LATEST ADDITIONS

No, they’re not stylized Daleks from Dr. Who or PVC termite mounds. The objects pictured above are actually a couple of pretty impressive all-weather speakers from NEAR. There are a couple of things that are newsworthy about these speakers, not the least of which is that they are the first environmental speakers designed by NEAR specifically for the consumer/custom installation market in about a decade and a half. In fact, it’s been exactly 14 years since NEAR last had a booth or display at a CEDIA EXPO.

Epson’s new lineup of projectors is topped off by its PowerLite Pro Cinema 6030UB ($3500, mid-October), shown here on the left, offering both 2D and 3D. On the right is the company’s Ultra-Bright PowerLite Pro Cinema G6900WU. The latter ($7500, 2D only),available now exclusively through CEDIA and specialty dealers) is said to offer a brightness of 6000 lumens. The projectors were shown on static display in today’s Media Preview. Epson’s demos will commence tomorrow when CEDIA formally opens. More about those demos later in the show; check this space.

Custom installations aren’t all about audio and video hardware, and the field in recent years has expanded into peripheral areas such as custom window blinds of various sorts—from decorative to blackout. The Hunter-Douglas Pirouettes shown here, available in manual and powered versions (battery or hard-wired), appear to be of the former variety, though when closed (they’re shown open here) they’ll dim (but not darken) the room.

Vutec broke the brightness barrier on the eve of CEDIA 2013 by announcing SilverStar2.2, a high gain (2.2:1 gain) screen that is ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) certified. High-gain screens typically lack in picture quality what they make up in brightness and the ability to move to a large screen with the same amount of projector light. Delivering better than double unity gain while still securing ISF certification is a huge deal.