CEDIA 2016

A big advantage of attending a show like CEDIA is getting the chance to hear demos of new object-based surround sound formats carried out with ultra-fancy high-end gear. One such demo of DTS:X was conducted by Datasat, a maker of surround processors and amps for professional digital cinemas and high-end home theaters.

BLUEscent. That’s the moniker for JVC Kenwood’s newest LCOS projector, the DLA-RS4500. Larger than it looks in the photo above, and available with or without carrying handles (I’d recommend the handles!), it’s designed around three of JVC’s true 4K LCOS imaging chips.

Bluesound, the hi-res compliant multiroom audio platform from Lenbrook, the makers of NAD audio electronics and PSB speakers, has added a critical new product at CEDIA in its first soundbar. Priced at $999 and available later this month, the Pulse Soundbar is designed for screens 42-inches or larger, and offers up a number of features that should please audiophiles who want to start building a Bluesound system or extend an existing system into the TV room.

At last year’s CEDIA we reported on a new DLP imagining chip from Texas Instruments that offered one-half the pixels required for full 4K resolution. To produce 4K, the digital micromirrors first display half the pixels in the image, then microseconds later shift by a fraction of a pixel to show the others. While this is similar to the pixel shifting (a.k.a. wobulation) now used by JVC in most of its projectors (the new BLUEscent excepted), and by Epson in its laser model, TI argues that its micromirrors can shift far more rapidly.

Likely no audio company exhibiting at CEDIA is as well known for digital audio as Meridian. The company pioneered and was built-on the idea of maintaining an digital signal path; keeping the signal in the digital domain from source to speaker and at every step in between. And while this is terrific in an all Meridian system, it doesn’t work so well when trying to integrate with other products.

Now Meridian is releasing the new 258 eight-channel power amplifier that will allow people to enjoy Meridian’s terrific sound quality with any speaker of their choice. The new high-performance, cool-running Class D amplifier comes in a svelte 1U rack mountable chassis and is rated to deliver 100-watts per channel into 4 ohms or 70-watts per channel into 8 ohms.

Traditionally movie servers have not been affordable, let alone cheap. However the idea of converting all of your DVDs and Blu-ray discs to digital data that you can easily browse and access instantly and stream around the home is so compelling, that anytime I run across a new company in the movie server category, I have to stop and take a look.

When I saw the onscreen cover art in Zappiti’s booth I was intrigued. The company had four components lined up that certainly looked like they meant business. A large NAS drive with eight bays and an internal DVD/Blu-ray drive, along with three separate movie players. When I heard the prices, I was shocked!