Home Theater Geeks 449 Transcript
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00:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I talk with journalist Mike Heiss about what he saw and heard at the Cedia 2024 Expo. So stay tuned.
00:14 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Podcasts you love From people you trust.
00:18 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
This is TWIT. Hey there, scott wilkinson. Here, the home theater geek. In this episode we're going to be talking about cedia, the cedia 2024 expo, which was held in denver this. Now there was so much to see and experience that we're going to divide this show into three parts, three whole episodes on the wonders of Cedia. Now, I didn't go myself, but my good friend, journalist, consultant and jolly good Cedia fellow, mike Heiss, did, and he has come back and he's going to share with us a lot of what he saw and heard. Hey, mike, welcome to the show.
01:13 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Hey, Scott, glad to be with you. Yeah, I took one for the team.
01:17 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
You did take one for the team and I really appreciate it.
01:21 - Mike Heiss (Host)
And you know, as the old thermometer on the wall says, it's only 100 degrees. Here in the dreaded valley where you used to live, it wasn't much cooler than that in the Mile High City.
01:33 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Really, it was still nearly that hot in Denver yeah.
01:37 - Mike Heiss (Host)
It was a great show because, remember, if you have Cedia for more than four hours, call your doctor immediately.
01:46 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Indeed, indeed. So, like I said, we're going to do this report in three parts, and today we're going to talk about some of the big demos. This is one of the really interesting and cool features of Cedia are these giant demos that companies do, and they get together multiple companies to pool their resources and do these incredible demos. Next week we're going to look at video products and then in part three, we're going to look at audio products. But for now, let's take a look. Some of these photos that we're going to show today, mike, you took while you were at Cedia, some of these photos that we're going to show today, mike, you took while you were at Cedia, and some of them are courtesy of AVS Forum. The editor there, eric Wesley, was kind enough to let me grab some photos from his reporting so that we could show some stuff that, mike, you might not have seen or didn't get a picture of. So we're going to start with Graphics Zero, which is the show entrance to the Denver Convention Center, and it's really a beautiful convention center, isn't it, mike?
02:58 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yeah, and the one shot, I don't know if you got one from right in front of the convention center, sort of 90 degrees off of where you're looking at now, there's what's called the Big Blue Bear and it's like a three-story high big blue bear and that's sort of the landmark as convention centers go. This is actually for something like SEED I haven't gotten the attendance figures yet but for sort of a big, small, small, mid-sized conventions. Denver is a great town and you walk two blocks up and in the main drag. It's really a great city for something like this.
03:34 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Yeah, I totally agree. The hotels are nearby, there's lots of restaurants and stuff nearby. This show was held, by the way, september 5th through the 8th, or something like that uh, let me see the calendar.
03:49 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yeah, education was on the 4th and the exhibit floor was the 6th. Through the 7th was only three days, which is one of the reasons, quite frankly, why I didn't get to see as many things as I'd want right.
04:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Another reason, of course, is that you're a jolly good Cedia fellow. Indeed I am and you taught what? Four classes.
04:08 - Mike Heiss (Host)
I did two classes solo and I did two classes with a fellow by the name of Rich Green, who is a longtime Cedia, also fellow and actually this year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award which I received in 2020. Wow Well, congratulations to received in 2020.
04:25 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Wow, Well, congratulations to both of you. I am yeah.
04:28 - Mike Heiss (Host)
So it was a fun show.
04:30 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Yeah, yeah, sounds great. Okay, so we're going to talk about some of the big demos, and you did manage to see a fair number of those right.
04:39 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yes, oh indeed.
04:41 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
And the first one we're going to look at is Quantum Media Systems, which is a maker of direct view LED screens, big screens, big screens.
04:54 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Well, I take that back, because they're modules 10, a 9 by 10 array of the modules, and the screen that they had there for this demo was 20 feet wide.
