Abstract:
A subwoofer stereo system with a docking base for docking a portable digital media player comprises a generally hexahedron cabinet made of a panel material for encasing at least an electronic media processing unit and an amplifier for driving stereo speakers. The docking base has an attachment of modular connector board having at least one main connector for the portable digital player and at least one auxiliary phone plug. The docking base is mounted through the top panel extending in part inwardly of the cabinet as well as outwardly in part for receiving the portable player. A first shielding chamber extends from under the top panel invisibly to enclose the inward part of the docking base to isolate it from interior of the cabinet and a second shielding chamber extends from behind under the front panel invisibly to enclose the control interface to isolate it from interior of the cabinet.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    A. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a subwoofer media system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable digital music player docking station optimally integrated into a main media system complete with an integral subwoofer. 
         [0003]    B. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    Along with the wide spread use of the digital audio players such as the most popular iPod series of Apple Computer, Cupertino, Calif., different docking stations came to be able to interface such portable devices for a high fidelity media playback through a more sophisticated media system. International Application No. PCT/US2004/008686 by Apple Computer titled Media Player System shows extensive examples of the interface including a boom box with a built-in docking station, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. However, besides the electrically correct pin designation between the portable media device and the boom box, no suggestions have been made as to an acoustically conscious integration of the docking station into the boom box or higher powered audio systems built in advanced speaker cabinets. 
         [0005]    Commonly, a home theater in a box is a name for an integrated home entertainment product, usually including surround sound capability and a radio tuner in one convenient box with or without a DVD player. Such a home theater generally consists of a central receiver unit, a radio tuner and a series of speakers for surround sound reproduction, generally including a subwoofer in dedicated speaker enclosures. The theater box does not need an acoustic consideration in construction but the correct volume and mount for electronic circuitry with an easy and aesthetic interface would be suffice. Such a system may have a separate large subwoofer (low frequency) in addition to five surrounding component speakers that comprise a matched tweeter (high frequency) and midrange (medium frequency) speakers. The subwoofer is provided for bass and sub bass (ultra low frequency), which is felt more than heard depending on the sub frequency. The lower the frequency the less the human ear picks it up, however the vibration can be felt greater. Sub bass is omni-directional, meaning that the human ear cannot distinguish where the sound is coming from but can feel it in the form of vibrations through air. Therefore, in order to physically as well as electrically connect a portable digital player to a complete system under the influence of the subwoofer operation a reconsideration in the structure of the cabinet is necessary to ensure an uninterrupted sound production from the docked digital player. 
         [0006]    Yet, known docking stations are made to simply fit in an appropriately sized hole on the wall of the subwoofer stereo system to support a smaller circuit board, which in turn support audio/video plugs and/or pin connectors so that they are readily mated with compatible portable media players to relay their outputs. Correctly fitting a docking station might serve the purpose with respect to a boom box or similar subwoofer stereo system where two-channel audio is produced. However, for high-end audio systems made for five channels of amplification necessary to reproduce 5.1 surround sound with greater volume and reality of sound, an advanced material and structure must be applied for the enclosure and thus an improved docking station is necessary in terms of construction and integration. Besides the proprietary pin designations between the boom box, suggestions for improvement are slim to none with respect to these omnipresent iPod players as to an acoustically conscious integration of an appropriate docking station into a high power audio system with an onboard subwoofer. 
         [0007]    In contrast with conventional receivers, the present invention provides an even compact media system containing all the major components in a central subwoofer cabinet except five satellite speakers of the 5.1 surround speaker set. It only needs separate state of the art units of DVD player and television set or monitor with which to display the visual material to fully appreciate the theatrical level of audio/visual entertainment. 
         [0008]    An object of the present invention is to provide an improved media system with the necessary docking base for iPod devices in an acoustically integrated enclosure for docking the portable digital media player in order to take advantage of the advanced audio technology currently available. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    A subwoofer stereo system with a docking base for docking a portable digital media player comprises a generally hexahedron cabinet made of a panel material for encasing at least an electronic media processing unit and an amplifier for driving stereo speakers. The cabinet has a front panel with a predetermined shape of cut out for framing a control interface of the subwoofer stereo system and a display of the status of system operation, a rear panel for holding a cluster of connectors for external devices, two opposite sidewall panels, a bottom speaker panel elevated by legs from a floor and having a large central opening, and a top panel. 
