Competing desires: Small footprint vs. Big sound – Talking TV with Sanyo’s Brad Bird
The TV market is in the midst of rapid changes. While TV screens get larger every year, the TV cabinets themselves get thinner and more streamlined, sometimes at the expense of sound quality. Increasing conservation measures from regulators such as Energy Star and the California Energy Commission mean TVs are also greener. But the size and energy conservation create real challenges for TV manufacturers. That’s where Audyssey comes in. Audyssey EQ, ABX and Dynamic Volume solve these tricky audio problems. We spoke with Sanyo’s Coordinating Industrial Designer Bradley Bird about how this suite of Audyssey technologies helped Sanyo’s new TVs stay slim, green and sounding great.
Tell me about the Audyssey technologies you chose for Sanyo’s new TV releases
Audyssey EQ, Dynamic Volume and ABX are going into all of the new Sanyo TVs between 26” and 52”. These all feature USB connectivity and the larger ones add multiple HDMI and Component inputs. We consider the Audyssey package a tremendous benefit for our customers.
Why did Sanyo turn to Audyssey?
We really needed technology that could compensate for the slimmer redesign and the more stringent energy conservation requirements. Our customers want increasingly minimal TVs with the speakers embedded in the frame and invisible from the front – I mean invisible, no one even wants speaker grills anymore.
Add to that the more stringent Energy Star regulation and we were faced with a serious challenge: how to meet these aesthetic and regulatory requirements without compromising sound quality? It turned out that the suite of Audyssey technologies not only helped maintain, but even improved the sound on our TVs.
How so?
The loudness suppression from Dynamic Volume, detail-boosting power of EQ and the bass improvement from ABX were immediately noticeable. These Audyssey technologies helped us create products that didn’t sacrifice audio quality for other considerations. To us, they are features every bit as important as having USB Photo Viewer capability.
When did you first hear an Audyssey demo? What did you think?
A few years ago at a trade show in Mexico we heard it on some prototype TVs and were immediately impressed. Even though the TVs were thin, they had real audio performance and clarity – less variation in background noise and conversation. The Audyssey technologies helped considerably.
What’s in the future for Sanyo TVs?
Two feature sets: 3D TV and internet-ready TV. While we will eventually make the move to 3D, at the moment we’re working on internet-ready TV, talking to content providers such as Hulu and Netflix to make online streaming content available on our TVs. But any future development will always have to respond to the reduced power requirements we’re facing from Energy Star and the California Energy Commission. Conservation forces us to be more creative – it’s how, after all, we came upon solutions from Audyssey to boost bass and performance in smaller speakers. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next and we would love to see Audyssey technologies in many more Sanyo products.