05:14
And it was. I mean this was multiplex cinema side and in fact you can see it says 20 feet, 10 by 8 configuration and, interesting to, one of the topics that we don't get to today, that we'll get to when we discuss audio, is the question of how to do audio for what I used to call, until this show, direct view LEDs. Call it hard screens, because with things like the 115-inch TCL which was really really good that there's not only directly LEDs but there are big flat panel displays and you can't be punching holes in those to get the center channel through. That's right. I mean you could do it once, but it doesn't really work too well.
06:00
And it voids the warranty be sure, and these things are not cheap. But, um, there were a number of different approaches for this. And in the quantum media, although it was not an audio demo by any stretch of the imagination, but they used an english company called tpi and they did what, for the sake of the argument here, we'll call an over-ender three above, three below and they were all boatload of subs underneath, and then in the back of the room there were two array, split arrays, systems and it was in a real. It was a big screen in a really, really big room and it sounded. Again, it was more about the video, but it sounded quite, quite, quite good. I was very impressed as what they were able to get out of this in terms of surround placement and center channel.
06:54
But I guess there were some people that are sync mavens. Barry Sonnenfeld, who is the keynote speaker, amongst other things said, and he's a cinematographer as well as a director started as a cinematographer, this I've turned into an audio guy because I I hate when things are out of sync with the hard screens it's. I want the dialogue to come from the middle of the screen and one of the test points that I use for that is how well, the center. Was it here, or was it here, or was it kind of here, or was it on the side, with phantoms, and some of them were better than others. This one was pretty good the picture. Ask anybody who was at the show. This was by far the best picture for a DVLED.
07:45 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Well, I'm not surprised. I've seen the Quantum system as well and it's stunning, just stunning. And the point you make about where is the center channel coming from? And Quantum decided to put speakers above and below, making a phantom center in the middle of the screen, if you will Correct. You mentioned to me that other people will put speakers only along the bottom, kind of pointing up.
08:09 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yes, some of them did them just across the bottom. I didn't see any at the show because most of the big demos used projectors used standard projectors and perf screens. But I spoke to a bunch of people about it and the Wisdom which was in the Sony.
08:29
Wisdom Audio they had across the bottom and it was tilted just a bit up, but it wasn't that big a room so they didn't need to do it again. This is very room dependent, but one of the original installations, installations of direct view led in cinema, which was in the uh, now it should rest in peace the pacific theaters in chatsworth, which is close to jbl's headquarters in northridge. They originally did over under, then they did side side panels and then they went to what I call bouncy bouncies and there were no bouncy. Well, everything by definition is a little bit of a bouncy bouncy, but that's more for the surround. Anthony I was about to say Tony, but he slapped me here our good friend.
09:19 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Anthony Grimani, anthony.
09:20 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Grimani of Grimani Systems, who I've known for more years than I'm contractually obligated to say, back from when he was at THX in the early days he had a product called the Sound Projector which for a variety of reasons he just wasn't able to bring to the show.
09:36
But that's a true bouncy. Bouncy Picture a home theater with a projector mounted up there. Take the projector down, because you've got a direct view LED and you mount this big. It kind of looks like a horn array, but whatever it is, it's some Tony secret sauce and unfortunately I wasn't able to hear it.
09:58 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
I'm going to do a show on that because that's a really innovative, interesting approach to the problem of hard screen sound center channel in particular. He basically has a sound projector that projects the sound onto the screen and then that reflects into the audience and they hear the center channel coming from the center of the screen. It's brilliant.
10:22 - Mike Heiss (Host)
There was one other interesting thing about the quantum media. Is they Ken Hoffman, who's the head of quantum media was talking about? They have finally changed the digital cinema, theatrical digital cinema, dpi requirement that you can now master at 300 nits, and quantum media JBL, as I love to call them. Fifth and um and somebody else, oh, and trinoff, of course. The big trinoff demo uh not only played stuff off a kaleidoscape, which was the playback, uh source of choice for all these demos, but they also played some dcp theatrical material. And it was interesting because for the Trinoff demo they did that because they wanted to see that it was mixed. It was a theatrical mix rather than a home theater mix.
