Loudspeaker polar pattern creation procedure

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, in a memory, a loudspeaker profile of a loudspeaker, wherein the loudspeaker profile comprises a plurality of drivers, a specified size of the drivers, models of the drivers, positions of the drivers, and orientations of the drivers within a loudspeaker cabinet of the loudspeaker;

defining a number of permutations of filter settings to be performed during a simulation, wherein each filter setting comprises one or more of a magnitude and phase adjustment for each of multiple frequency bands to apply to each driver within the loudspeaker;

iterating through the filter setting permutations with each filter setting applied to the drivers and calculating loudspeaker polar patterns;

storing the calculated polar patterns in a database;

selecting a polar pattern from the database that is the closest match to a target polar pattern; and

applying a filter setting that corresponds to the selected polar pattern to generate a FIR to apply to each driver within the loudspeaker.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising

identifying the target polar pattern from a target coverage angle;

defining polar pattern rating criteria which are dependent on the target polar pattern; and

calculating a rating of each polar pattern using the rating criteria, and wherein each driver is assigned one or more unique filters.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a size of the filter setting permutations is dependent on a specified magnitude adjustment range and step, phase adjustment range and step, and driver quantity, and wherein each driver at each frequency band has one magnitude value and phase adjustment value for each filter setting.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:

M r =magnitude adjustment range (dB);

M s =magnitude step (dB);

P r =phase adjustment range (degree);

P s =phase step (degree);

n=driver quantity; and

filter setting permutation size N=[(M r /M s +1)×(P r /P s +1)] n .

5. The method of claim 2 , comprising:

performing an acoustic redundancy removal technique (ARRT), which identifies filter settings in the permutations that are acoustically redundant and removes them from the permutations to reduce the number of permutations required to be performed.

6. The method of claim 5 , comprising:

identifying the filter setting and rating criteria of the polar pattern to reproduce the polar patterns.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the rating criteria comprise:

a nominal coverage angle;

a dissimilarity value with respect to the target polar pattern;

a maximum lobe intensity outside of the coverage angle;

a total lobe intensity outside of the coverage angle;

a maximum lobe intensity within the coverage angle;

an energy intensity within the coverage angle; and

a maximum magnitude attenuation.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

iterating through the polar pattern database and selecting the polar pattern with the highest similarity to the target polar pattern.

9. The method of claim 2 , comprising:

selecting an optimal match to the target polar pattern by a polar pattern sorting mode that applies one or more parameters from the rating criteria to sort the polar patterns and select the optimal match.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quantity of calculated polar patterns is equal to the filter setting permutations size.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor configured to

identify, in a memory, a loudspeaker profile of a loudspeaker, wherein the loudspeaker profile comprises a plurality of drivers, a specified size of the drivers, models of the drivers, positions of the drivers, and orientations of the drivers within a loudspeaker cabinet of the loudspeaker;

define a number of permutations of filter settings to be performed during a simulation, wherein each filter setting comprises one or more of a magnitude and phase adjustment for each of multiple frequency bands to apply to each driver within the loudspeaker;

iterate through the filter setting permutations with each filter setting applied to the drivers and calculating loudspeaker polar patterns;

store the calculated polar patterns in a database;

select a polar pattern from the database that is the closest match to a target polar pattern; and

apply a filter setting that corresponds to the selected polar pattern to generate a FIR to apply to each driver within the loudspeaker.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

identifying the target polar pattern from a target coverage angle;

defining polar pattern rating criteria which are dependent on the target polar pattern; and calculating a rating of each polar pattern using the rating criteria, and wherein each driver is assigned one or more unique filters.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a size of the filter setting permutations is dependent on a specified magnitude adjustment range and step, phase adjustment range and step, and driver quantity, and wherein each driver at each frequency band has one magnitude value and phase adjustment value for each filter setting.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein:

M r =magnitude adjustment range (dB);

M s =magnitude step (dB);

P r =phase adjustment range (degree);

P s =phase step (degree);

n=driver quantity; and

filter setting permutation size N=[(M r /M s +1)×(P r /P s +1)] n .

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

performing an acoustic redundancy removal technique (ARRT), which identifies filter settings in the permutations that are acoustically redundant and removes them from the permutations to reduce the number of permutations required to be performed.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

identifying the filter setting and rating criteria of the polar pattern to reproduce the polar patterns.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the rating criteria comprise:

a nominal coverage angle;

a dissimilarity value with respect to the target polar pattern;

a maximum lobe intensity outside of the coverage angle;

a total lobe intensity outside of the coverage angle;

a maximum lobe intensity within the coverage angle;

an energy intensity within the coverage angle; and

a maximum magnitude attenuation.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

iterating through the polar pattern database and selecting the polar pattern with the highest similarity to the target polar pattern.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

selecting an optimal match to the target polar pattern by a polar pattern sorting mode that applies one or more parameters from the rating criteria to sort the polar patterns and select the optimal match.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform:

identifying, in a memory, a loudspeaker profile of a loudspeaker, wherein the loudspeaker profile comprises a plurality of drivers, a specified size of the drivers, models of the drivers, positions of the drivers, and orientations of the drivers within a loudspeaker cabinet of the loudspeaker;

defining a number of permutations of filter settings to be performed during a simulation, wherein each filter setting comprises one or more of a magnitude and phase adjustment for each of multiple frequency bands to apply to each driver within the loudspeaker;

iterating through the filter setting permutations with each filter setting applied to the drivers and calculating loudspeaker polar patterns;

storing the calculated polar patterns in a database;

selecting a polar pattern from the database that is the closest match to a target polar pattern; and

applying a filter setting that corresponds to the selected polar pattern to generate a FIR to apply to each driver within the loudspeaker.