water, and cleaning agents
  • Ideal protection against vandalism
  • Easy installation
  • Capable of high-quality sound output and a wide sound dispersion angle
Disadvantages
  • Low efficiency factor compared to standard loudspeakers (more output power from the amplifier required)
  • Devices that can touch the excited surface can cause disturbing noise acoustics that are strongly dependent on the material, the dimensions, and the shape of the excited plate

Categories

Top