John Sciacca

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CES 2017
Project Nursery Delivers World’s First Parent + Baby Wearable
John Sciacca  |  Jan 04, 2017
Today Project Nursey expanded on the company’s line of baby monitors by releasing the Parent + Baby SmartBand. This combines two of the hottest current trends in consumer electronics, smart wearables and baby tech, into a single product which is the first wearable device designed exclusively for new parents. The SmartBand is designed to ease the pain of “journaling” that many new parents encounter as they track the progress and development of their newborn.

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The Connected Life
Survey: What People Would Pay to Watch First-Run Movies at Home
John Sciacca  |  Nov 16, 2016
Last month I wrote a blog titled, Day and Date: How Much Would You Pay? which pondered how much avid home theater owners like Sound & Vision readers might be willing to pay for the privilege of viewing first-run Hollywood films at home. To give this some perspective, it’s important to point out that the only system capable of doing this is the stratospherically priced PRIMA Cinema, with hardware selling for $35,000 and a $500 per film rental charge.
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The Connected Life
Did Streaming Finally Kill Serving?
John Sciacca  |  Nov 09, 2016
I was stunned when in August I learned movie server pioneer, Kaleidescape, had closed its doors. The company remained closed for nearly three weeks—though it continued delivering movies via its movie store and systems in the field remained fully operational—before securing new funding and resuming operations.
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The Connected Life
Day and Date: How Much Would You Pay?
John Sciacca  |  Oct 26, 2016
For many, going out to the movies is the perfect excuse to escape from the house. Get away from the kids. Unwind from work. Enjoy a date night. Whatever. Many people love the shared, communal experience of the local Cineplex. And, for the longest time, that has been the only way for law abiding, non-Hollywood types to watch a first room movie without waiting months for it to release to the home market whether on disc, on demand rental, or streaming.

But what if there were a way to watch movies at home, day-and-date when they were released in the theater? Would this be worth something to you? And if so, how much…?

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CEDIA 2016
JL's Fathom In-Wall Sub Plumbs Bass Depths
John Sciacca  |  Sep 18, 2016
Known for manufacturing incredibly powerful and accurate subwoofers like the Fathom and Gotham, JL Audio introduced the smaller and more installation friendly Fathom IWS in-wall subwoofer system at CEDIA. This slimmed down model will allow theater owners and music lovers to enjoy deep and tight bass in a far more discreet manner.

Part of the magic of getting significant bass performance from this new design is a ported enclosure that mounts inside standard 16-inch on center stud openings. Yes, a ported in-wall subwoofer enclosure. This unique design vents through a slot located at the perimeter of the 8-inch speaker driver and enhances the sub’s efficiency and low-bass output. The enclosure measures 61.626-inches high and fits between standard 2x4 wall construction, and makes the sub’s effective displacement 27.5 cubic inches.

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CEDIA 2016
Monitor Audio Previews Extreme Weather Speakers
John Sciacca  |  Sep 18, 2016
You’d expect the British to know a thing or two about inclement weather, which is maybe why it took England-based Monitor Audio so long to come up with a right proper speaker designed to handle the elements with a stiff upper lip. The company proved it was more than ready to take on Mother Nature with the launch of its new All Weather in-ceiling speaker series.

The new line-up will feature four models, both a 6-inch and 8-inch version in stereo and single stereo-summing options. All speakers incorporate Monitor’s C-CAM (Ceramic-Coated Aluminium/Magnesium) driver system which has been ported from the company’s critically acclaimed loudspeakers, utilizing 1-inch C-CAM Gold dome tweeters.

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CEDIA 2016
Niles Updates to Auriel 2.0 with Home Control
John Sciacca  |  Sep 18, 2016
Niles Audio, a member of Core Brands, released a major update to its MRC-6430 (Auriel) audio distribution platform with the roll-out of Auriel 2.0. The new upgrade is will include a lot of performance enhancements such as streaming audio, climate and lighting control, plus remote access features and will be available for free to all existing system owners.

A single MRC-6430 chassis can deliver audio to six zones through seven input sources, and two chassis can be linked together to create a 12-zone system. With the 2.0 update, the chassis now natively supports streaming from Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn “and other popular Internet radio services.”

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CEDIA 2016
This Is How You Make a $500 B&O Speaker Grille
John Sciacca  |  Sep 17, 2016
At a time when many people aren’t willing to spend $500 for a speaker, Bang & Olufsen is coming out with the new optional advanced grill to accompany its new line of in-ceiling speakers that are being manufactured by Origin Acoustics. To be fair, pricing hasn’t been set on the new grille, but the company stated that it would cost more than the price of the lowest speaker and would probably retail for around $500 each.

To clear up any confusion for the American market, even though the grill that is included with the speakers is called the “premium grill,” the truly premium option will be the aluminum advanced grill. So, what exactly is involved in making a $500 speaker grill?

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CEDIA 2016
Bluesound Unveils First Hi-Res/MQA Soundbar
John Sciacca  |  Sep 17, 2016
Bluesound added the latest products to its wireless BluOS ecosystem with the new Pulse Soundbar and Pulse Sub. Both models are meant to add easily to a BluOS audio system, but now bring improved TV audio into the mix.

The two-channel high resolution soundbar will support audio resolution up to 192/24-bit and also support Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) audio streaming, another first in the soundbar category...

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CEDIA 2016
SpeakerCraft Previews In-Wall Height Speaker
John Sciacca  |  Sep 17, 2016
Designed to help in-wall speaker users maintain a discreet look while still being able to enjoy next-generation object-based audio soundtracks like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, SpeakerCraft demonstrated its new AIM Series 2 ATX100, the company's first in-wall Dolby Atmos-enabled height module.
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