Patent ID: 8014554

Claim:
An automatic tilt speaker comprising: a conical speaker element in a dome shaped housing that has an arcuate side surface extending from a bottom to an apex, an annular seat for fixedly supporting the speaker element at a rear and outer circumferential area and a hinge member located at a diametrically opposite side of the bottom of the arcuate side surface for moving the speaker element along an arcuate line that coincides with the arcuate side surface about the hinge member; an annular frame encircling the speaker housing at the exterior of the annular seat of the speaker housing and having a lateral hinge base for mounting the hinge member of the speaker element to permit the speaker element in the housing to freely swivel toward and away from the frame within a certain range limited by a circumferential top interior wall of the annular frame abutting the exterior of the annular seat of the speaker housing; a tilting system including a motor mounted through a suspension bracket on a top exterior wall of the annular frame at a location close to the arcuate side surface of the speaker housing, a worm gear in a driving connection through a reduction gear set to the motor and an arcuate driven gear section facing opposite to and in mesh with the driving worm gear and extending longitudinally on the arcuate surface of the speaker housing so that driving the motor and thus the worm gear in one direction gradually tilts the housing along with the speaker element away from the annular frame about the hinge connection while driving the same in the other direction gradually tilts the housing and speaker element toward the annular frame; a control system for processing a remote user signal to initiate the motor in either direction which causes the speaker element to assume one of predetermined angular positions within certain tilting range of the speaker element; and an outer shell for framing the dome housing with speaker element included, the outer shell having a plurality of clamps for mounting the speaker in flush with a wall or ceiling panel at a prepared opening thereof with both sides of the panel clamped between the annular frame and the clamps, and an electrical terminal interface for energizing the speaker element, tilting system and control system.