Read our CEDIA 2015 Show Report DAY 2

CEDIA 2015 Show Report Day 3 Coverage

Jim Clements
7:35 PM

Bryston was showing a new line of speakers this year. They have a Model T in-wall speaker as well as a series of entry level free standing towers. Both of these borrow technology from their earlier models. Here, Gary gives a rundown of their big speakers and their design philosophy. Like all things Bryston, these speakers have been warmly received by reviewers and consumers alike. I will post another short video later where he gives an overview of the newest models.

 

4:12 PM

Sandy Gross of GoldenEar Technology gives a very brief overview of the SuperSub XXL that sounded quite impressive in their demo. This unit has dual 12″ active drivers and dual passive radiators in the arrangement he describes. The built-in amp is claimed to put out 1,600 watts! Secrets posted the first review of this in the entire industry thanks to Carlo LoRaso check it out here http://goo.gl/DN6hm1

 

7:25 AM

CEDIA Expo is in Dallas this year. I caught this vision last evening while walking to dinner. Though my feet were planted firmly on the ground, this sight reminded me of the Steve Earle tune “Dallas” where he sings that “Dallas is a jewel from a DC-9 at night”

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

 

Christian Eberle
6:23 PM

Before I left the show floor for the final time, I noticed this imposing black monolith. It’s the KEF Muon. It’s a tower speaker made from pressure-formed aluminum and finished in a soft matte paint that almost feels like rubber. The little card next to it uses the word “ultimate” which I’m sure we won’t hear the last of anytime soon. Just to its left is the now-familiar KEF Blade, a carbon-fiber speaker that was introduced several years ago. It looks mundane by comparison. If you want a pair of Muons you’d better get your order in. KEF is only making 100 pairs and pricing is $224,999. Add them to my “I’ll take two” list please. Better yet can I use six of them in a 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos installation?

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

6:20 PM

I had to go offsite to see B&W’s new fully-revamped 800 series speakers. They had a demo set up in a nearby hotel penthouse. Two reps first played me a clip on last year’s 805 bookshelf speakers. They then switched to the new models. They look pretty much the same but I was assured they were almost completely new. I immediately heard more forward highs and greater transparency. The older models were fairly mellow by comparison. Every speaker in the 800 line up to the flagship 802 ($22,000 a pair) has received the same treatment.

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To its Sigma series Class D amplifiers, Classe has added a monoblock product, the Sigma Mono. I heard them in the B&W demo and would say they are extremely clean and neutral as all good amps should be. There was a ridiculous amount of headroom available. And no wonder, with a 700 watt rating into four Ohms. Pricing is at $4,000 per monoblock.

Rotel also debuted their new surround processor, the RSP-1582. In keeping with Rotel’s tradition of simplicity, it’s a basic 7.1 pre-amp with support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Atmos and other object-oriented formats are not present at this time. What you do get are high-end Wolfson DACS, seven HDMI 1.4 inputs (upgradeable to 2.0 with a new board) and a slick TFT screen that dominates the front panel.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

6:00 PM

Screen Innovations continues to think outside the box with several new products. For short throw projectors they have a lenticular material that accepts light only from below. That makes it ideal in brightly-lit environments and it provides superb image quality in all situations.

They’ve also come up with an answer to traditional masking systems. Rather than move black fabric in front of the screen, they simple reshape the entire screen and frame to change aspect ratios. Called Intellimask, it articulates the frame and rolls the material in and out to create any width you desire between 1.78:1 and 2.40:1.

Typical rollup screens have some sort of cable tensioning system to keep the material flat. SI has created their own version that eschews the cables for a larger and heavier weight bar at the bottom. The material rolls around that rather than around a drum in the soffit. Thin cables support the whole thing. It’s simple and elegant and when extended, you can’t really tell the screen rolls up.

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For rear-projection installations, they have the world’s first flexible glass material. Rather than using actual glass, a poly-carbonate material allows the screen to be bent into any curve desired. You could edge-blend several panels into a circle or create s-bends. It would be a great solution for flight simulators.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

5:50 PM

Goldenear was demoing their new Invisible Atmos package consisting of seven Invisa HTR 7000 in-ceiling speakers, two Invisa MPX in-walls and a single Super Sub XXL. Even though there were two Triton towers set up at the front of the room, they weren’t active during the Atmos demo. All the sound was coming from the ceiling save the sub which was on the floor. The sound was pretty incredible and even when I stared up at a specific speaker, I could not localize it no matter how hard I tried. Goldenear founder Sandy Gross had precisely placed and aimed the HTRs in such a way that they created a perfect surround envelope that extended from floor to ceiling. Even the dialog channel was properly anchored to the flat panel TV I was watching. Even better is that the entire package retails for just over seven grand, amazing! All you need is electronics and you’re ready to rock.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

10:01 AM

The front projection industry is clearly moving towards brighter images in the hopes of making their products more functional in a variety of environments. By taking two-piece systems out of dark theaters, viewers can have a large-screen experience at a lower price point and with the ability to hide the screen and projector when not in use.

