How It Works

FeONIC® Audio Drives work in a totally different way from speakers.

Unlike speakers FeONIC® Audio Drives are solid state and have no moving parts. They do not wear or deteriorate and can survive temperatures in excess of 150ºC.

A FeONIC® Audio Drive uses the structure of buildings, platforms, platform screen doors, waiting rooms, panelling (in fact, any resonant surface such as such as glass, metal, wood or plastic) to transform the surface of the material into a fantastic speaker without design aesthetic or audio compromise.

The Audio Drive can be discreetly attached to the front or rear of any suitable surface and, when an audio signal is delivered to it, the entire surface of the substrate on which the Audio Drive is mounted becomes the speaker. The sound created is omni-directional and the audio output from the substrate material evenly distributed. The frequency response of the output is not significantly affected by the position of the listener relative to the position of the FeONIC® Audio Drive.

Therefore, it is less likely that valuable speech information (intelligibility) is lost through change in frequency response or SPL, as it is with speakers.

With the most effective resonant surfaces, such as rigid honeycomb aluminium panels, the sound generated by a FeONIC® Audio Drive can travel a long distance through the length of the panel with negligible loss of volume across the entire length and breadth. By comparison the attenuation in air for loudspeakers is 3dB loss for every metre away from the speaker.

Similarly, FeONIC® Audio Drives can be driven at a lower volume (SPL) than a speaker, yet deliver an audio signal over a wider area. Speakers tend to be driven at high SPL levels in an attempt to cover large areas, but this results in uneven sound distribution and poorer sound quality.