Abstract:
A universal speaker horn assembly includes a speaker horn sized and shaped to fit into a four inch deep space and connectors which are adjustable to such an extent to permit the speaker horn to be mounted to substantially any site, regardless of desired speaker position and building construction material. A grille press-fits to the front of the horn and a trim ring hides connectors from an optional trim plate to an optional back box. Speaker controls can be accessed from the rear or front of the system.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCED TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is based upon and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent application No. 60/662,485, filed Mar. 16, 2005. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to speakers for sound systems, and, more particularly, to a re-entrant horn-type paging speaker which has universal mounting applications. 
     2. Related Art 
     Previous horn type paging speakers have been limited in usage due in part to limitations in their mounting mechanisms and further in view of their cosmetic appearance. Generally such horn speakers have been very obtrusive, visually, being connected beneath a ceiling or from a wall and projecting outwardly and/or downwardly into a room, and having some or all of the mounting hardware clearly visible. 
     Known horn speakers generally require a back box of at least six inches in depth, to be large enough to accommodate the speaker. Thus, a ceiling plenum or interior wall depth sufficient to retain the backbox is also required. In many cases, this much depth in the site structure is not available. 
     Heretofore, horn speakers have also only been accessible for volume adjustment from the front of the speaker. This limited access is sometimes very inconvenient. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The new horn speaker described herein is the first known re-entrant indoor/outdoor paging horn with universal mounting options. The term of art, “re-entrant,” refers to the flared horn housing, as well as the facing internal speaker housing within the horn, where the internal horn projects the sound waves internally against the flared horn, and the flared horn in turn distributes those sound waves outwardly. 
     The new horn speaker assembly is simple and fast to install, even in spaces only four inches deep. It installs using clamps, screws or other suitable connectors into new or retrofit areas and includes an architectural aluminum trim ring and grille, although it will also accept conventional eight inch grilles and conventional backboxes. The new horn speaker features dual capacitor circuitry for standard paging or supervised use. It also permits facile two-wire hook-up to a rear access cable clamp. There is preferably provided a front accessible transformer selection switch and general weather-resistant assembly for indoor/outdoor use. Integral seismic tie-off brackets provide added stability to the installation. 
     A wide variety of applications and installations are available for the new universal horn speaker assembly. It can be installed in ceilings or walls either at the surface or in a recessed manner and can be mounted in sheetrock/plaster, brick or concrete blocks, with or without a shallow backbox, and in areas where a finished architectural appearance is desirable. Using adjustable clamps and screws, the 15 W, 105 dB horn is highly suitable for standard or supervised paging and signaling applications both indoors and outdoors, particularly in view of the weather resistant construction. Although the horn has depth of only about 3.36 inches, it is very precisely engineered and has such an array of features as to make it very versatile. It can be formed with a self-contained aluminum housing, contoured aluminum trim ring and preferably press-fit aluminum grille that projects only about 0.767 inches, so that there is effectively no visible hardware. 
     Accordingly, there has been a long-felt need in the industry for an economically manufactured horn paging speaker having the capability of being facilely mounted in a wide variety of positions and structural sites (“universally”), including being substantially hidden within a four inch ceiling plenum or wall space, and having a very acceptable cosmetic appearance, while still providing clear intelligibility, durable performance and architectural integrity. 
     Thus, in keeping with the goals and advantages described above the invention is, briefly, a universal horn speaker including a re-entrant indoor/outdoor paging speaker horn sized and shaped to fit into a four inch deep space, at least one transformer operatively connected within the speaker horn, and connectors which are adjustable to such an extent to permit the speaker to be mounted to substantially any site, regardless of desired speaker position and building construction material, and to thereby render the speaker mountable to a surface or in a space significantly less deep than conventionally used for mounting horn loudspeakers and, mountable in a building material selected from the group consisting of brick, concrete block, plaster, drywall, wood and ceiling tile. 
     The invention is still further, briefly a universal horn speaker as described above and also including transformer taps accessible from the back of the speaker. 
     Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded rear perspective view of the new universal horn speaker assembly constructed in accordance with and embodying the present invention with the cover plate and gasket in place. 
         FIG. 2  is a rear end elevational view of the speaker assembly taken on line  2 - 2  of  FIG. 1 , enlarged. 
         FIG. 3  is an end elevational view of the back of the speaker assembly taken approximately on line  3 - 3  of  FIG. 1 , enlarged, with the cover plate and gasket removed. 
         FIG. 4  is a rear perspective view of the speaker assembly of  FIG. 1 , assembled and enlarged for clarity. 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded front perspective view of the entire universal horn speaker assembly of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 6  is a front perspective view of the assembly of  FIG. 5 , assembled. 
         FIG. 7  is an end elevational view of the front of the speaker assembly of  FIG. 1 , enlarged, with the grille removed. 
         FIG. 8  is a side elevational view of the speaker assembly of  FIG. 6 , assembled and turned to a ceiling mount position. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference to the attached drawings, a universal horn speaker assembly, generally designated  10 , having universal mounting mechanisms, and acceptable variations thereon, is shown. Assembly  10  consists generally of a frame  12  supporting a horn housing  14 , which is covered by a grill horn  16 . An exploded view of assembly  10  from the rear is shown in  FIG. 1  and an exploded view of the assembly from the front is seen in  FIG. 5 . It is to be understood that throughout this description “forward” or “front” refers to the grill end of the assembly and “rear” or “back” refers to the frame end of the system. 
     More specifically, grill  16  can be mounted over the forwardly directed opening of horn housing  14 , which is mounted by connectors  20  to a horn snout  22 . A top cover plate  23  is mounted coaxially behind grill  16  over the forward facing opening of horn snout  22 . Snout  22  is mounted centrally within housing  14 , which is preferably mounted by an outer flange  24  to frame  12 , by screws, clamps or other suitable connectors, or press-fit, as may be desired. It is preferred that a trim ring  18  (e.g. as shown in  FIG. 8 ) be mounted, for example by snap-fitting, on the forward-most end of assembly  10  so as to hide from view any screw ends or other hardware used in installation of the system, such as may be used, for example, in mounting an optional trim plate to a back box for speaker assembly  10 . 
     The rear side of the horn housing  14  is formed to receive a transformer  26  and a barrier connector  28  which is preferably, although not necessarily of the two term style. Barrier connector  28  and transformer  26  are attached by a two-wire wire  29 . Preferably shrink-wrapped capacitors  33  are operatively connected within the electronic assembly of the new system, and as illustrated, can be mounted near barrier connector  28  within the rear area of the housing. The positions of these parts can be seen in  FIGS. 1 ,  3  and  5 , among others. 
       FIGS. 2 ,  3  and  4  show the positions of threaded posts  25  and cable flying holes  27  are seen in  FIG. 4 . These posts  25  and holes  27  facilitate various mounting methods for the new universal speaker system  10 . Likewise, swing-out mounting clamps  15 , shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , include a dogging mechanism  31  and are preferably connected spacedly around the periphery of housing  14  and also facilitate adjustability and universal mounting of assembly  10 . 
     An inner horn  30  is mounted coaxially to the back end of horn housing  14  and preferably has a phasing plug  32  and coaxial tweeter  34  mounted rearwardly thereon. A bracket  36  and suitable connectors, such as screws  38 , secure the tweeter  34 , phasing plug  32  and inner horn  30  against the back of housing  14 . 
     When viewed from the front, as in  FIG. 7 , with the grill  16  removed from assembly  10 , a control switch knob  50  for transformer  26  is seen to be readily accessible for front access to control volume in universal horn speaker assembly  10 . 
     Rearward of bracket  36  a gasket  40  optionally covers the back of the speaker assembly and is in turn over-laid by a back cover plate  42 , which serves as a site to mount an information/instruction label, for example as indicated by  44 . An opening is preferably provided in both the gasket  40  and cover plate  42  to accommodate a plug  46  which conceals and protects a switch  48  (transformer tap) that permits rear assembly control access. Thus, assembly  10  is preferably constructed so as to permit control access from both the front and the back of the assembly, although either front or back control alone can be provided. 
