The Director Collection addresses the two greatest challenges inherent to an in-ceiling speaker. The first being limitations in bass response and the second being limited dispersion. Starting with a blank canvas Humphreys and his team focused on these two points and delivered elegant solutions to both.

By using a fixed woofer combined with a unique, new mounting system, they were able to dramatically reduce the overall footprint of the speaker. The result is an 8-inch speaker with a diameter of a typical 6-inch speaker and a 10-inch speaker with the diameter of a typical 8-inch speaker. This equates to a 50% increase in cone area respectively without expanding the visible footprint. The final outcome is the ability to produce substantially more bass from a smaller space.

The dispersion issue was divided into two factors, the first being to widen it overall. This was accomplished through newly patented driver designs and driver location within the baffle. The second was to offer an ability to focus the sound at a particular point in the room. The FocalPoint mid/tweeter module pivots a full 36 degrees allowing for tremendous installation flexibility in this regard.

In addition to its superb sonic performance, the Director Collection also features Origin’s new ZipClip tool-less mounting system. Once the mounting hole is cut a mounting ring is inserted and clips that ride on a rail similar to a zip tie, are hand squeezed into place. The speaker assembly is then inserted into the mounting ring and locked into place with a simple clockwise twist. The system simplifies the mounting process and increases installation efficiency, which will help trim dealers’ labor costs.

Completing the system is an ultra-fine perforated grille with virtually no bezel that is magnetically attached to the baffle. The grille material dramatically reduces shadowing, an effect in typical grilles which often makes the grille more visible when installed regardless of whether the grille is painted to match the ceiling or not.

“We had two years of hardcore thinking to reinvent the in-ceiling category, from performance to installation ease, we accomplished a breakthrough. Origin products are disruptive and new with smaller size footprints on the ceiling, high performance sound quality throughout the room and a better visual aesthetic. Our patents will cover most every aspect of architectural loudspeakers and I hope to share them to support industry advancement,” Origin chief executive Jeremy Burkhardt says.