A system and method for varying the directionality of an acoustic output of a loud hailing and warning device is disclosed. The method includes the operation of placing a sliding high-pass filter in a signal path of a transducer array having a frequency-dependant dispersion characteristic. A control is provided that varies a lower cutoff frequency of the sliding high-pass filter. The lower cutoff frequency of an electronic audio signal is variably controlled and sent to the transducer array to variably control the directionality of the acoustic output of the loud hailing and warning device.