From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


An Internet Protocol (IP) Loudspeaker is an electromechanical transducer that converts an electrical signal into sound. This type of speaker can also be termed an Active loudspeaker, meaning it contains an Audio amplifier that can drive power to the speaker drivers. In many cases this type of speaker also contains digital signal processing (DSP) means to provide the Audio crossover and other signal processing to provide frequency division and other tonal functions. Many IP Speakers contain multiple amplifiers, usually one per speaker driver. IP Speakers are also known as Network Loudspeakers.


History

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A Patent application on IP Speakers was filed on May 2002 (2005013558) Inventors Michael Braithwaite, Paul Bryson and Herman Cardenas who later went on to found the IP AV company NetStreams authored the Patent Application This was later published in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) on June 16th, 2005. The patent application is still in review.


Designs

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The first commercial IP Speaker was produced by Polk Audio under license from NetStreams. Since the Polk Audio LC265i-IP Speaker was released it has won many industry awards for innovation and sound quality.


Today IP Speakers are being produced by many companies.

The content produced by the DSP in an active IP loudspeaker was communicated across a packet-switched internetwork using IPv4 and IPv6 addressing with a User Datagram Protocol or UDP. The IP Speaker connects to Multicast or Unicast addresses to enable the delivery of streamed data to arrive at a single speaker of many speakers. IP Speakers use a protocol called Internet Group Management Protocol or IGMP to join these groups (Sink devices).

References

Wikipedia, Network Speaker