ISE 2024 - Integrated Systems Europe 2024 - The HiFi Brands and Beyond
hi I'm Lynn and I'm St and we're high five pig we are and we're in Barcelona what we here in Barcelona for for ISC 2024 we are indeed and it's we've actually had a quick run round and it's absolutely mental what we try to do is give you an impression of just how big this place is Integrated Systems it's integrated homes it's hii it's home Cinema it's stage lighting it's absolutely mental so I hope we' we've only been round one of the halls and taking photographs and videos in there for you in the residential bit Yeah in the residential bit but it is the seven holes like we've been around so anyway hope you enjoy our coverage thank you to pmcr sponsors and thank you to everybody that watches this [Music] bye [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so we're at Integrated Systems Europe 20124 um it's a huge show they have about 100,000 visitors it's predominantly trade so so we're showing a mix of our traditional passive loudspeakers uh from from our brand but we also do a lot of integrated uh Audio Solutions and this year um is the second year that we're showing our creator series which is our fourth generation architectural Series speakers uh along with a huge array of other bits and pieces that we have in our portfolio and it's a great chance and opportunity for us to meet you know our integrators and distribution partners and yeah this is just the start there are seven huge Halls here I think what's really interesting is there are a few High few high five Brands here and there seems to be more every year and it certainly seems like this integrated approach to home entertainment is the future of audio I think so I mean it's lovely the nice thing that so many manufacturers are now sort of getting into is yeah whole house Integrated Solutions customer could want a lovely pair of big speakers in a Listening Room for instance but they might want more subtle integrated sound throughout their entire home and outside and to be able to offer that alongside all the people that do the control systems and the screens it's cool this is future Tech and it's great thanks for joining us yeah uh this is our latest loudspeaker from our Extreme Engineering program so uh that program for us takes all of the knowledge and learning that we've had from the last 40 years or so uh and then refines that into something which looks beautiful and performs incredibly well so uh these are all designed engineered manufactured in our Factory in Huntington so just north of Cambridge here um very important for us was that we had a beautiful aesthetic design we'd already proven the performance credentials with the flagship dsp8000 xes last year and so these speakers benefit from all of the electronics in that loudspeaker so uh inside here we've got four class D amplifiers which are our own design each one of those is 240 Watts with our um unique force balance design with the with the with the woofers so each 8 in woofer has 2 140 wats of Class D power so just under a kilowatt four 8 in woofers gives the the cone area of a single 16 but with the speed that you'd expect with the with the uh with the eight so the the claim for is minus 3db is 20 HZ in practice they actually can comfortably play down below 10 HZ and really pressurize a room size um with that level of performance the cabinet is super stiff super inert they're really heavy about 70 kilos each so we've really got a lot of bracing and strength inside the top half of the cabinet features the same head volume as our Flagship 8000 XE um but with a pair of our own class AB amplifiers so each one of those is 50 Watts so you've got this a huge amount of power 1.25 kilow total power with all of our unique DSP engineered Technologies So Perfect Balance means that when we turn the volume down we still have really clean base extension we don't lose any of that detail when you turn the volume up that normalizes we also have base protection to make sure that you don't get OV excited and overe skirt the drive units thermal protection built into the the mid-ranges so these will do 119 DB at one meter so plenty of output for you um and then we've really focused on that that Imaging that ability to have a large sweet spot so the wave guide that we have uh on the Tweeter really helps to drive that dispersion into the room so that's our brilliant Dome Tweeter that we use on the 8000 XE as well so we've got amazing Clarity really big Sound Stage incredible depth to the image that you have and then Bas switch is pretty unbelievable how low did they go 10 htz did you say yeah so we've been pressurized there's um an anal appwood recording which has stuff down at 8 HZ um and you just feel it you don't hear it you just feel it there's this ethereal pressure within the room so it's one of my favorite demos at the factory is play that normally people swear which is you know you're doing it right if the first reaction is a swear word um so yeah we're super proud of these uh really compact amazing to look at with' Hidden the heat sink so when you go around to the back of the product super clean oh there's one really other massively important thing and that is that we've expanded the inputs so traditional loud speaker from us would have a CAT 5 cable an RJ45 and that's it um but with these we've added RCA XLR analog uh Optical USBC Bluetooth speaker link yeah I think so fully connected yeah just just just all of those which I think is what this show is all about it's all about the connected home isn't it and things being yeah I mean we basically want to make it easy for people to integrate these into a client's home they can have an amazing experience and it Blends in with the interior but offers something that's really special in terms of um acoustic performance as well so that for us is that kind of that holistic approach all the way around make it easy to integrate can I plug my yes doesn't matter what it is yes you can um what can I have this color you can whatever color you like so we've done farro and ball finishes jaguar colors Porsche colors Ferrari colors McLaren colors um satin finishes metallic finishes so we really wanted to make something which which basically ticks the box where whatever you want and delivers our signature of audio performance and these are in the shops now yeah yes these are available now uh in the UK the standard gloss black finish is £60,000 for a pair if you would like a custom version then it's £65,000 all with a 5year warranty all made in our Factory which is actually pretty reasonable when you think you've got your amplifiers on board you've got all your DSP on board yeah so you've got two pairs of