11:11 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Of the audio.
11:12 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Of the audio. But what Ken mentioned is that you can now have 300 nits for cinema. He's the only one who can do it right now. No projector Says he Says he.
11:24 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Well, and I believe him, I believe him and it was damned bright well, we're going to talk more about that, I think uh coming up, but um, it's good that you bring it up now because he's right, there are no projectors that can achieve 300 nits of peak brightness in a commercial cinema. Dolby cinema is is the highest at $108,000,.
11:44 - Mike Heiss (Host)
I think Right, but those are the six-head Christies.
11:48 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Correct, you know, quarter million, half million dollars. If it's Dolby Vision, it's Christie.
11:53 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yeah, but well, the quantum media thing is not exactly cheap either.
11:59 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
No, I'm sure not. We have a picture of, actually, one of the TPIs in the back. I think you took this picture.
12:05 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yeah, that looks like it's, you know, some monster coming to get you.
12:10 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
No kidding.
12:11 - Mike Heiss (Host)
I mean, look at that. I mean it's like it's got a little nose and it's got little eyes and it's got a mouth, and that was in the back of this huge meeting room where the screen was up in the front and there was one of these on each side, you can see. It's next to the door. I was kind of sitting in the back of the room, quite frankly, because I sit in the back of the church, if you will, but it sounded very good. The localization wasn't bad in this enormous room with no side speakers. There was one of these in the back left and back right and then the stuff in the front and that was it.
12:44 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Wow, and it was beaucoup de SPL for all of these, yeah, yeah, but the placement, the localization for side. And there was nothing overhead, I assume either.
13:00 - Mike Heiss (Host)
No, no. But again, ken would be the first to say that we're here to demonstrate For this demo. As he said last year, we're here to demonstrate. The screen Right.
13:08 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
The audio is secondary.
13:10 - Mike Heiss (Host)
The audio is not secondary conceptually. It's secondary for the purposes of the demo.
13:14 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
For the purpose of this demo, right, yep, yep, okay, well, another really, really big and important demo that I heard about and I would love for you to tell us about was a conglomeration of Storm Audio, ascendo speakers and amps, a Christie projector, seymour Screen, excellence screen, a Lumagen processor and Muvia seats.
13:42 - Mike Heiss (Host)
And unfortunately that one I didn't see.
13:46 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
No man, Sorry, Sorry to hear that it was a 13.12.10 system.
13:54 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Well, but look when you get to the Trinov, how many speakers are in that that one and the Storm Audio is. But look when you get to the Trinov, how many speakers are in, that one and the storm audio is off in the side of the hall. And it was what in CES parlance you'd call the D room. It wasn't that big a room, so it must have been maddeningly loud.
14:15 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Yeah, we have, I think, one graphic to show that. Oh yeah, here's the room. These are the movia seats m-o-o-v-i-a.
14:24 - Mike Heiss (Host)
look mighty comfy yep, and you can see the projector in the background and somebody's yeah, so acoustic panels on the wall.
14:31 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
I'm sure it must have been a wonderful, uh wonderful demo so I I apologize, that one, I couldn't didn't you know can't get them all, can't see them all. Now, Sony had a lot of demo spaces as well, several of them One showing the Bravia 8 and 9 projectors, their new projectors.
14:52 - Mike Heiss (Host)
In the same room.
14:53 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In the same room and they were using Focal speakers in that case, not Sony speakers, which was surprising to me.
15:02 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Sony really, other than in the soundbar world in a higher Cedia, true big theater custom install world. They don't promote their speakers. So, I was not surprised that they used Focal their speakers, so I was not surprised that they used Focal. What was interesting is that they used one of their big new AVRs, but they used it as a processor and they used Name Amps. Name that amp.
15:29 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Name that amp N-A-I-M.
