CEDIA 2010

Procella is a relatively new speaker company to these shores, with headquarters in Los Angeles, Stockholm, and Sydney. Its speakers, apart from the surrounds, follow the professional, powered-speaker paradigm. That is, they are driven by on-board amps. The P815, for example (the two stacked cabinets on the left in the photo, for example, is bi-amplified with 700 x 2 watts of built-in, class-D power. That model sells for $10,000 each.

Surge protection and power conditioning often seem like an industry filled with smoke and mirrors – and full of dubious, hard-to-verify claims of protection. SurgeX brought some heavy duty surge-generating equipment to demonstrate how other types of surge protection devices react under real-world electrically stressful situations. The brand-obscured surge suppressor being used here would have left some home theater owner heading to the repair shop had a real component been hooked up to the outlet when a bad surge came down the line. SurgeX claims their devices are designed to resist surges at much higher levels than the competition can handle without self-destructing – and they can do it repeatedly (like well over 30,000 times).

Triad is an in-room/wall/ceiling speaker company that specializes in making solutions for problems that real people often run into when putting together anything other than the standard, run-of-the-mill home theater system. For example, the company’s in-room speakers are voiced to identically match the in-wall versions (both the 4-inch and 6-inch deep versions), which also happen to perfectly match the in-ceiling versions. That way you could, if you had to, use in-room speakers for the left and right with an in-wall center channel and a pair of in-ceiling rears – and all the speakers would respond as if you’d used the same model all the way around. At CEDIA, Triad was showing off a prototype of another solution, a subwoofer that can be hidden away with the bass output routed into the room via a large diameter tube that terminates in a standard wall vent cover. No pricing available yet.

Uncompressed wireless high-definition audio transmission along with a super-easy setup routine – and the ability to instantly realign the soundfield to accommodate changes in seating position are the hallmarks of Summit Wireless’ technology. After lots of development work, the technology is finally coming to a home theater near you. The first products to incorporate it will be the Aperion Audio Intimus 4T 5.1-channel ($2,499) and 7.1-channel ($2,999) systems. Pre-orders will be available beginning October 15th, with shipping beginning in December. Of all the wireless technology I’ve seen at the last couple of CEDIA and CES shindigs, Summit Wireless is the most exciting – and we can’t wait to get our hands on the first system to come from Aperion Audio. We’ll keep you posted…

Jeff Graham, CEO of iSky, shows off a demonstration mockup of an iSky fiber optic star ceiling panel with blue LED lighting around the edges. iSky panels can be mounted directly to the ceiling or used with regular drop ceilings. Each iSky panel contains a built-in illuminator and only requires a low-voltage jumper between panels. The constant-voltage design is said to be simpler to install than a more complex constant-current system. In addition to looking incredibly cool, the iSky panels also be ordered as reflector or diffuser panels for acoustic treatment of your home theater’s ceiling.

Direct-to-consumer Emovita introduced a higher-end line aimed at distribution through CEDIA installers. The PMC-1 (shown here on top) is a 7.1-channel pre/pro with a fully-integrated Control4 HC200 controller built-in. The PMC-1 includes only HDMI switching with no legacy video inputs, so you’ll have to get a component-to-HDMI adapter to connect your Wii to it. The PMA-7350 (on the bottom) is a matching 7 x 350 watts amplifier. Shipping is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.