Following an overriding trend that started many years back, the annual Custom Electronics Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) expo, held this year at the Denver Convention Center, showcased an abundance of home automation technologies — everything from networked, voice-controlled window shades and lighting to home security systems. The show even had “wellness rooms” that seek to bring the outdoor experience indoors via circadian lighting, purified air, and ambient nature sounds.
CEDIA has announced the winners of its 2019 Best New Product Awards and the latest inductees to its Product Hall of Fame. The awards recognize technical excellence, innovation, and the value the product provides to integrators and consumers.
Although LG's superb but pricey ($30,000) 88-inch 8K OLED TV and new 4K CineBeam short-throw projection system were the stars of the booth, LG also featured a new LCD-based 8K TV.
Wolf Cinema put up some of the best projected images of CEDIA 2019 in demo featuring a 160-inch-wide, 2.2:1 Enlightor Neo acoustically transparent screen from Seymour-Screen Excellence and impressive sound system courtesy of Audio Excellence.
The debut of Elac's new Debut Reference actually happened at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest a week prior to CEDIA, but the new speakers nonetheless occupied a prominent place at the center of the brand's CEDIA booth.
On my first visit to GoldenEar’s sound room I listened to the featured attraction — the new BRX bookshelf speaker. But the company was also running an all-in-wall/ceiling Dolby Atmos demo for anyone who asked to hear it.
We've missed seeing Italy's SIM2 projector manufacturer at recent CEDIA EXPOs, as they've always showed something interesting. Well, the company returned this year with something that was more than just interesting.
Starke Sound demonstrated its relatively small, floor-standing IC-H2 Elite loudspeakers ($4398/pair) together with the new IC-H2C Elite center ($2199 each) and a pair of the company's Sub35 woofers ($1880/each) in a 7.1 channel system.
For years, I’ve been telling Sound and Vision readers in my Connected Life blog that they should be pulling extra wiring throughout their home whenever possible — and that although they might not use that wiring today they would be thankful for having it tomorrow. PowerShades has totally validated my suggestion with its new line of PoE (Power over Ethernet) shades unveiled at CEDIA that can be fully powered and controlled by a single Category rated (Cat5/6) cable!
Among the many architectural audio products lining the Optimal Speaker Design booth at CEDIA was the company’s TheatroX11 amplifier, an oversize 11-channel model with a form factor not unlike a cooler you’d hoist along to a tailgate party. The amp even has carrying handles—a good thing, too, since it weighs 234 pounds.
Stewart Filmscreen’s CEDIA 2019 booth served as a showcase for two products: the Luxus below-ceiling screen system, and the all-new Balón Edge fixed-frame screen.
While a CEDIA focus for KEF was various new in-wall and on-wall speaker models, the company was also showing off the new KF92 subwoofer in a corner of its translucent booth.
Borrowing bling factor from high-end amps like those designed by former Krell chief Dan D’Agostino, the new i ·V 7 from Legacy Audio aims to appeal to both the ears and the eyes. You can easily get a sense of its visual allure from the photo above. On the audio front, the i ·V 7 uses iCEedge technology to deliver a specified 600-plus watts into 8 ohms with all seven of its channels driven, and up to 1kW into 4 ohms with less than 0.005% distortion.
Founded in 1972, Polk Audio is a legend in this industry, and the company’s new Legend Series is looking to capitalize on everything the company has learned over the years and push the performance boundaries in its newest series of flagship loudspeakers.