South African Retailer of the Audio Spotlight

 

Applications

Historically, sound has been a limited marketing tool because the value of using sound is often outweighed by the cost of adding noise to the store environment. All too often, retailers have resorted to not using sound at all, even for products that inherently need it. Many displays of DVD's, music, and video games, just don't have sound at all - making them easily overlooked by customers.

Targeted Message from the Audio Spotlight helps boost sales by over 130%

 

Digital Signage for In-Store Advertising

Key Advantages:

  • Clear, concise targeted sound
  • Avoids filling store with noise while distracting clerks
  • Targets Specific audience and display area
  • Simple installation with a clean, attractive look

Shoppers value a peaceful, pleasant environment, and do not want to be bombarded with noise or unrelenting, continuous advertising. At the same time, advertisers want to be sure that their ads are both heard and listened to. Blasting customers with repeating streams of audio advertising from loudspeakers is a sure way to reduce their attention to the advertisement, as well a diminish their shopping pleasure. This leads to less time spent in the store, fewer purchases, and an unfavourable impression of the store itself.

With the Audio Spotlight® technology, sound is delivered in a tight, well-controlled beam with the same degree of control as a visual spotlight. This beam of sound can be directed to a specific area within the store, such as in front o a display to provide sound for only the intended audience, while preserving quiet for all others.

This ensures that not only is the information heard clearly, but that it does not bother other shoppers, or even the clerks themselves. In some instances, employees forced to listen to repeating advertisements have even resorted to damaging or disabling the equipment.

Retail displays

  • Attract and excite shoppers with sound, without adding noise.
  • Maintain peace and quiet, while still providing sound.
  • "Illuminate" cars in a showroom with a pre-recorded narrative.
  • Shine sound onto products on shelves.

Retailers are always for searching for new ways to reach customers, and customers are always looking for more information about products, as well as a more pleasant shopping experience.

Several retailers around the world are now using Audio Spotlight technology to deliver sound to specific areas, without creating background noise, and without disturbing the peaceful environment important for shopper comfort.

The Audio Spotlight may be the most radical technological development in acoustics since the coil loudspeaker was invented in 1925... The Audio Spotlight will force people to rethink their relationship with sound, as the arrivals of the phonograph, the telephone and the Walkman have done before. Since 2000, Audio Spotlight technology has been installed in a wide range of applications around the world. From museums, exhibits, galleries, kiosks, to retail stores and special projects, hundreds of companies have chosen the unique, patented Audio Spotlight technology to provide high-quality, precisely controlled sound.

Art Galleries and Museums

This installation is at the Pretoria Art Museum.

Trade Shows and Exhibitions:

Add sound to your exhibit without adding to the ambient noise

 
 
 

Signage/Advertising

A&E Billboard

  
Until now, adding sound to billboards was not an option because of obvious noise problems; nearby neighbors and businesses would not tolerate continuous noise from roof-mounted loudspeakers. With the Audio Spotlight technology, sound can be targeted to a specific area, and provide audio just to this small region – all the way from a rooftop. JP Freeley of BlueBlastMedia has applied this method to a billboard in Manhattan for A&E's new television series "Paranormal State." A pair of Audio Spotlight systems mounted above the billboard project sound down onto a targeted area of the sidewalk – from seven stories up! The projected sound is a women's whispering voice that startles and entertains passersby. Their attention is drawn directly to the billboard itself. Meanwhile, quiet is preserved for all of the neighbours.

Target Billboard

To promote "Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art," part of its First Saturdays series at the Brooklyn Museum, retailer Target employed Audio Spotlight technology to play Caribbean-themed music for people who walked by the red and white billboards. The goal was to increase people’s engagement with the billboard, which invited them to a free evening of art and entertainment. BlueBlast Media installed a pair of Audio Spotlight systems in each of the three billboards in the Brooklyn, NY area around the museum. The systems beamed music only to those within the targeted area while others outside of the beam remained completely unaffected. The billboard was able to effectively capture the attention of the consumer while maintaining quiet for nearby homes and businesses.

   
 
   
       

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

Q: Can Audio Spotlight systems be used outdoors?

A: Though our current models are not designed nor certified for outdoor use, the materials are naturally very weather-resistent, and many customers do use them outdoors with success. For increased protection, some used plastic sheeting over the back of the speaker panel to prevent water from entering, and placed the amplifier in a waterproof plastic box. While there are no specific plans to produce a special outdoor design, if sufficient application opportunities were available, we could certainly do so.

Q: Can these speakers be used in a stereo application?