     The universal mounting options for horn speaker assembly  10  include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following: 
     a) mounting to a surface using the built-in adjustable swing-out clamps  15 ; 
     b) mounting to a surface by installing screws through the front face of the horn; 
     c) mounting by bolts that are arranged in a pattern that mate to the bolt pattern of any industry standard 8″ speaker baffle or grill; 
     d) mounting by ¼″-20 rigging hardware attached to two (2) threaded posts  25  on the rear of the horn casting; 
     e) suspending with aircraft cable through two (2) cable flying holes  27  in the rear of the horn casting; and 
     f) suspending with aircraft cable through installer supplied ¼″-20 eyebolts inserted in the two (2) threaded posts on the rear of the horn casting. 
     The speaker of the present invention is the first known re-entrant indoor/outdoor paging horn that includes a 70/25 dual-voltage transformer, and that is shallow enough to be installed in a 4″ standard stud wall. It is also the first that includes an architectural, finely perforated screen with trim ring with no visible mounting hardware, as illustrated in  FIG. 6 . Further, there is no prior known re-entrant indoor/outdoor paging horn with a dual voltage (25V and 70.7V) transformer, such as that shown at  26 , that has a tap select switch that is adjustable from the front and the rear of the horn, rather than only from the front as has been known. The new horn speaker assembly  10  is also the first known universal re-entrant indoor/outdoor paging horn with a built-in capacitor  33  (that allows the horn to be used in a “supervised” sound system or a non-supervised sound system), that is modular in nature and can be installed (1) as a stand-alone horn, (2) using industry standard 8″ speaker enclosures, baffles, and grills, and (3) with the included separate trim ring with fine mesh grill. 
     The new horn speaker is preferably formed of aluminum with stainless steel hardware and a moisture-seal rear cover with a gasket to protect the speaker, especially in outdoor installations. Wiring connections are made by way of a rear-mounted cable clamp and a 25/70V transformer is screwdriver adjustable on the front of the unit. The total weight of the horn with the aluminum trim ring and grill is only about 3.7 pounds, and the finish is preferably a powder epoxy, although other finishes can be substituted without detracting from the invention. 
     The compression driver of the new universal horn speaker has a power rating of 15W, a frequency response of about 700 Hz to 8 kHz, plus or minus 6 dB, a dispersion of 85°, SPL 1W/1M; 105 dB, 1W/1M; 118 dB 15W/1M or 116 dB, 15W/10 ft. Impedance for the compression driver is available at levels of 5000, 2500, 1300, 666, 333, 89 and 45 Ohms. Power taps for 25V drivers are suggested at 0.48, 0.94, 1.8, 7.5 and 15W; or for 70V at 0.9, 1.8, 3.8, 7.5 and 15W. 
     The preferred overall size of speaker horn system  10 , as an assembled unit, is approximately eight inches in diameter by about 3.36 inches in depth. The cut-out size for this unit is about seven inches in diameter. 
     Examples of various options considered for universal horn speaker system  10  include, but are not limited to: 1) All-in-one preferably stainless steel (or optional aluminum) surface/recessed box of 10.5″ sq and four inch depth of with knockouts on two sides and a universal read mounting pattern, the preferred finish in “Network Gray.” 2) a beveled-edge aluminum trim plate (not shown), for example, one that is 11.5″ square, will overlap of the horn box for a clean installation, required for recessed applications only; and 3) a tile bridge or known variety thereof is recommended to distribute the weight of the horn for in-ceiling installation applications. Further, if desired, the new horn speaker will mount standard accessories, such as eight inch speaker backboxes and eight inch grills if the factory-supplied trim ring and grill  16  are removed. 
     The above description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. 
     As various modifications could be made to the exemplary embodiments, as described above with reference to the corresponding illustrations, without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative rather than limiting. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims appended hereto and their equivalents.