15:33 - Mike Heiss (Host)
N-A-I-M, a long established back to the two channel days world company. It did sound very good. The, uh, big projector was, I think, significantly better than the smaller one. But that points to a a trend, I think, that you probably want to get to later, which is there was this new kind of six-ish thousand lumen projectors at around 30 grand and that's kind of become a category and the Sony was spot on the money for that and it was a good demo and the audio was quite good.
16:09 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Well, we're going to talk more about, specifically about video products, including those projectors, next time. But the other Sony demo that I just wanted to mention was more like the Quantum Media. But the other Sony demo that I just wanted to mention was more like the Quantum Media, which was using their crystal LED, micro LED, hard screen display.
16:32 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Again with their AVR, but with wisdom audio speakers and they're using the internal amp and the AVR to drive the speakers Right. And I saw that after I went to see the quantum media. It's not fair and it was good, um, but it wasn't as good now, which is not to demean the crystal LEDs because they're all over. You know, you go down the block from where I live here in the Valley and you know you go in any of the virtual stages and you'll see a lot of crystal leds. You'll see the b series, not the c series, but, um, you know I it was hard to make a comparison after seeing the uh, yeah, um, another really big multi-company demo that I wanted to point out.
17:20 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Really big trinov, yeah, trinov, it makes uh cinema processors. Here we see the room being built and this is really interesting. It was built by uh an italian company, oficina acoustica.
17:38 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Built in Italy, put together, you know, sped out, calibrated, put into two 40-foot ocean containers, shipped to Denver, put together and then it's going to be taken apart and they're going to take it back and I think they're going to install it in Trinoff's headquarters in Connecticut. But they said that the cost of doing this it was $32,000 for the drayage just to get the containers from the dock at the Denver Convention Center into the hall and then at the end of the show, out. Wow, I mean, that was so and they and they made a big thing of saying we ain't doing this, no more.
18:21 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
But interesting.
18:23 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Sorry, go ahead. No, it was really really good, but that's a million dollars. That really is a million dollar system. It is.
18:32 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
It is I want to say quickly, but the room actually is double walled. It has an outer shell and an inner room. The other participants there are the Perliston speakers I had never, even heard of Perliston.
18:48 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Perlisten Perlisten.
18:49 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Perlisten sorry.
18:50 - Mike Heiss (Host)
They're very, very good from some other things I'm involved with. I know the folks that designed that and they are really really good, really, really, really good, really, really, really good.
19:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
And a Barco Nerthus RS projector, a really high-end Barco projector.
19:07 - Mike Heiss (Host)
It was so bright that they had like your. You know true, we're not kidding OSHA, do not look at the projector. And when they were doing the introduction they said folks, wait until the projector is off. Do not get up and turn around and look at the projector or you'll have holes in your eyes. Oh man, 32,000 lumens. Jeez, you're talking probably about $300,000, $400,000.
19:38 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Yeah, yeah, you're talking probably about three, four hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, yeah, just by comparison, most home projectors are lucky if they get to three thousand lumens, exactly, so this is 10 times more. Yep, uh, seymour screen, excellent screen, a collide escape, uh, source, uh, a mad vr processor. We're going to talk about that next time, uh, so so that was a really nice looking projection system and sounding, I would assume it was.
20:07 - Mike Heiss (Host)
I burn bright. The sound was very good and, again, you know there were a lot of people involved um, chuck back, who you know from a number of uh. You know different companies, and uh uh, number of uh, you know different companies. And sure, uh, peter a let uh, who's a big cd guy who is very deep into officina acoustica, and I mean, these are people that have been around for a time and they know what they're doing and they made a big point and I know we'll get to it in another edition definitely done to rp22, which was a big theme, which is cds standard for this, and it's for immersive audio, for immersive 170, 72 pages. You know, honey, pass me the rp 22, I want to put it under my pillow. It's safe and non-narcotic and it'll put you to sleep. Really, it is really, really, really good and it's one of the reasons why this sounded good, but as did um uh, quantum media and they also had a dcp server ah right, which is in fact I want to throw out I f because otherwise I'll.
