Daniel J SaitJan Abildgaard Pedersen, architect of the RoomPerfect correction system available across Steinway Lyngdorf and Lyngdorf Audio systems and serial audio inventor/consultant, takes on our audio-focused interview.
Tell us about how you first became interested in audio quality and the concept of ‘Room Correction’.
I got absorbed into the audio world first when I started to listen to the large Hi-Fi system that my older brother had in his room back in the days when we both lived with our parents in their house. I was absolutely fascinated by the emotions that BIG and AUTHENTIC audio can give you. During my studies at Aalborg University in Denmark I was blown away by being exposed to the dramatic changes of experienced performance of a loudspeaker when moving it from room to room or even just different loudspeaker positions inside the same room.
This happened when I was researching into MAA (Minimum Audible Angle). Here I manufactured 28 identical loudspeakers, that were meant to be placed close together in a linear array such that the angle towards a predefined listening position was varied in small increments. Just the fact that each loudspeaker was not placed identically in the listening room meant that the loudspeakers sounded very differently even when the angle difference was compensated for. This was the time that I realised that any loudspeaker MUST be adapted to the listening room and loudspeaker placement.
Can you tell us about how you set about coalescing your knowledge into a coherent package for installers to follow via RoomPerfect.
I was first studying several other room correction systems and I found that extensive acoustics skills, knowledge and experience was needed to have a chance to make those room correction systems work. This was a main reason for most people not to use the systems in the first place and also the main reason that most people that actually tried room correction had a poor experience. This is why I set out to develop a fully automatic room adaptation system. But this called on many very advanced technologies to be invented and perfected.
What are the key ways in which RoomPerfect achieves its goals?
In RoomPerfect, measurements are performed both at the listening position and in a small number of random positions throughout the whole listening room. This gives RoomPerfect much more comprehensive and meaningful information about the interaction between your loudspeaker and your listening room. This way, RoomPerfect is sampling the energy in the 3D sound field and provides a local optimisation guided by the global characteristics of your listening room. A very advanced algorithm is automatically calculating a new Target Curve every time that you perform a RoomPerfect calibration. This enables RoomPerfect to preserve all the main characteristics of YOUR loudspeaker while compensating for the influence of the listening room.
Upper and lower cut-off frequency together with sensitivity and directivity characteristics are the main parameters that RoomPerfect is identifying for YOUR loudspeaker and including into each Target Curve. A certain part of the influence of a listening room is natural to the human ear: the Room Gain. This is why the measured Room Gain in a standard listening room is an integral part of the generated Target Curve. This ensures that RoomPerfect will not remove the natural increase of SPL at lower frequencies. Finally, RoomPerfect uses a dedicated Test Signal during measurements with the custom developed microphone. This together with an internal Quality Control ensures that RoomPerfect always works on a robust, detailed and comprehensive set of information about YOUR loudspeakers and YOUR listening room.
How easy is Room Perfect to use? What is the process?
First you connect the microphone and place it on the microphone stand at the listening position. Here a first measurement is performed and then the microphone is moved through a minimum of three random positions, where also the measurement height is varied in a random way. On the display a ‘RoomKnowledge’ value between 0% and 100% guides you as to how many of the random positions is necessary. As soon as RoomKnowledge reaches 90% (probably after three or four random positions) the system will ask if you want to stop the measurement procedure. If you stop the measurement procedure – the system will automatically calculate the RoomPerfect filters and be ready to start enjoying your music in few seconds and without any involvement from the user. The system is a truly Fully Automatic Room Adaptation System.
Away from Room Perfect, tell us about some of the most interesting consultation projects you have been involved with.
As an audio consultant I do experience quite different tasks, like as the strategic advisor for the Board of Directors, sound tuning a loudspeaker, solving impossible audio problems, development of advanced dsp algorithms, acoustic measurements and more. On of the most interesting tasks involved development of the audio subsystem of a break through concept, i.e. a first of its kind system.
Tell us about your involvement with the Audio Engineering Society?
I have been a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) since 1994 and I was part of the AES Board of Governors for nine years where I was the President for three years. I used to be a reviewer of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society and I was chair of the Conference Policy Committee for a long period of time, where I was part of deciding which International AES Conferences should take place – in which countries, what technical area and who should form the organising committee. I also chaired five International AES Conferences myself on topics like ‘DSP for Loudspeakers’, ‘Class D Audio Amplification’, ‘Automotive Audio’ and more.
How healthy is the home cinema/media room and Hi-Fi sector right now?
Both the home cinema/media room and Hi-Fi sectors are in a good development helped by the trend that quality audio is coming back now. It is not only about convenience anymore – we also want high quality and authentic audio.
Away from work, what are your interests and hobbies?
For many years tennis has been a great sport for me – both for watching and for playing myself. I used to be the chair of the local tennis club for more than 10 years – but that is quite a while back now. I am also quite interested in politics and the whole structure of a society. So, becoming a board member of many different boards is only natural for me.
Do you have any favourite films or music you are enjoying currently?
The great movie Titanic holds for me so many of the elements of a great movie experience – even so many years later. The story is fascinating, dramatic and highly emotional. The very fact that the movie story closely follows a real history always makes a movie stronger and more relevant. Both picture quality and the extreme use of sound makes this movie stand out.
L/R Steinway Lyngdorf team at recent RoomPerfect seminar; Anker Haldan, CCO, Simon Schino, Sales and
Operations Manager (UK), Jan Abildgaard Pedersen and Thomas Birkelund CEO/CTO