         [0010]    The docking base has an attachment of modular connector board having at least one main connector for the portable digital player and at least one auxiliary phone plug. The docking base is mounted through the top panel extending in part inwardly of the cabinet as well as outwardly in part for receiving the portable player. A first shielding chamber extends from under the top panel invisibly to enclose the inward part of the docking base to completely isolate the same from interior of the cabinet and a second shielding chamber extends from behind under the front panel invisibly to enclose the control interface to completely isolate the same from interior of the cabinet. 
         [0011]    Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a front elevational view of a media system with docking station according to the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a bottom view of the media system of  FIG. 1  showing a subwoofer installed inside the media system. 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a rear elevational view of the media system of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is an exploded perspective view of the docking station in operation according to the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a side elevational view of the media system of  FIG. 1  showing the positions of major components inside with the dock station closed. 
           [0017]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of the media system of  FIG. 1  showing the structure of a top shield room for the docking station. 
       
    
    
       [0018]    Similar reference numbers denote corresponding features throughout the attached drawings. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0019]    With reference to  FIGS. 1-3 , a media system  1  is home entertainment components in a cabinet  2  that contains an integrated bottom subwoofer  3  held from a floor a short distance by four legs  4 , a digital 5.1 audio/video receiver and AM/FM tuner partially visible at  5  through a front panel  6  and interfacing at a display  7  with a volume knob  8  for adjusting reproduced music and speech from a conventional A/V gear including DVD and CD players connected to a cluster  9  for plug and play operations. From rear view of  FIG. 3 , Next to cluster  9  is provided an oval port  10  for the bass reflex within a hole formed through a back panel  11 . The bass reflex port  10  is preferably 10 cm deep. The front panel further includes a remote control receiver, such as an infrared receiver for receiving signals from a remote control device. The AM/FM tuner  5  preferably has a plurality of tube lights that are either aesthetic or functional. Preferably, the tube lights are functional. The tube lights can be seen through a window disposed in the front face of the cabinet. The window preferably has a transparent plastic cover for protecting the tube lights. 
         [0020]    The cabinet is also housing an amplifier that is connected to the radio receiver. The amplifier preferably has an approximately 1000 W power rating. The material of the cabinet can be pressed fiberboard, and is preferably made of wood, although it could be made of a plastic material. The substructure of the cabinet is preferably made of the same material as the exterior top, front, back, left, right, bottom faces. The substructure elements preferably have an airtight seal so that the cabinet does not have sonic leaking through the substructure elements  70 ,  72 . 
         [0021]    The cabinet  10  has a top panel  12  and bottom panel  14  that are joined by two parallel side panels  16  at 45-degree angle to provide a longer bonding area at four joints  18 . Mounted on the top panel  12  of system  1  is a closable media dock  20 , which comprises a shell base  22  and a spring biased lid  24 . Media dock  20  may be made of a thermoplastic material utilizing a conventional molding process. Dock  20  has a generally rectangular cavity  26  for accommodating various sizes of MP3 players. Dock  20  also has a round collar  28  to support itself against the upper side of top panel  12  having a large bore  30  ( FIG. 6 ) covered by collar  28  from an external view. Cavity  26  may be divided to have a larger bay  32  for receiving an iPod  16  with a thirty-pin female connector (not shown) and a stepped stage  33 . 
         [0022]    The spring biased lid  24  has two toggled positions to either expose or cover a phone plug  34  and a 30-pin male connector  36  on board  38  and a cradle insert  40  with an appropriately sized rectangular hole  42  to permit the connector  36  to protrude at an angled position so that iPod unit  16  with mating female connector docks into open shell base  22  making the 30-pin connection with male connector  28  in a convenient leaning posture. Insert  40  may be attached to shell base  22  by forming protrusions at sidewalls  44  of insert  40  and opposing notches at corresponding areas on walls  38  of base  22 . Upon assembly, top side flaps  48  of cradle insert  40  are laid flat on shoulders  50  formed on base  22  while a rear edge  51  of insert  40  is placed on a sill  52 . 
