McCauley Sound has taken a radically different
approach to line array. Conventional line-array
designs rely on physical waveguides in order to
create the mid and high band wavefront, at the
expense of introducing a significant amount of
distortion. Because high-frequency waveforms are
very fragile, the same boundary edges that were
supposed to guide high frequencies, are also causing
the waves to diffract, altering arrival times,
translating into measurable loss of intelligibility
and irregularities in coverage.
The MONARC family of line array modules
are engineered so the mid and high-frequency
elements would inter-operate as their own
virtual waveguide, removing the physical
boundaries that diffract and misdirect energy,
as a result creating a completely undisrupted,
single-source wavefront.
At the heart of this propagation phenomenon
are two key technologies: the InterCell
Summation Aperture™ and Adaptive
Density Inverse Flat Lens™.
The primary function of the InterCell
Summation Aperture is to manage
the dispersion of the mid and high-frequency
energy once it leaves the Adaptive Density
Inverse Flat Lens. Easily recognizable as
the “V” shaped section in the
center of the cell, the ICS Aperture is
able to achieve distortion free mid and
high-coupling for two key reasons:
First,
MONARC cells will always operate at a fixed
frontal spacing, regardless of splay angle.
For this reason, McCauley Sound designed
the InterCell Summation Aperture
to extend vertically from the top to the
bottom of each cell, without a physical
baffle to interrupt energy from cell to
cell. When assembled, this creates an uninterrupted
vertical high-frequency energy source which
traverses the entire height of the array.
Since the multiple diffraction edges of
an extended waveguide are not present to
cause distortion, and the wavefront is not
interrupted by large gaps between enclosures,
the high-frequency energy now leaves the
array undisrupted, as a continuous line
source. By placing intercept points for
the already flattened HF waveforms outside
of a physical boundary, and without using
unnecessary physical devices to guide this
energy, the MONARC series creates a measurably
consistent wavefront. This is the first
key to the series’ exceptional clarity
and intelligibility.
INTEGRATION
OF ELEMENTS
The other key to achieving distortion-free
propagation lies in the placement and design
of the midrange elements. In many competitor’s
designs, the uneven surface topography of
the midrange elements will agitate the passing
high-frequency waveforms, causing further
distortions. Within the ICS Aperture the quantity
and intensity of these destructive perturbations
are greatly reduced because the cone structure
of the HX32 midrange drivers has been physically
contoured to be invisible to the passing HF
energy. Again, unnecessary HF diffractions
have been minimized, boosting the clarity
of the performance.
Once two HX32 midrange drivers are symmetrically
arranged within the ICS Aperture, they form
both a solid and a kinetic boundary plane.
This plane will act as a virtual waveguide
for HF energy exiting the Adaptive Density
Inverse Flat Lens, while establishing the
alignment intercept point for coupling with
the mid band energy. Therefore, without the
interference of a physical waveguide, and
no irregular protrusions to disturb the passing
waveforms, the ICS Aperture becomes the ideal
environment for guiding and coupling the mid
and HF-energies into a vertically continuous,
single-source, wide-band wavefront.
The most overlooked element in large format
line array design has been the propagation
time of a wave across the emissive surface
with respect to creating a unified wavefront.
The Adaptive Density Inverse Flat Lens is
designed to both combine output from multiple
HF drivers and remove temporal variations
from the HF energy between the time it is
generated at the HF diaphragm and when it
leaves the lens mouth. This progressive delay
matrix corrects for curvature inherent in
the HF wavefront, flattening and aligning
HF output before its integration with the
mid band energy, prior to the cell-to-cell
summation phase. Because waveforms are now
relatively flat with regards to time, the
HF output couples seamlessly with output from
adjoining MONARC cells. As a side benefit,
beyond grooming HF energy for vertical summation,
the Adaptive Density Inverse Flat Lens also
acts to focus the HF energy, increasing the
overall sensitivity of the array.
A uniform arc of integrated mid and high-frequency
energy, undisrupted and vertically continuous
across the length of the array, is the very
definition of MONARC.
Intercell Summation Aperture
eliminates unnecessary boundaries,
allowing wavefront to from with
minimized diffraction.
Transducer complements
remain at near-equal spacing regardless
of array curvature.
Adaptive Density Inverse
Flat Lens flattens HF energy prior
to cell-to-cell summation, creating
a more coherent wavefront. .
