LRAD 360X, 360XM, 360XS (Defunct?), and 360XL

[DJ2226]

I posted in the mystery sirens thread in response to some pictures kswx29 posted from Fort Leavenworth. The first was an ADT ClearVoice array, but the second two pictures showed an array that no one knew. I came across this article posted on Facebook. Link to the article. For those that don't know, LRAD stands for Long Range Acoustic Device. After seeing the video I thought back to the post in the thread and went ahead and posted info on it and a brief description. I decided to post it as its own thread.

The 360X and 360XM series systems from LRAD are omni-directional PA systems. The 360X screams Whelen when it comes to design. Each cell of the 360X puts out 320 watts per active cell. Just like Whelen, these can go up to ten cells, but for some reason when you go to their site and their newer PDF they only list up to four. When I found pictures of arrays that went over 4 cells I was sent to a Japanese site that sells the units. They have all ten listed.

Link to the site.
Link to the newer cut sheet. Uses metric instead of imperial.
Link to the older cut sheet. Uses metric instead of imperial.
Link to Japanese site.

LRAD 360X.jpg (112.49 KiB) Viewed 9439 times

The 360XM series is basically a mini version of the 360X that puts out 60 watts per active cell and covers a much smaller area. Because it's so small and not quite as loud as the larger arrays, which compare to Whelens WPS 28/2900 series in range and volume, they can be mounted to a tripod close to the ground. We see the same thing happen here as what happened with the larger ones. These can go up to four cells, but for some reason when you go to their site and their PDF they only list up to two. I could only find one PDF of the array.

Link to the site.
Link to the cut sheet. Uses metric instead of imperial.
Link to Japanese site.



The thing to keep in mind that this is a PA system, however they seem like they would be very capable as omni-directional sirens. The 360X-10 is rated to get more range than a WPS-2910. They are apparently popular in Japan, which is understandable since they're littered with PA systems. I really can't see these things going up on a county wide basis as a notification system, because a siren would grab attention better.

[Travis]

Very interesting. I wonder if those things perform as well in real life as they are said to. Also, I wonder how well they would age after sitting out in the southern sun a few summers, been rained in, dusted on, snowed on, iced on, etc.

As far as a large permanent system, I think these would run into the same exact problems every other voice-capable omnidirectional siren system has: the echoing and multiple units all talking over each other makes them more or less unintelligible. I think Muskogee already has a system of Whelens or Federals. I always get them mixed up with McAllester. There are a bunch of Whelens in that part of the sate. The sad part is I literally drove through both of those towns last week twice, and already can't remember who has what.

Anyways that's pretty cool and they look like what I'd imagine the ACA Quadren would be if they just updated the design instead of going with the i-Force. /ramble.

EDIT: The fact that all the specs are in metric format pretty much seals the deal for me thinking that these aren't designed or mass produced here in the States. That being said I don't know how popular they have the potential of becoming. I saw my first ECN a few months back in Fort Worth. They're not a very popular siren over here just because I don't think they can really compete with what already exists.

[DJ2226]

Where is the ECN?

[Bryan]

Where is the ECN?

They're are a few of them mounted on the Miller brewing plant south of downtown on the east side of I35w.

[Bryan]

Wait....maybe I'm confused with the wording but...

Whelen's WPS Omnis have the driver pointing down and firing down to the "disk" below... there for LRAD's design is the same isn't it?


Sorry if I've confused what you've said.

[DJ2226]

Wait....maybe I'm confused with the wording but...

Whelen's WPS Omnis have the driver pointing down and firing down to the "disk" below... there for LRAD's design is the same isn't it?


Sorry if I've confused what you've said.

You're right, I got myself confused. Oops, I edited that out.

[DJ2226]

Bump. LRAD now has a siren variant of the 360X called the 360XS. This series combines the voice intelligibility of the 360X PA system with the ability to be used as a siren. Like the 360X this one only seems to go up to 4 cells, and at the moment there is no evidence of this system going up to 10 like the 360X overseas. It'll be interesting to see how well they work and what they sound like running in the usual signals, alert, wail, etc. The tallest model puts out 123 dB at 100 feet and a 3937 foot 70 dB range. Here's the interesting bit, that one only pushes 790 watts which is 197.5 watts per cell. The previous cutsheets for the 360X stated 320 watts per cell making the 360X-4 1280 watts vs the 790 that the 360XS-4 puts out. Maybe they had to drop the wattage because of the tone.

http://www.lradx.com/lrad_products/lrad-360xs/
http://www.lradx.com/wp-content/uploads ... S_Quad.pdf

[NerdAlarm]

What really anoys me is that LRAD is showing their output using Free Field Measurement (6dB reduction pr double distance) instead of using FEMA guidelines (10 dB redution pr double distance) like everyone else (Federal Signal, American Signal, Whelen and others).
In that way it looks like they have a powerfull speaker when in the reality their LRAD 360-10 (3200 watt) has less power than a WPS-2904 (1600 watt).
A LRAD 360-10 has an 80 dB range of 2818 mtrs in FFM (6dB reduc). This equals an 80 dB range of 472 mtrs using FEMA (10 dB reduc).
A WPS-2905 has an 80 dB range of 4150 mtrs in FFM (6dB reduc). This equals an 80 dB range of 640 mtrs using FEMA (10 dB reduc).

Why is no one challenging them on this?

[Travis]

Why is no one challenging them on this?

Probably because they have sold so few units. Most of these have probably been stand-alone or mobile units that see use overseas.

[DJ2226]

Time for another bumpity bump bump. A few months ago the 360XS was removed from the LRAD website. Quite unfortunate since no one was able to get a recording of one. There's a new model added to their site called the 360XL which is pretty much a compacted version of the original 360X. It's basically the same speaker, just with two drivers per cell. Since each cell is double the wattage it only goes to two emitters. Per watt their performance is actually lower than their taller siblings. As far as dimensions are concerned it's pretty much identical to the 360X. I would guess the only difference aesthetically would be two driver compartments instead of one. Seems kinda redundant.

Here's a link to the array.
https://www.lradx.com/lrad_products/lrad-360xl/#
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v357g6pp563yx ... L.pdf?dl=0