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Sweepstakes
SVS Prime Satellite Sweepstakes
SV Staff  |  Oct 14, 2015
Register to win a SVS Prime Satellite 5.1 Home Theater System with SB-1000 Subwoofer (MSRP $999) we are giving away.

According to the company:

The SVS Prime system delivers an immersive surround sound experience with bass you can feel, flexible installation options and dynamics that far exceed its compact size. Enjoy the full impact of all your music, movies, TV and other content with this new high performance speaker system from SVS.

[This Sweepstakes is now closed]

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CEDIA 2015
CEDIA Keynoter Ponders Future of VR, Smart Sensors & More
Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 14, 2015
Wednesday's CEDIA 2015 Keynote Address at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center paused just long enough to celebrate CEDIA's 25 years of success and unveil a new logo before futurist Michael Rogers took the stage. The author and consultant is MSNBC's Practical Futurist, Futurist in Residence of the New York Times, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. "There's a certain liberty when there's a futurist in the room," he said. He then dazzled us with a cavalcade of internet-related technologies and filled the tall order of relating them to the audience of custom installers.

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CEDIA 2015
Simpfony Makes Housewide Audio Affordably Easy
John Sciacca  |  Oct 14, 2015
Part of the expense of many distributed audio systems is the proprietary hardware required to make them work. Simpfony is looking to turn this model upside down by leveraging standard hardware for other companies to deliver flexibility, affordability and ease of use while still delivering a terrific user experience.

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CEDIA 2015
TiO’s StealthStream: Big Audio, Tiny Package
John Sciacca  |  Oct 14, 2015
TiO stands for Turn it On, and the company is looking for ways to breathe new life into existing, outdated audio systems with a system that is incredible retrofit friendly. Imagine turning your old, lame analog only volume control system into a state-of-the art streaming music system with multiple zones and app based control over all of your favorite music services including high-res audio up to 192/24-bit and you have an idea what TiO is bringing to the table.

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CEDIA 2015
Russound’s X Marks the Audio Spot
John Sciacca  |  Oct 14, 2015
Russound expands its XStream whole-house wireless audio systems with the introduction of the XZone4 four-stream/four-zone audio system, XSource streaming audio player, and XTS color in-wall touchscreen controller. All of these new components are designed to expand the capabilities of Russound’s XStream wireless audio systems.

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CEDIA 2015
Why CEDIA Matters
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Oct 14, 2015
Because CEDIA was close enough to home (9 hours), I was able to drive to Dallas rather than suffer the indignities of flying through DFW—and it was cheaper than flying, too. Since I’m cheap, I stayed at a cheap hotel in Oklahoma last night on my way here. I don’t expect much out of a hotel. A bed. Running water. Maybe a toilet, too. This particular hotel included, of all things, a DVD player and a flat-panel TV! (Bonus, right?) It also included one of the most horrendous installs of electronic equipment I’ve ever run across in a public place...
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CEDIA 2015
Origin Acoustics Continues to Be Original
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Oct 14, 2015
Jeremy Burkhardt took the stage today on the eve of CEDIA Expo to introduce multiple new products for the already massive Origin Acoustics architectural speaker product line. Notable among the bunch are two in-ceiling subwoofers that use a flexible “bass tube” to port bass from a separate enclosure containing dual-voice-coil 6” or 8” long throw subwoofers...
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The Connected Life
Tips for Planning for Your Wholehouse Audio Install
John Sciacca  |  Oct 14, 2015
In a recent blog I dealt with some of the big-picture infrastructure items when planning a video installation. Beyond the brand and size of TV you’ll be getting, the big four preinstallation items requiring attention are power, sources, audio, and control.
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Remotely PossibleCEDIA 2015
CEDIA EXPO 2015 Is Here!
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Oct 13, 2015
Our Coverage Begins Wednesday, October 14

Better late than never. CEDIA EXPO 2015—“the global showcase of the future home experience”—officially begins this week on Wednesday, October 14, with the Tradeshow portion of EXPO opening at 9:00 AM on Thursday. Normally, EXPO takes place in September; but due to scheduling conflicts, the custom install event of the year takes place a month later. Another change this year is that rather than happening in the smaller, cozier confines of Indianapolis or Denver, EXPO is returning to a city that saw some of the earliest CEDIA conventions—Dallas, Texas. We’re sending a bevy (yes, a bevy) of editors and contributors to Big D to cover the newest, the best, the most interesting, and even the most ridiculous things that’ll be announced or on display at this year’s EXPO. Starting Wednesday, make sure you check out our CEDIA EXPO 2015 blog.

If you’re not familiar with CEDIA EXPO, it’s a fascinating custom installapalooza chockablock with all sorts of vendors involved in one way or another with custom installation (CI) tools, products, devices, and systems. Although this is ostensibly a show aimed at professional installers and designers, there are usually a number of DIY systems on display, as well. Here’s a sampling of some of the more interesting things we’ll be on the lookout for...

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A/V Veteran
Martians in Dolby Cinema at New York's AMC Empire 25
Thomas J. Norton  |  Oct 13, 2015
I had a dream last night. I was wandering around lower Manhattan (New York). I think I was trying to find my way, but as dreams go I’m not exactly sure where to. I was apparently using a map on my tablet, but the tablet was an old CRT the size of the integrated CRT monitor/computer on the first iMac. I wandered into a bookstore, apparently in search of a more usable map, but all I recall seeing was a copy of Widescreen Review and a children’s version of the New York Times, the latter’s cover filled with full color comics (definitively proving, I suppose, that we do dream in color, though the hues were so odd that they must have been captured in two-strip Technicolor). I had left my “tablet” outside (perhaps the bookstore was a tablet-free zone) and when I went back outside it was still there but the screen had been smashed. In a New York minute. Then I woke up.

This was all likely inspired by my recent trip to New York to attend the Vizio launch of its new Reference series Ultra HDTVs...

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