CEDIA 2017

Now in its 70th year, Stewart Filmscreen filled its CEDIA booth with eye-catching new screen options, including the Balόn Borderless and Gemini Dual-Roller ElectriScreen.

Typical whole-house audio systems require “home-running” all of the speaker and control wiring to a central location which then connects to a stack of electronics – sources, distribution switches, amplifiers, control system – that normally resides in a large rack. While there is nothing wrong with systems designed in this manner, they are typically best installed during construction when extensive prewiring can be done, and can be difficult to add onto. Many also feature pre-configured source and zone amounts, such as 6 source to 6 zone, meaning it can be difficult (ie: expensive) to add a single additional zone to a system. Russound showed some real out-of-box thinking at CEDIA by introducing the company’s new MBX-AMP, a completely scalable Wifi streaming audio amplifier that can be placed anywhere in the home yet link-up to become part of a system supporting as many as 32 audio zones!

If Ethernet conversion isn’t your thing, nor are fiber optics (another work-around on the traditional weaknesses of HDMI over long lengths), a few companies are now offering either passive or a combination of passive/active HDMI cables that can extend far enough for the needs of most consumers.

Sanus, after some success with its dedicated stands for the Sonos Play:1 and Play:3 speaker, will soon be adding one for the company's flagship Play:5.

Short throw projectors were a big story this year, and Hisense got into the act with its $10,000 Laser 4K.

Yamaha was at CEDIA demonstrating the Alexa voice-control capabilities recently added to its MusicCast wireless multiroom audio system.