Seymour Screens which is best known for their acoustically-transparent woven materials has introduced a new light-rejection model called the Ambient Visionaire. It uses extremely small reflective particles to focus more of the image towards the viewer while keeping ambient light out of the picture. It’s available in gains of 1.2, 1.3 and 2.1 so it’s easy to match to a variety of projectors. And if you’re concerned about sparkle or hot-spot artifacts you needn’t be. I didn’t see any issues in the demo I watched. I’ll be requesting a screen for review soon.

Another interesting product at Seymour’s booth is their four-way masking system. Other manufacturers make you choose between constant-height or constant-width setups. Seymour gives you both masks in one frame so you can create any aspect ratio you desire with precision. The masking material is also acoustically-transparent so audio is not affected no matter what screen shape you choose.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

9:43 AM

mCable is an interesting new product. Basically what they’ve done is packed a video processor into an HDMI cable. It’s functions are fixed but it does more than just scaling. It adds a little edge enhancement which I could see in the demo. It also boosts color depth and does a decent job of cleaning up jagged edges, probably through additional anti-aliasing. To install it you have to have a USB port on your TV to provide power to the chip which is in the display end of the cable.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

9:39 AM

Vizio has always been known for their low-priced high-value televisions. This year while maintaining some of the lowest prices in the Ultra HD genre, they’ve placed a major emphasis on picture quality. And I mean an image that will satisfy even picky video geeks like me. I received a new M-series 65-inch panel for review a couple of weeks ago so you’ll be seeing my impressions and test results on Secrets in a few weeks.

At CEDIA, they are showing the newest Reference-series panels and they come with some impressive cred. First off all their TVs use full-array backlights with 32 or more zones of dimming. This is huge because it’s the best way for an LCD panel to implement HDR. And speaking of – the Reference-series is the first brand to support Dolby Vision. Now there is one caveat, it’s only available via streamed content. Vizio has not included the required HDMI 2.0a inputs to accept HDR from a connected source. With HDMI 2.0 however, they can accept Ultra HD signals at 60Hz. Plus HDCP 2.2 is implemented to comply with UHD copy protection protocols.

Their flagship display is the 120-inch Reference-series panel. You can appreciate its size in the photo with me in it. It has 384 dimming zones in its full-array 800-nit backlight. This lovely behemoth can be yours, installed, for $130,000. Add it to my “I’ll take two” list please. Luckily you can get all the same features in a more reasonably-priced size. I viewed several clips mastered with Dolby Vision and came away impressed. Not only is the expanded dynamic range apparent, Vizio supports over 80-percent of the Rec.2020 color gamut. And DV allows for display-specific mapping of the color gamut so full Rec.2020 content will show correctly on a display that can’t quite fill that colorspace. I was able to see the extra saturation in test patterns that were part of the demo.

Look for my M-series review on Secrets soon.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

9:15 AM

CEDIA is not normally where one goes to hear high-end audio but there was a happy exception to that in the form of Grimani Systems. Anthony Grimani is a man with decades of experience installing high-end theaters. When he set out to design an ideal speaker, he wanted to solve the age-old problem of dispersion. Creating a great listening experience for just a few viewers is pretty easy but covering a large space with 20 or more seats is far more difficult. You can use room correction but that will only get you close at best.

With Grimani’s line of on-wall speakers and subs, he seems to have solved the problem of maintaining flat frequency response off-axis. With his patented Conic Section Array Waveguide, the driver handling frequencies from 1-20kHz has nearly perfect dispersion to 180 degrees. I was able to verify this by standing between the speakers. The soundstage, which is incredibly wide, never faltered as I moved forward. And sitting in the sweet spot made the speakers disappear entirely. These are truly audiophile speakers that also rock for movies.

Now you won’t be finding them at your local shop nor can you buy them online. They are high-end all the way. A 13-speaker package with all necessary electronics and installation costs $300,000. I’ll put that one on my “I’ll take two” list. Kidding aside, the detail and expanse I heard from two of the Beta models was nothing short of astonishing.

In addition to the premium compression driver, the low end is taken up by two 6.5-inch cones. The larger Alpha model adds a 12-inch woofer to the mix. The cabinet is tungsten-impregnated urethane making the entire package very light. Amplification is provided by integrated Class D units; one for each driver section. The system is connected through a surround processor that incorporates room correction. Signals travel over CAT-5 cable so the whole thing is very easy to install.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

5:53 AM

Quantum Media is an integrator-focused company that provides complete video packages for high-end theaters. I saw an excellent demo of an Ultra HD DLP projector that uses a laser light source and a cool two-piece design. By separating the light engine from the lens using a fiber-optic cable, the part that runs hot and makes noise can be hidden away. The cable can be up to 20 feet long. The projector features zoom and focus lens memory for quick and easy aspect ratio changes along with a native 4K DLP chip.

Their products also include day-and-date delivery of first-run Hollywood movies in hard-drive or download format. Content comes with less compression than Blu-ray (4:4:4 bit-depth) and uses the DCI-P3 colorspace. A Quantum Media theater coupled with Ultra HD content like this will exceed anything you could find in a commercial cinema.

CEDIA 2015 Coverage

 

Read our full coverage from CEDIA 2015