Read our CEDIA 2016 Show Reports: Intro, Day 1, Day 2, Day 4

CEDIA 2016 Show Report Day 3 Coverage

Jim Clements
Yamaha

Yamaha had this neat demo of an upcoming product. The player piano is playing while the stereo speakers on the side fill in the backing track. I thought this was a super demo. So fun! You can also distribute the entire music over their proprietary Musicast system

 

JL Audio

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - JL Audio

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - JL Audio

JL Audio was at the show. They had an active demo of a pre-production in-wall sub. It has an 8-inch driver in a ported enclosure that fires out of the small grille near the floor. It is ported in a unique way, with the port exiting at the top of the active driver.

The outboard amp and controller had most of the equalization options available in their other high end Fathom subs. Pricing, features and release date are all TBA. The demo sounded incredible to me particularly when you factor in the show floor conditions. 

 

Audioquest

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Audioquest

Here is a shot of some Audioquest audio cables that can be terminated to custom lengths. The finished product is very clean. 

 

Mark Levinson

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Mark Levinson

Mark Levinson is now shipping their newest stereo preamps. The unit on top is the No 523 the bottom unit is the No 526 which adds an internal DAC. I have requested a review unit of the No 526 and hope to have a full review on line before the end of the year. 

 

Parasound

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Parasound

Parasound was showing their newest distributed audio product. It is a four zone DAC known as the 4 DAX. It is meant to be used with streaming media players like the Sonos units shown but also BluOS, Denon Heos, Apple AirPort or Chromecast to name a few.

You hook it up as shown using the internal volume control in your streaming product of choice. It then upgrades the sound by way of its ESS Sabre DACs. 

 

Bose

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Bose

Bose has a new soundbar, the Soundtouch 300. It uses multiple full range drivers and a single center tweeter. It has mechanical coupling that creates the surround effect.

It has HDMI inputs/switching or can be fed a digital signal via its optical input.

It can be paired with wireless surrounds to enhance the level of envelopment.

I demoed it in an open space with an Acoustimass wireless subwoofer and no surrounds. They played a clip from Star Wars The Force Awakens. Though the surround effect was diminished by the basic set up I still felt that this system had great promise and the bass shook my pant legs! The soundbar and sub are $699 each. 

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Definitive Technology

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Definitive Technology

I had a chance to check out a demo of the new Definitive Technology BP9080x towers. These speakers were bad ass. They have built in active subs, rear-firing mids and tweeters along with built in upward firing height speakers. They played a clip from Batman vs Superman. The system employed Onkyo’s newest receiver. This room was challenging with lots of background noise. Even with a difficult room, I could still tell the bass response was top notch.

There was also great transparency in the mids and highs. The Onkyo receiver impressed with its power drive capabilities. 

 

Carlo Lo Raso

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page. Ballpoint Pen on paper with digital color. I never cared too much for Zeppelin, but Jimmy is a whole other matter!

 

Christian Eberle
Sony

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sony

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sony

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sony

Sony’s new Z-series Ultra HD panels look particularly impressive. They come in 100, 75 and 65-inch sizes. What’s exciting is their new backlight design. They’ve taken zone dimming to a new level by offering control over each individual diode rather than splitting the screen into zones. Where other products offer dozens or hundreds of zones, Sony’s system literally has thousands. I pressed the rep into telling me how many there were but he would only say “thousands.” The end result is an extremely high degree of perceived contrast with no halo artifacts. HDR10 is supported of course along with an expanded color gamut. I look forward to getting one of these new panels in for review this fall.

 

Vivitek

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Vivitek

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Vivitek

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Vivitek

Vivitek is a relatively small player in the home theater market but they are by no means behind in technology or quality. You may recall my review of the LED-based HD9090 from earlier this year. More models are in the pipeline and they had a few here at CEDIA. Pictured are the DU7095Z laser projector and the DH759USTi ultra-short throw model. The former offers 6000 lumens and a huge lens shift capability which is something not commonly seen in DLP displays.

The DH759USTi is just the thing for tight spaces when a traditional projector just isn’t feasible. It can be placed anywhere from 11 to 17 inches from the screen to create an image ranging from 80 to 100 inches. Offset is 120% which means it should sit 20% below the screen’s total height.

Also pictured is Vivitek’s cool short-throw lens for its large-venue projectors. It replaces the standard lens and can take advantage of the shift capability if you aren’t able to place the projector directly below the center of the screen.