A: The word "stereo" means nothing more than "two speakers". Our systems are sold individually, and while you can certainly use them in stereo configurations, it is really not needed in essentially all applications. Due to the unique acoustic properties of the technology, the sound appears to envelop the listener, and is heard as almost "inside the head", so the stereo separation helpful for traditional loudspeakers is really not necessary with the Audio Spotlight.

Q: What is the frequency response of the system?

A: Inherent in the use of ultrasound to reproduce audio is a trade off between maximum output level and low frequency response. This is controllable on the amplifier. A rough guideline for practical frequency response is about 200 to 400 Hz at the lower limit to 16 kHz or so. The AS-24 offers an additional octave of low frequency response and twice the output level compared to the AS-16.

Q: Is there any bleed outside of the sound beam?

A: While not precisely zero outside the beam, bleed is extremely quiet, with sound levels dropping over 90% one step outside the beam. It's best to use a lighting analogy: Our systems "shine" beams of sound onto a very specific area. Just like it is easy to see the light from the beam of a flashlight in a very dark room, it is sometimes easy to hear very quiet sounds in a silent room. Typical background noise helps to mask the bleed, just like ambient lighting makes a flashlight beam invisible unless it is aimed right at you.

The dramatic drop in level should be plenty to maintain the quiet outside of the focused area. In the absence of all ambient noise, complete silence outside the beam is impossible, as the human ear is sensitive enough to hear 0.0001% of the energy; but just as this is a non-issue with light beams, it is usually is not an issue with beams of sound.

Q: What happens when the beam hits an object?

A: Audible sound created by Audio Spotlight technology, while in a tight beam, is absorbed, reflected, and scattered the same as all sound waves. However, if the reflective surface is flat, such as a wall or floor, the beam maintains its directivity perfectly, reflecting like a laser from a mirror, maintaining good acoustic isolation. Sound wave scattering only occurs when the reflecting object is extremely irregular at scales of audible wavelengths, such as an acoustic diffuser panel designed specifically to scatter sound.

Q: At what distance does the sound become audible?

A: Audible sound is being produced along the entire distance of the sound beam, from right at the speaker and onward. Detailed sound coverage is shown on the technology page http://www.silentsound.co.za/technology.htm

Q: How far can the Audio Spotlight speaker beam sound?

A: There is no exact measurement for how far the sound will travel. It's a bit a like trying to specify how far a flashlight will shine. The audible distance is heavily dependent on ambient noise levels and physical objects in the beam path, but we have noted clear audibility at distances of 200m.

Audio Spotlight systems are much less sensitive to listener distance than traditional loudspeakers, and while maximum performance is attained at roughly 1-2m (3-6 ft) from the listener, we have also had systems mounted eight stories up on a building rooftop, beaming clearly audible sound to street-level in Manhattan.

 

Q: Can the Audio Spotlight be used to fill a large area with sound, like a night club?

A: Our systems deliver sound to tight, narrow areas, just like spotlights. Multiple systems can be used to create a larger sound area, similar to track lighting. Filling an entire dance floor with sound would nearly require tiling the ceilings with Audio Spotlight systems, rendering this quite impractical.

Q: How do Audio Spotlight systems compare to other directional audio products?

A: Since Holosonics created the market for directional loudspeakers, a few traditional loudspeaker manufacturers have released systems that claim isolation and directivity. These systems take the form of speaker panels, arrays, and domes. It is important to note that all loudspeakers become more directional as their size increases. Therefore, a large speaker (or array) is more directional than a small speaker, and this is what these manufacturers are selling. Another trick that some manufacturers use is to specify directivity only at an unusually high frequency, where sound from all loudspeakers is more directional.

These "directional" products feature 30 degrees or more of spread, with hardly a difference in level, and even then only at high frequency. Holosonics believes that "directional" sound should be comparable to light, or a laser - such as the 5 degrees of spread of the Audio Spotlight system.

None of these products even remotely approach the directivity or sound isolation offered by the Audio Spotlight, as you would need a speaker dozens of feet across to mimic the directivity offered by our system! Only the Audio Spotlight creates a true beam of sound, with a 90% drop of level one step outside the beam.

Q: What additional hardware do I need?

A: Our systems consist of a speaker panel, amplifier/processor, universal power supply and all connection cables. The power supply accepts worldwide power input, and we will include the appropriate power cable. The systems are compatible with any standard playback device, including mp3, CD and DVD players, computers, projectors, and more. We offer a variety of mounting options, shown in detail on the PRODUCTS page.

Our systems are based on unique acoustical physics, and are not compatible with traditional loudspeakers or traditional audio amplifiers. Do not attempt to connect any Audio Spotlight devices to this equipment as it could lead to equipment damage.

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