TV Sound System
The small body of an ultra-thin TV won’t fit regular speakers for juicy bass. However, manufacturers have created many technologies based on AI and psychoacoustics.
Thanks to these technologies, TVs can boast powerful surround sound. How do these technologies differ, how do they work, and in what situations are they needed?
Clear Voice Pro (LG)
At times, the audio in videos can be insufficient. You’ll need to concentrate hard to hear the TV in a large room with significant echo. Otherwise, understanding the dialogue becomes difficult. I’ll have to use the sound bar for the TV.
To solve this problem, Clear Voice, Clear Voice Pro, and similar analogs (e.g., Active Voice Amplifier) are available. These technologies make speech more evident and more intelligible.
This is achieved by lowering the volume of all other sounds. Additionally, a limiter balances the volume of different parts of the dialogue. This ensures that the speech of various actors in the movie remains at the same level, allowing both whispers and screams to be heard.
The function is not always realized with high quality. Sometimes, the surrounding sounds are suppressed too much, leaving only one voice. However, Clear Voice is beneficial for watching documentaries, YouTube videos, and news.
Some AI algorithms for processing recorded speech in bad conditions work similarly. They dampen the environment and make the voice richer and brighter, achieving sound quality in one click.
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AI Sound\Pro (LG)
AI Sound improves the sound depending on the scene on the screen. The TV processor analyzes the audio stream and produces a customized sound. For example, the speech volume will increase slightly if a dialog is on the screen.
AI Sound will make the music bigger, and quiet details will become louder. If a program is about wildlife, the sounds of animals and the environment will be emphasized.
The TV processor does not analyze the picture itself. It is the audio track that is processed.
The processor was trained on millions of samples of audio data. Thus, it easily distinguishes speech, animal sounds, environmental sounds, and musical instruments and adjusts the sound on the fly.
The effect is also noticeable in games. Footsteps, bumps, rain, and thunderstorm sounds become more realistic. In general, the audio picture becomes more prominent, enhancing immersion.
TVs with AI Sound usually have a sub-function called Auto Volume Leveling. It keeps the volume of a movie or program at approximately the same level.
This is useful if the movie has significant volume fluctuations between dialog and explosions (you can’t hear speech, but in action scenes, the walls are shaking). This function makes speech louder and explosions and gunfire quieter.
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Adaptive Sound (Samsung)
Adaptive Sound optimizes sound quality based on two factors:
- the audio content itself;
- and the acoustic characteristics of the room in which the TV is placed.
It is based on AI algorithms that make speech more apparent and crisp. Plus, it is processed by a limiter to equalize the sound in volume. Explosions and gunfire will be on par with whispers.
Analyzing the room’s acoustic characteristics is also essential. After all, the sound of any audio system depends heavily on them.
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Tiny microphones are installed on the TV, which listens to the signal reflected from the walls. The signal is compared to a reference value (most likely the AFC of the signal itself before it goes into the speakers). Then, the algorithms equalize the sound so that it resembles that reference value, of course, with adjustments for the location of the microphones in the TV set.
Professional programs for calibrating the AFC of home theater or studio monitors (e.g., Sound ID ) work similarly. But if the user runs a test signal (a sine wave from 20 Hz to 20 kHz), then algorithms work here.
They listen to the signal itself in real time. Manufacturers note that the data obtained during the analysis of adaptive sound is not recorded, so the user’s privacy is not violated.
Different manufacturers call the sub-function of adjusting the sound to the room differently. Samsung has Audio Spatial Intelligence, LG has AI Acoustic tuning, and Sony has Acoustic Auto Calibration.
There is a similar function, only about the picture: Adaptive Picture. With its help, the TV adjusts the picture by analyzing the content you are watching and the level of light in the room.
Object Tracking Sound (Samsung)
The object-tracking sound (OTS) algorithm analyzes moving objects on the screen, making it seem like the sound is following them. The TV itself has many small speakers throughout the screen. For example, if a car is driving from left to right in a movie, the speakers alternately play the car’s sound from left to right. This helps modern large diagonal TVs make the sound more significant and realistic.
The technology is analogous to Dolby Atmos in a movie theater. Many speakers are also installed, and the sound object walks around them. However, everything is realized on a smaller scale here.
Of course, the effect is not created by analyzing the picture on the screen—that would require too many calculations. Instead, the soundtracks for the front, side, rear, and top channels are analyzed. The algorithm then scatters the sound across the TV speakers, creating a motion effect. Everything else is just marketing. For example, watching a movie with a stereo track will make the impact less noticeable.
OTS starts working on TVs with a screen diagonal of 50 inches or larger. The speakers are too close to a small TV so that no sound movement can be created. The bigger the screen, the more pronounced the effect will be.
The technology has several versions.
- Object Tracking Sound and Lite. Basic versions for TVs with 2.0 and 2.1 speakers.
- Object Tracking Sound +. This is for TVs with 5.1 and similar audio systems.
- Object Tracking Sound pro. The newest iteration for premium TVs.
The HDMI ARC protocol is analogous to the traditional digital interface for digital audio, TOSlink.
WISA
WISA is a wireless audio transmission standard for home theater systems. It allows for easy organization of a multi-channel system.
All you need is a WISA-enabled TV and speakers. An expensive receiver is also not required.
The standard is well suited to those who don’t have enough soundbars but don’t want to lay cable channels in the walls. Such a system is much more economical than wired solutions and offers comparable sound quality.
WISA-ready TVs allow up to eight channels to be connected over an area of up to 1000 ft². The technology supports audio quality up to 96 kHz \ 24-bit. There is support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and HD Master Audio.
Wireless headphone users know that when watching YouTube from a smartphone or playing games, the sound is slightly delayed relative to the video.
In WISA, the delay is also present, but it’s minimal. Only 5 milliseconds (at the standard 48 kHz movie sampling rate). It is not detectable by the ear or the eye.
In addition, the system has interference protection. Suppose any electrical appliance or transmitter emits so much background noise that it distorts the audio signal. In that case, the system will automatically switch to another channel so quickly that the listener will not even have time to notice.
If your TV doesn’t support this technology, no problem. It is enough to connect it to a WiSA SoundSend receiver via HDMI or Toslink.
The main disadvantage of WISA is that it offers a limited range of devices. Not many brands produce speakers for this standard, but the official website claims that there are about 60, including LG, Klipsch, Hisense, and X-Box.
If you have already chosen a TV, it is 55 inches diagonal.
Conclusion
Thanks to various technologies, the speakers of modern ultra-thin TVs produce the best possible sound quality. Usually, the more expensive the TV model is, the more speakers it has. This means that AI algorithms become more complex.
Technology has come a long way. Modern TVs can even adjust the sound to a particular room. This is more effective than simple equalization, compression, and other traditional processing effects. Although these, too, are applied for the best results.
