The annual CEDIA shindig showing off the best in home installation equipment and thinking had a new location in London Docklands' ExCel Centre this year, reflecting its growing popularity, with over 5,000 visitors expected over the course of the week.
It's the place dealers, installers and Joe Public to look, listen and learn about the latest developments in home install, including high-end, professionally fitted multi-room entertainment systems (not to mention all those fully integrated lighting, security and other control options) and true to form there was some top-notch high-end home cinema gear on display.
 | | The Crestron Adagio 'entry-level' home entertainment system looks serious and commands serious prices. The AESI entertainment system costs £3.5K (there's a less capable £2.5K version, the AADSI), while additional AAS CD/MP3 servers start at £2K+ and AAEI audio expanders will set you back £1.5K each.
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 | | The APAD is Crestron's latest in-wall control panel and for £400 each you get an LCD screen, jog wheel control and a range of programmable functions.
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 | | Crestron's TPS-4L has a 3.6in screen, ten programmable keys plus built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections. They'll cost you £1,050 a pop, mind…
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 | | Stewart Filmscreen's Cinecurve offers a super widescreen 2:35:1 aspect ratio on its gently curving screen, which is designed to eliminate the black bars that most projection systems resort to. It needs to be couple with a dedicated projector with an additional anamorphic lens added to it. Total cost - around £36K.
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 | | A Vidikron projector like this, fitted with a suitable anamorphic lens for the Cinecurve screen, will set you back around £40K.
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 | | Stewart Filmscreen has a range of retractable projection screens with QED (Quiet Electronic Drive) technology from Lutron which are supposed to be completely silent. We tried one - and it was.
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 | | Pioneer's PDP-5000EX 50in HD plasma got an early showing and its 1080p 'true HD' resolution looked simply stunning. Aimed primarily at the install market to begin with, it will cost around £6K.
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 | | The Pioneer Ex reference 5.1 loudspeakers (£10K) sound great, but their hulking black presence could take over your room.
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 | | Pioneer Ex reference loudspeaker centre channel.
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 | | Tannoy's latest update on its Arena surround speakers was on show at the AWE stand. They should be with us next month.
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 | | Sharp's Aquos LC-37GA9 LCD TV offers an impressive HD image for under £1,500.
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 | | Philips 42PF7621D LCD TV offers five more inches for around £1,900.
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 | | Philips' 42PF9831 LCD made good use of the company's Ambilight technology, which changes subtly to reflect the dominant colours on screen. It costs around £3,200.
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 | | US firm Flatline's new range of in-wall speakers have 6.5in or 4in drivers and a variety of tweeter configurations, including this one with dual tweeters which can be angled to give the impression of stereo from a single speaker. Prices start at £100 each and go up to £300.
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 | | Pioneer's PLC wireless speaker system uses your home's mains electricity network to pipe music around the house (becoming a popular concept these days, with similar products from Marantz and Powerline Audio). These prototype 'vase' speakers are expected to be on sale later this year.
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 | | Pioneer's prototype 'Malt' speakers are made from 100-year-old wood which was previously used as whiskey barrels. There's talk of this improving acoustics, though it's likely to appeal more to the kind of people who like to discuss the vintage of their speaker cabinets.
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 | | Denon's AVR-4306 AV amp can be networked via Ethernet and access internet radio, as well as remote resets from an installer. It's got a dedicated iPod dock too.
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 | | Yamaha's MusicCAST digital server (£1,800) has a 160GB hard drive which can also link to your PC and play music directly from it. It can distribute to up to 15 zones, five of which can be wireless.
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 | | Yamaha's MCX-A10 digital audio terminal, designed to be used with the MusicCAST included 20 watts of built-in amplification for installed speakers. £600 each.
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 | | The RX-N600D (£600) is part of Yamaha's range of multi-room DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) products. They can be networked together and 'talk' to each other, so that either can operate as the hub of the system.
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 | | Philips' snazzy 7in digital Photo Frames (£135) were liberally spread around the venue.
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 | | iLight had a wonderful display of its mini LCD colour touch screens (TSC30). Controlling complex lighting and home automation systems can now be done at the touch of a (rather expensive) button.
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 | | Bored of ripping that mammoth CD collection onto your PC? Why not get the Ripstation Lite (£1995) to do the dirty work for you. It can hold 25 CDs at a time, ripping 25 CDs per hour.
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 | | Burnout Revenge on Xbox 360 gets a runout on a true HD (1920x1080) Sharp Aquos LC-65GD1E 65in LCD TV (£10,000).
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 | | Control your CD and DVD collection in style with the Digital Future Solutions iDyl Multiroom Media Server. The system offers HD video playback too.
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 | | The Kaleidescape System is similar, giving you the chance to archive and organise your CDs and DVDs digitally. A single Kaleidescape Server can hold as many as 10,000 CDs.
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 | | One of the more outlandish pieces of kit on display was the Philips Mirror Television. Once you're bored looking at yourself, just press a button and the mirror turns into an HDTV!
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 | | Hidden between these two men's backsides lies a Schroers & Schroers steel glass TV stand.
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 | | (From left) Waterfall Victoria 'Twin', Iguascu 'Twin' and Athabasca glass speakers. The three speakers make up the Krysta-Line series.
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 | | LG's LH-T755TF budget DVD home cinema system (approx £450) certainly caught the eye.
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 | | Meridian demostrated its Faroudja DVP-1080 Digital DV processor, G61 Surround controller, G98 DVD audio transport and G55 Five channel power amplifier.
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 | | Niles ceiling mount loudspeaker.
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