21:10
If I don't do it now, I'll forget the demo of the show that almost everybody used. So if anybody is watching wants to, you know, use. The demo that all the pros used was bad boys, which is will smith and I don't remember who else. But there's one scene when guys are getting shot and all that stuff and they shoot a big bowl of marbles and a big bowl of skittles and jelly beans and they fly up in slow motion and what that was good to show was the color and the motion. So you want the demo to show this year it was bad boys.
21:52 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Okay, the jelly bean and Skittles scene. Yep, yep, yep. Let's talk a minute about Grimani systems. We were talking about anthony grimani a moment ago. He did demo there with his uh cinema 5 system, which is somewhat less expensive than what he demoed last year, um, and with a jvc projector, one of the new jvc projectors and it looked really really good really oh, now in the middle there scott the green thing yeah that is the sound projector, which didn't appear wait these two.
22:25 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Oh no, I'm sorry, oh no, no.
22:26 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Those are the no, those are, those are the voice of god speakers yeah, yeah, yeah, those are the voice of god speakers. I actually have some of those in my own home theater, which I will be talking about in an upcoming episode. Now, interestingly, he put his center speaker up above the screen.
22:45 - Mike Heiss (Host)
I don't argue with Tony, I don't argue with him about that. We have spirited discussions but I don't argue.
22:54 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
And I'm sure that system sounded and looked really good too. Yep, yep and finally, jbl Synthesis.
23:03 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yep, my buds.
23:04 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Yeah, you used to work at Harman and JBL.
23:07 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Yes, I did for 25 years.
23:09 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
And they're the only company, I think, that supplies all the components themselves right.
23:16 - Mike Heiss (Host)
That is correct, except the screen. Except the screen and the projector, and they were using, and they were using a lumogen. They, of course, had a kaleidoscape, um, and they were using a lumogen and not a mad vr, but the picture was very good. Well, no, actually that was a dpi projector and digital projection yeah, that well.
23:38
Yeah, dpi digital projectioning. There I was actually a little disappointed with the video quality. Um, and again, it's one of these coming from one to the other, and they have a dpi projector in what they call the john ergo theater in their campus in northridge right which is the one that's got the huge subwoofers and all that.
23:57
Right, the dpi projectors do look good. This one I just wasn't crazy about. The sound was very good and I made a note here that in the uh 9.4.6 demo the subs were in the corners, so like if you went back, because that reminded me when you looked at the uh, at the one that grimani did, the subs were in the front but they made a big deal of the fact that a lot of the work in rp22 and a lot of just the seminal work for home theater and theater in general were done by folks that used to work at harman dr tool, a dr tool, dr olive operating room too, yeah, but then a dr tool, dr and Todd Welty, and they adhere, you know, very scrupulously to that and it did sound really, really good.
24:47 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Very good, okay, so we got a couple of other little things to talk about here before the end of this episode. One is the keynote address by Barry Sonnenfeld. You know he's a big-time director and producer, and cinematographer. And cinematographer Big home theater buff too Huge home theater buff. But he said, among the things he said that I read about, that I was amazed at was that he doesn't like 4K or 8K resolution for movies.
25:22 - Mike Heiss (Host)
So well and it was interesting. He's a storyteller and he said a lot about you know what Netflix? He did a Netflix series recently and they wouldn't let him use an Arri Alexa not the kind that now everybody's desk is talking to you about, but an Arri Alexa not the kind that now everybody's desk is talking to you about, but an Arri Alexa, which is a big deal, a professional digital video cinema camera which is 3.8, it's not 4k and netflix would not let him use it because they wanted 4k.
