Essential Install | ISE Review
Dutch Delights
Daniel J Sait presents just a few of the highlights from this year ’ s largest ever ISE .
Bang and Olufsen launched its new collaboration with Origin Acoustics
Meridian was concentrating on three new products , two new power amps , the 857 Reference Two-Channel and the 258 Eight-Channel Power Amplifiers , designed to add muscle and quality to any existing system , in addition to the 218 Zone Controller that provides a choice of control options and can be used in a wide variety of applications . All three products are competitively priced and can be integrated with other brands and products . Meridian says the new products had a fantastic reception from dealers , with them commenting on the compact size of the 218 Zone Controller and wide range of connectivity options . For example , the 218 can be mounted to the back of a TV with a VESA mount where it can be connected to the TV ’ s optical output and then run to a pair of digital active loudspeakers , such as a pair of Meridian DSP3200s , or a power amp and used to drive a set of passive loudspeakers . Dealers were also impressed with the ability to integrate some of Meridian ’ s expertise and Hi-Res Audio performance into an existing system with the 258 and 857 .
The company also gave visitors the inside track on its updated complimentary Design and Specification Service which include its own products and those of Barco , Cinema-ATS and DT Screens . The company is also excited about its new training programme headed up by Hugo Fitzjohn , technical education and sales support manager , covering a wide range of topics from home theatre design to two channel system set up and whole home Hi-Res Audio solution .
EI grabbed a few minutes with John Clancy vice president residential for Crestron to talk about programing platform Studio v 1.6 as well as Sonos and Alexa integration .
John explains the reasoning behind the timing of the company ’ s natively integrated Sonos functionality : “ Before the new arrangement we would never have risked reverse engineering something ; way too risky for us – it always has to be reliability first . We can run the Sonos App natively within our own system , search specific songs – the App runs right off our panel . There is also real value in having an always on hard-wired dedicated controller as opposed to a mobile device , so users can avoid annoying App-hunting .”
As for voice control , John argues : “ For us Alexa integration is at this stage , complementary . The skills are finite so currently speech is somewhat unnatural . We have custom skills so you can speak more naturally , but you do have to tell Alexa to tell Crestron to carry out the command , but that will change . We will add more compound commands ; creating more macros is definitely the way forward . So far the functionality has been well received in the US . We can provide lots of support on how to get it right . The trick here is to manage the expectation . I would keep voice control limited to 6-10 commands at the completion of a project and provide the customer with a list as they are likely to forget whilst they get used to it . Then return after the system has bedded into to tweak
258 EIGHT CHANNEL POWER AMPLIFIER COOL AND POWERFUL
Find out more by visiting us at meridian-audio . com
38 | February 2017