There is no doubt that audio prediction software plays a key role in the modern show, with system designers working side by side with FOH engineers on the design of a sound system, performing all the required calculations before even setting foot in a venue, with the goal of ensuring the best experience for the audience and managing off-site noise issues and multi-stage interference at festivals.
Officially launched at ISE, Funktion-One’s Projection 1.0 system design software uniquely provides fast wave-based simulation for low-frequencies for greater accuracy when predicting bass array performance.
“The origin of Projection goes back to the launch of Vero,” reflected Funktion-One Research & Development Engineer, James Hipperson, discussing the starting point for the new software. “One of the initial design goals was to make the interface as simple and user-friendly as possible. It’s very easy to keep adding tools and end up with a cluttered interface. This can give an impression of technicality and precision, but what really matters is the accuracy and realism of the underlying acoustic calculations and how easy it is to work with them”.
When it came to implementing bass array prediction, it was crucial to utilise Funktion-One’s extensive experience with large scale bass deployments. Funktion-One founder Tony Andrews has never been impressed with broadside arrays, due to their lack of phase coherence, vertical directivity control and subjective impact. This led to continuous experimentation with large, contiguous blocks of bass loudspeakers.
Andrews commented: “We were building bass arrays as tall as possible to contain the low frequencies in the vertical plane and, furthermore, co-locating all the enclosures to maximise the overall directivity control and eliminate the destructive interference from multiple sources. This gave rise to our asymmetric bass deployments.”
Pushing the boundaries of bass array deployment resulted in a need to also push the boundaries of acoustic prediction. The standard method of modelling bass arrays is the complex directivity point source model, but there is an issue with this approach. “With large, contiguous bass arrays, we were finding that directivity and cardioid processing varied significantly with arrays of different sizes and orientations, which were not correctly predicted by the point source model,” Hipperson explained
“If Funktion-One’s software was to present a low frequency prediction, we would have to do it correctly,” added Andrews. “That’s what drove the next chapter of Projection’s development. We agreed that a point source model was the wrong approach and that we wouldn’t officially release Projection until we had developed a more accurate bass model that truthfully reflected the physical reality of sound waves and enclosures.”
Hipperson further explained that while a point source model captures the basic interactions between sources, by design it does not model wave effects such as reflection, diffraction and occlusion. This means that a point source method would not show how sound waves would be affected by the physical size and presence of large bass arrays. “The reason why point source models are more commonly used is because it’s very difficult to simulate waves at all,” Hipperson commented. “It’s only recently become possible to simulate the full frequency range for even a small room and normally it would take several hours.”
Unusually for a software project of this complexity, Projection’s wave-based low frequency model was developed by just two people – Hipperson and his brother – Tom – who was brought in for his software engineering skills.
“Typically, you’d have a big team working on a project like this, but in this case it was just two guys,” commented Funktion-One’s Director of Marketing, Michael Nicholson, praising the work of the two brothers.
The next challenge was finding a way to bring the calculation time down. After many months, the two brothers created a method that combines some pre-calculated data with on-demand calculations to predict low frequency wave behaviour for any configuration or deployment – in seconds. This novel approach is patent pending.
As Hipperson explained, the computation time for a wave-based model across the full frequency range is simply not practical. Therefore, Projection adopts a ‘dual-model’ approach. “Below 160Hz, it utilises a wave-based model, then above that it uses a point source model,” said Hipperson.
With Funktion-One officially launching v1.0 at the start of the year, Hipperson was quick to comment that there are still many more features to add to the software. “It doesn’t stop here,” he enthused. “The goal was to get it feature complete by ISE where it does everything people would expect it to do. Now we can carry on adding more functionality.”
Speaking of the wider implications of the software release, Nicholson discussed the message that Projection v1.0 sends to the market. “We now have a product that can accurately predict low frequency behaviour, saving time and ultimately making an event more enjoyable for all involved.”
Projection v1.0 can be downloaded from Funktion-One’s portal accessible via its website.
Words: Stew Hume
Photos: Funktion-One
