I think the active steering might only operate in the midbass. There were example spinoramas in the launch video demonstrating the effect, but I can't find them on my phone atm. I think the front+2 side woofers use dsp to smooth the bass response/minimize nulls (also cardioid?), but I don't think they're capable of actively steering the bass response.
I'm pretty confident that Genelec's "Adaptive" system is just their version of multiple subwoofers to correct room modes. The clever part is that all 4 subwoofers are in the same spot. I expect the 2 side woofers are a dipole sub that reaches down to 20hz, and the front facing woofer rolls off at around 45hz. I am expecting the dipole sub to play from 20hz to ~100hz, and the front sub is 45hz to 150hz.
I am building what started out as a W371A clone...which now it looks a lot like a 8381A clone... I experimented with creating low frequency directivity, but I didn't measure anything that even hinted that directivity could produce a benefit in a small room, for midfield listening. I'm not an expert at anything speaker related, but I put a lot of time into research and trying to make it work. The only hint of a positive result was when tried to simulate sittig at a desk in the near field, like 1m/ 3ft away. But I didn't pursue it, since that isn't my use case.
What I have found to work to create flat low frequency response, with speakers in the arrangement we see in Genelec's speakers, is to use delays...but I think that is taboo to say? What I do is use REW's time alignment tool. For audiophile acceptance factor, I should probably be more careful and just say I time align the 4 subwoofer channels? I'm not an audio professional, but I've dabbled just enough that I always find myself on the pro audio side of the fence...and this project is borrowing a lot from pro audio, the subwoofer integration, signal processing, etc.
Genelec seems quite cagey about how the system accounts for room modes. They don't say how it works, but they say that it does correct room modes. And to my knowledge you can either use delays or EQ to do this. I've used only delays (i.e. no EQ adjustment) and gotten good results, like +-4db from 20hz to 100hz throughout my room. If I had a fixed listening position that needed to be perfect, I could do some EQ adjustment to get it perfect. But my goal is to make it sound good everywhere.
If this is multiple subwoofers, why are they using 2 different types of subwoofer designs? The dipole might go down to 20hz, but the front driver is in a sealed enclosure, so it almost certainly does not extend that low. What's the deal?
From my experience, when I use the "time alignment" method with 4 subwoofers that all play down to 30hz and below, I always got a nasty peak from 30hz to 40hz. I had to make a -6db notch filter on all 4 subwoofers to control it. But when I roll off 2 of the subs around 45hz, that peak disappears completely. (And the sealed front facing subwoofer Genelec is using will naturally roll off around 50hz.) And having only 2 subs covering 20-45hz is completely fine. I don't even need to add a low shelf to compensate! I don't have to adjust gain differently for each of the 4 subwoofers. Somehow it just works.
But anyway, I'm not saying this is what Genelec is doing. I'm just saying it's what I'm doing, and my speaker has a very similar driver arrangement to what Genelec has.