25:54
And he said I'm a storyteller and in fact I asked him what you end up using. I think he ended up using a panavision. But he said I'm a storyteller and I didn't like the way the 4k looked for the kind of stories that I tell. And then he went on to say and a lot of cinematographers got to take his word for it that he knows are buying old lenses because it's the old equivalent of you know, back in the day, softening it up by putting a stocking over the lens, right, right, I mean that's. I used to have that done 50 years ago when I, when I was in the production business in New York. But now you want everyone's sharper, sharper when I was in the production business in New York, but now he wants everyone's sharper, sharper, and he said no, I like 4k and I even love 8k. If I'm watching a hockey game and I can see the puck.
26:41
But if I may, the thing that he said that you could hear, the air gets sucked out of the broom and he's carrying on. He could be a Larry David doppelganger. I mean, he's a very, very nice guy and I spoke to him and he's carrying on and carrying on. He says and, by the way, we don't want to be the victim of technology hdr sucks, what, what, and you could hear this and like everybody's going what. And he said but then he went on to say and I don don't like Cineflow and I don't like motion, compensation and all of that, and as a creative and as somebody who's not only a director but a cinematographer which is where he started he's entitled to say that. But I mean, that was like the talk of the rest of the day. Harry Sonnenfeld said HDR sucks.
27:31 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Wow. Now I saw a quote from him that said exactly that Quote. Technology is both good and bad. And here's the evil HDR sucks. I don't have to tell you how bad motion flow and cine flow are. Those are motion compensation, frame interpolation, and I don't even know why they're on any television. Now I read that and I went wait a second. Motion flow and cineflow have nothing to do with hdr. It's complete, two completely different things.
28:01 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Maybe that quote was no, that, no, I was in the room. That is what he. He did.
28:08 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Say that and you know, and he connected the two h HDR and motion flow.
28:14 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Are you going to argue with him?
28:17 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Well, if I had had the opportunity, I would have said excuse me, mr Sonnenfeld, but HDR and motion flow are two completely different things that have nothing to do with each other.
28:28 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Okay, have you ever had Joel Silver on HDE?
28:31 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
I have.
28:32 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Okay so.
28:33 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Joel.
28:33 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Silver was in the room and you know question. Yes, you the guy with the black outfit. I think he shares his wardrobe with Rachel Maddow.
28:43 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
I think so too, yes.
28:45 - Mike Heiss (Host)
But he did it first. And he said Mr Sonnenfeld, are you sure that? And he honestly said this are you sure that projector was calibrated, which is exactly what you would expect? I mean, for the people who don't know Joel Silver, that is his life is video calibration and he's very good and made a good living out of it.
29:04
But that and I was rolling on the floor laughing when I heard him say that. And Sonnenfeld said you know, yes, it is. I don't like it, it's my movie and I can make my movie. He's one of the people who says you know why. And I asked him later after the show, I said you know, are you seeing people like Christopher Nolan going back to shooting on film? Yes, and he sort of guffawed and he said well, he can do that. Even I don't have the pull to do a three-hour movie on IMAX and film, so you're going to shoot them. So the moral of all this stuff is shoot it on video, but do it right. And the other thing that he said, which was very interesting, is as somebody who started out in the business as a cinematographer and he said and I become an audio nut because I hate stuff that's out of sync- and he must be driving those sound mixers bonkers, and in fact he said he did.
30:05
But that's good. Because you want people, you know you're paying whatever you pay to go to the movies these days, or you know streaming or whatever.
30:12 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
You want it to look good yeah, and you want to sound good and you want the sound to sync up with what you're seeing so it was.
30:20 - Mike Heiss (Host)
You know it was it was. It was one of the. I think it was the best keynote that they've ever had there um any other video stuff.
30:29 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
I don't know we're gonna get to. We going to get to video stuff next time. What I wanted to just get a couple comments from you on is any overarching trends that you saw.