 

JVC

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - JVC

JVC made a huge announcement with its new 4K-native DLA-RS4500 laser projector. Rather than simply adding native 4K to its existing D-ILA design, they’ve started completely from scratch with this new display. Make no mistake, it’s a medium to large-venue product with 3000-lumen output and the ability to fill a huge screen. Their demo theater employed a 300-inch model which was about as close to IMAX as I’ve seen outside a commercial cinema. With high native contrast, it makes an ideal candidate for HDR and supports the HDR10 and Hybrid Log Gamma standards. The laser engine is rated at 20,000 hours and is replaceable though you’ll have to send the 85-pound beast back to JVC for that. At $35,000, I doubt an owner would have a problem doing this.

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - JVC

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - JVC

The demo I watched consisted of ideally-shot content which means lots of slow motion camera work with highly-detailed images. It was truly spectacular. It’s unlikely I could get one of these to review in my reference space but I may be able to work out an in-place evaluation during a client installation. If I can make that happen, look for a full review of the DLA-RS4500 here at Secrets perhaps early next year. The unit is slated to ship in December.

 

Seymour Screen Excellence

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Seymour Screen Excellence

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Seymour Screen Excellence

Seymour Screen Excellence has been busy adding to its already comprehensive product line. At their booth I saw two new products that would complement any theater. First is the TAM masking system. It can be configured as a constant-width top-down rig which saves installation cost and makes the system simpler. It’s about 30% cheaper than a dual-mask setup. Note also how it doesn’t come out too far from the wall.

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Seymour Screen Excellence

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Seymour Screen Excellence

I also checked out a new acoustically-transparent material that’s woven rather than perforated. You can see in the photo how fine the texture it is. This should really help maintain brightness and resolution even with low-output projectors while having no impact on picture quality. I’m currently arranging to install a system with both the new material and the masking system in my theater for a review this winter.

 

Sim2

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sim2

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sim2

Sim2 is a high-end manufacturer that hasn’t seen too much coverage here at Secrets. This year though, they caught my attention with a 4K-native DLP projector called the Nero 4. It doesn’t support HDR but it has an expanded color gamut and an impressive ability to resolve fine detail. The demo I saw looked fantastic though I wish they had turned off the frame interpolation. Look for the Nero 4 in mid-November for around $35,000.

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sim2

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Sim2

Also of interest is their new XTV ultra-short throw projector. This is a lifestyle product and can be hidden in a tabletop or ceiling soffit. All you see is its flush glass top which is part of the display’s optical system. Picture quality is among the best I’ve seen from short throw with no noticeable light falloff or softness near the edges. If you want to show off the unit, Sim2 will sell you a white one with an all-glass exterior via special order.

 

Stewart Filmscreen

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Stewart Filmscreen

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Stewart Filmscreen

Stewart Filmscreen joins the ambient light-rejection category this year with their new Phantom HALR material. Unlike others, its substrate is vinyl so it has the same properties as a standard screen. It can be rolled up or stretched onto any of Stewart’s frame designs including a cool frameless product that looks like an artistic gallery canvas. In their booth they had a very large example set up with a moderate amount of light falling on it. The high-quality video showing on it looked quite good. The best part is I could not detect any sparkle effect. You may recall from my reviews of similar products that a light-rejecting screen always has a reflective layer made from some metallic compound.

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Stewart Filmscreen

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Stewart Filmscreen

The particles act like mirrors helping to direct only the projector’s light back to the viewer. This process can create a shimmering artifact, especially when the gain goes up. Stewart’s Phantom material was completely free of this. Its half-gain angle is conservatively claimed at 30 degrees but I saw a clean image at over 90 degrees. It comes in a 1.0 gain and can be up to 40 by 90 feet seamless. This is another screen that I’ll be reviewing in the coming months. With more and more theaters having to do deal with some ambient light, products like this are likely to become popular. It’s available in micro-perf too for those with speakers behind the screen.

 

Fortress Seating

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Fortress Seating

CEDIA 2016 Show Report - Fortress Seating

It’s important to have comfortable seating in any theater so Fortress Seating, which makes pretty much any kind of upholstered furniture you could imagine, has created a Smart Chair. Controlled from an app, it senses your presence and can adjust itself to any number of preset positions. Of course, it returns to its default configuration seconds after you get up. It can also be integrated into popular control systems. The mechanism can be incorporated into anything Fortress makes and it’s networkable. One could feasibly control a group of theater seats for things like cleaning or preparing the space for guests. While enhancements like this don’t do anything for sound or image quality, they really enhance the experience one has in a home theater environment.