         [0023]    While angularly supporting connector  36 , board  38  also holds terminals of lead wires  53  of plug  34  for making connection to MP3 player models with an audio jack. In order to provide the necessary connections with flexibility for different dimensions of most media players, phone plug  34  may be retracted out of a conical support  54  formed on stage  33  of shell base  22  where the cone  54  opens upwardly to receive plug  26  normally under a withdrawing bias from a concentrically mounted spring  56 . Spring  56  may be generally shaped into an inverted cone to surround the downwardly protruding cone  54  and is simply lodged between knots  58  tied midway along the lead wires  53  and the cone  54  of base  22 . Although not detailed, underside of base  22  may have mounting posts for holding board  38  at two thru holes  60  that are positioned over the posts with appropriate elastic rings threaded therebetween so that screw fasteners are driven over board  38  into the posts to affix the parts together permanently. 
         [0024]    In addition, collar  28  of shell base  22  has main screw bores  62  at two sides for mounting on top panel  12  of system  1 . Therefore, media dock  20  on system  1  comes to provide the rigid connector  36  along with the flexible phone plug  34  to add the versatility of media system  1 . The board  38  has terminal connectors  64  that interconnect with connector cluster  9  as well as a main board  68  as shown in  FIG. 5 . Also depicted next to subwoofer  3  is a transformer  69  for supplying electric power. 
         [0025]    Referring further to  FIG. 6 , media dock  20  below the collar  28  is housed in the interior of cabinet  2  but it is completely isolated by a top shield box  70  made of the same thick and sturdy panel material as cabinet  2 . Shield box  70  is strongly glued to a lower surface of top panel  12  about bore  30 . Cabinet  2  may be made of conventional material based on wood, particle board, plywood panels or other composite material cut and glued together to form an enclosure for the receiver/tuner circuitry on the main board  68  as well as subwoofer  3 , which is mounted to a large opening formed on the bottom panel  12  of cabinet  2 . 
         [0026]    For the general construction of cabinet  3  the material of choice may be a particleboard, which is a solid wood composite product. Along with flakeboard and other engineered lumbers, composite products are made from wood flakes, chips, splinters, etc., formed into layers and held together by resin glues and heated under pressure. In order to give a smooth texture to the final product, cut panels of particleboard are provided with a resin impregnated paper coating. 
         [0027]    In particular, front panel  6  may be decorated with as additional piano black lacquer finish to improve aesthetics of the system  1 . In order to further improve the sound quality from the same structure of system  1 , panels made of MDF (medium density fiberboard) may be chosen. MDF belongs to the hardboard products which are made from wood fibers glued under heat and pressure. MDF is very well damped acoustically for this particular configuration thus making it an ideal material for speaker enclosures besides its uniform texture. It makes excellent panels for mounting high power speakers such as subwoofer  3 . 
         [0028]    When assembled using the material of choice in the structure described, cabinet  2  is divided into three isolated interior sections comprising a main cavity that occupies most of the inner space of the cabinet  2  where the receiver/tuner circuitry on main board  68  projects from a mount (not shown) on front panel  6 , top shield box  70  and a front shield box  72  that seals the front panel components for display  7  completely against the inner surface of front panel  6 . Although not shown, the cabinet  2  is further braced with cut panels at every corner inside the main cavity for enhancing rigidity and thus the undistorted sound production from the whole sound box of media system  1 . To provide isolated electrical connections, shield box  70  is thoroughly glued to a lower surface of top panel  12  about bore  30  leaving only a tiny path  74  communicating with cabinet  3  interior for wire terminals  76  from main board  68 . The wire path  74  is subsequently sealed airtight using glue filling. 
         [0029]    Top and front shield boxes  70 ,  72  assist in obtaining the full body of amplified audio immediately from the onboard subwoofer  3  and the satellite surround sound loud speakers through electrically shielded means of output wires  76 . 