30:43 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Things that I suspect we'll probably be talking about in the next two issues. Right, Most showing of Dante A-67 video audio over IP that I've ever seen at Cedia. It's been for years at Infocomm and NAB, never here. Sound bars yeah, okay, there were sound bars, but not that many. There are some other audio things that we'll talk about later. Let's see the lower level in this category. I mean, this is a custom install show, so there weren't that many commodity products for those that are not familiar with the market. So the lower level has gone up. But, price dependent, the higher level may have reached the point of diminishing returns which means that you get better stuff by spending more money.
31:40
But something that I want to go back to what Sonnenfeld correctly said and since we mentioned RP22, is it's not just the gear and I'm sure there are people out there that are gearhead and spec heads, all of which is fine, but you could have the best gear in the world, and if it's not properly installed in the right room and if it's not the right gear and not the right amplifier power, blah, blah, blah.
32:08 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
And not the right acoustic environment in the room.
32:11 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Well, but it's interesting. Not the right acoustic environment in the room. Well, but it's interesting. Peter A Lett, again a big CD guy, he's a good buddy of mine and very much a part of Officinano Acustica he said there's no room correction in this room, in the Trenov Denim Right. And people said and why is that, peter? And he said because there was nothing to fix. We did the room right, so there was nothing to correct. And you've got to take a step back and say, hmm, interesting. And that sort of winds up with some of the comments that Barry Sonnemill said there were more Class D amps. There weren't any smart speakers. There were more Class D amps. There weren't any smart speakers. There were more than I expected, the hidden speakers. You know that you can plaster over in the wall, kind of things Completely invisible speakers yeah.
33:10
And do you want to talk about my hit of the show now, or do you want to leave that to the last episode, the one that involves?
33:17 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
wearables, things that you wear, Okay sure.
33:19 - Mike Heiss (Host)
Go for it. What was the hit of the show?
33:21 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
What was the hit of the show, Mike?
33:23 - Mike Heiss (Host)
I'm glad you asked the laundry jet, oh, which has nothing to do with home theater. What Home laundry geeks. But this is not now. I might have thought that this was a joke. It was really serious. Now, remember, this is addressing a market where people are spending six or seven figures again, not just for the home theater but for their total residential environment. So if you remember old-fashioned banks or the stock exchange or something-.
34:02
Sure that sent messages on those pneumatic tubes Right those little round tubes and you unscrew it and you put the receipt in and you open the thing and it goes and it it gets sucked up and it pops down wherever it does. Could you put the um? Could you put the graphic back up? So those things that are in the middle or under the word jet. You slide that door open and you put your dirty laundry in there and it gets sucked, or it gets sucked through the tubes and above the word laundry on the right, it lands in there and the door opens. And they had just done a demo when I took this picture and you can see there's the dirty laundry on the floor. On the floor, well, theoretically there's a laundry basket there, but you know, okay, it's the world's first powered laundry chute. What the heck.
34:51
If you can afford it, have at it.
34:54 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
That gets the weird product of the show award for me, man All I said I didn't realize this.
35:04 - Mike Heiss (Host)
You can send the one on the far left where you see it's got like a porthole. You can put the clean laundry in there and it'll get sucked back upstairs.
35:18 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Will it fold it for you?
35:21 - Mike Heiss (Host)
No, I would have asked them that, Like, how does it? You fold it, you iron it and then you put in the thing, and if you have to ask, you can't afford it.
35:29 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Yeah, well, true.
35:31
Okay, Well, listen that's plenty of time for this episode. A lot of great information. Thanks for being here. We're going to continue in part two next week when we're going to take a closer look at video products that were at the show. So thanks, mike, for being here. Stand by, we're going to do part two here coming up. So thanks, mike, for being here. Stand by, we're going to do part two here coming up. So thanks for watching and continue to watch. I hope you will. Using my best Yoda sentence construction there, I still would like to remind you that I do answer listener questions and love to get them from you. All you have to do is email them to htg at twittv. And, as always, we thank you for your support of the Twit Network with your membership in Club Twit, which lets you see all the shows on the Twit Network in their video form, and so you can see all the great pictures that we showed you here today. So until next time, geek out.
