Patent ID: 7366308

Claim:
A sound pickup device for a public address system comprising: at least two acoustic sensors for simultaneously picking up sound emitted from a sound source and converting into electric signals, said acoustic sensors being spaced from a useful zone from which useful signals emanate, said acoustic sensors having directional characteristics and being oriented so that the axes of their main reception directions are directed towards a reference position within the useful zone, said acoustic sensors being arranged with differing spacing to the reference position, the reference position corresponding to an ideal set position of the sound source, and directional vectors between said reference position and the acoustic sensors point in different directions; a common signal amplitude add device electrically or acoustically connected to said acoustic sensors, said add device combining the electrical signals received from all the acoustic sensors; and delay elements associated with individual ones or all of said acoustic sensors, said delay elements equalizing acoustic transmission times from the sound source to the acoustic sensors; wherein said delay elements have a delay time controlled by automatic position detection of the sound source and only the delay time of the delay elements is automatically adjusted individually with respect to each acoustic sensor to a modification of the actual position of the sound source without adjusting the arrangement of the acoustic sensors or their main reception directions.