         [0030]    The entire operation of the media system  1  is controlled using a remote control unit  80  that holds total forty six input keys grouped into major functions of the media system  1 . I.e., a tuner band selector region  82  is conveniently located at a leading end of remote  80  and has twelve evenly spaced key dots for selecting that number of memorized radio channels. A detached button  84  is a standby control selector. Next come volume keys including eight key dots  86  for selecting rear left channel volume up and down, center channel volume up and down, rear right channel volume up and down, and subwoofer volume up and down, respectively. In the middle is a main sound control  88  including a central mute button, treble up and down selectors, bass up and down selectors, master volume increase and decrease controls, and left and right balance selectors. 
         [0031]    Lastly, among other input selectors an MP3/iPod source input selector  90  is located at the first row next to the main control  88  and provided with a submenu  92  having an iPod-last control selector, next control selector, backward control selector, forward control selector, and play-pause control selector. 
         [0032]    The media system  1  is particularly suited to dock a portable digital player that is the wide spread iPod portables capable of holding multi-gigabytes of music and A/V files from a computer storage or other external digital media devices and further comprises a set of five surround sound speakers (not shown) that plug into the rear connection cluster  9  and mounted around room walls to provides a realistic audio reproduction. 
         [0033]    As with many ‘third party’ makers&#39; devices for connection with Apple Computer products, the media system  1  may incorporate the iPod Accessory Serial Protocol as detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,293,122 in order to communicate with iPod players. And the known connector pin designations for a docking connector are herein incorporated for the sake of an immediate reference. The actual small, rectangular terminal connector as connector  36  is now widely used to connect a full sized iPod to another device and is often called a “30-Pin Connector”. 
         [0034]    The pins of the connector are known with input/output being designated as follows: 
       Pin#/Functions 
       [0035]    1. I Digital Ground 
         [0036]    2. I Digital Ground 
         [0037]    3. I/O Firewire signal TPA (+) 
         [0038]    4. I/O USB signal (+) 
         [0039]    5. I/O Firewire signal TPA (−) 
         [0040]    6. I/O USB signal (−) 
         [0041]    7. I/O Firewire signal TPB (+) 
         [0042]    8. I USB VBUS Power +5 VDC (from computer) 
         [0043]    9. I/O Firewire signal TPB (−) 
         [0044]    10. I Accessory Indicator 
         [0045]    11. I Firewire Power 8V—30VDC 
         [0046]    12. I Firewire Power 8V—30VDC 
         [0047]    13. O +3.3V Power (to power accessories) 
         [0048]    14. Reserved 
         [0049]    15. GND Digital ground in iPod 
         [0050]    16. GND Digital ground in iPod 
         [0051]    17. Reserved 
         [0052]    18. I Serial protocol (Data to iPod) 
         [0053]    19. O Serial protocol (Data from iPod) 
         [0054]    20. I/O Accessory Detect 
         [0055]    21. O S-Video Luminance, Component Y 
         [0056]    22. O S-Video Chrominance, Component C 
         [0057]    23. O Video Out—Composite Video 
         [0058]    24. I Detect remote 
         [0059]    25. I Line In—Left 
         [0060]    26. I Line In—Right 
         [0061]    27. O Line Out—Left 
         [0062]    28. O Line Out—Right 
         [0063]    29. GND Line Out—Common Ground 
         [0064]    30. GND Digital ground iPod 
         [0065]    31. Chassis ground for connector shell 
         [0066]    32. Chassis ground for connector shell 
         [0000]    Some of these pins can be omitted, and it is preferred to have less than all of the pins such as those which are disclosed in US patent publication 2007/0028006 published Feb. 1, 2007, the disclosure which is incorporated herein by reference. For example, the FireWire pins and the USB and video pins can be omitted by not having a connection to the circuit board so that there is only operational pins as follows: 
       10. I Accessory Indicator 
       [0067]    15. GND Digital ground in iPod
 
16. GND Digital ground in iPod
 
18. I Serial protocol (Data to iPod)
 
       20. I/O Accessory Detect 
       [0068]    24. I Detect remote 
       25. I Line In—Left 
     26. I Line In—Right 
       [0069]    Therefore, while the presently preferred form of the media system with docking station in complete isolation has been shown and described, and several modifications thereof discussed, persons skilled in this art will readily appreciate that various additional changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, as defined and differentiated by the following claims.