We describe the geometric and engineering design challenges that were overcome to create a new compact, 10-inch diameter spherical loudspeaker array with integrated class-D amplifiers and a 120 independent channel digital audio interface using Gigabit Ethernet. A special hybrid geometry is used that combines the maximal symmetry of a triangular-faceted icosahedron with the compact planar packing of 6 circles on an equilateral triangle ("billiard ball packing"). Six custom 1.25inch drivers developed by Meyer Sound Labs are mounted on each of 20 aluminum triangular circuit boards. Class D amplifiers for the six speakers are mounted on the other side of each board. Two pentagonal circuit boards in the icosahedron employ Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA`s to demultiplex digital audio signals from incoming Gigabit Ethernet packets and process them before feeding the class-D modulators. Processing includes scaling, delaying, filtering and limiting.
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https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=13587
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