dacks uh one for Mid and top one for the base drivers you've got six amplifiers all built in our latest Digital Signal processing as well so yeah when you look at that uh combined with just the amazing build quality of that yeah I think it does represent really good value yeah every time we watch a film and pretty much every film that we watch that has a high-fi in it it tends to be Meridian in there are we sort of sit and scream at the television I know then yeah that that it is I mean this is an iconic design for us and it's this is you know where what our design language looks like going further forward so key things like the Top's really small that's what you see first and then where you add some weight to the cabinet it's as it drops away on this so you have these curve curved front curved sides and then curved back as well so it's a really interesting shape to see and it really hides the size of the speaker as well cool hey so we're here showing with our new partners AB emia they're helping us to promote and get the word out about Prim a throughout the world in a better manner than we have so far and we're doing this in promoting some of the new products that we have available now particularly in home theater which seems particularly appropriate for the ISC show and so we have the sp25 home Cinema processor it's an 11 Channel processor and then we have the award-winning 8 35.8 8 channel amplifier that has each pair bridgeable so that we can effectively with our stereo amplifier the A35 point2 create virtually any power configuration needed for any speaker configuration that any home Cinema system might have in fact the a358 has a nice little party trick in that you can Bridge all four pairs and then you have a, 1500 watt by amp amplifier for those speakers that are by aable now the SP2 is actually based on our spa 25 which is an 11 Channel processor nine Channel integrated amp that has analog outputs to be able to add that 11th channel the 11 additional channels of power so that you have then with the A35 point2 an 11 Channel processor integrated amplifier and we combine that then with things like our new sc15 Prisma Mark I which is our Network player deck that has a few extra little features in it that make it unique not only does it have preamplified function in it it also has Wisa wireless speaker connection and in addition to that we have a new feature we call room EQ which gives us an automatic room EQ that does an amazing job very simple to use you take your mobile device you play a 60-sec test Stone you move it around the listening area and it automatically adjusts the frequencies from 500 htz Below in relation to the full bandwidth of 20 to 20,000 and we know that it's in the low frequencies where you can read really do The Balancing Act necessary to make any system fit and work best with the room and that's what room Q does in the sc15 Prisma Mark I so hi we're here with David matern yes from Macintosh son Faber even at Frankie's bar which is such a cool thing to have it a isn't it cool yeah so why Frankie's bar well first what's better than a bar to welcome all our partners dealers at ISC uh why Frank is first is because we have a very long history with jazz bars they're coming from Japan if you don't know the history coming from Japan right after World War II they could not get Jazz album and American Music in Japan so they were smuggling records Jazz records into Japan and they didn't have jazz bar jazz band so they actually created a very I would say holistic bars in order to listen to music and Macintosh in that era was already very popular in jisa so we decided to bring the first high five bar to ISC to pay tribute to that hisory and Legacy and why Frank is Frank Macintosh founder of McIntosh and Franco serban founder of son Fab of course so welcome to Frank is perfect yeah so what have you got new that's uh on the high-fi home Cinema front yeah so we are actually have two things the first one is on display at ISC this year we have our uh 75th Anniversary products from Macintosh so uh the new MC 2.1 KW delivering 2,000 watts of pure Macintosh power they on display over there along the entire collection of so we we're making special edition 75 of our uh reference products so they're all on display here and this is also the first debut of the Arena 10 home theater speakers from son fabber so we have our home theater Booth you can see the line over there it's insane and uh I hope you're going to go try it after course yeah okay good okay thank you thank you so [Music] much hello there is P from PMC we're here at ISC 2024 we've got uh a display of our CI product um which is um product which is ideal for the customer installation industry whether that be for a multi-room project or for cinemar installation which is also used in the studio and we've got a mix engineer here today who's doing seminars on Doby Atmos music mix mixing so the same product so we can prove the same product is used in the studio as it is in the home and we believe that's a strong philosophy of PMC that we believe that the same product should be used in the studio and at home because well basically you just get to hear what the artist is intended it kind of makes sense it does yeah yeah it's uh from creation all the way through to the home and we've also got a range of our professional products here as well because is ISC is uh opened up to the professional World took a lot of our professional monitors here as well in terms of uh technology we use exactly the same technology on our domestic product as we do on our Pro product um using Advanced transmission line and lamin Air Technology the advant transmission line is a base loading technology that the company has been founded on which has got load Distortion great place low volume and gives you that that PMC feel that sort of very Natural Balance um and that's the same with the the flat CI series which are an on wall or in wall model that also has uh lamin technology and advanced transmission line so they all have the same characteristics so you can mix and match any of our products whether they from the studio where they're from the home they all have the exactly the same characteristics and we've got a an Atmos system here uh n um uh a system here that we're playing both Atmos music and uh movies I had a very brief listen to that it sounds UT incredible it is an absolute cracker it's it's not it doesn't have that that that um approach where it's only for Cinema you can play music you can play Cinema you can do the whole thing and that's the thing that you get from developing loudspeakers with that professional uh Studio ethos it doesn't matter what you put through them uh you just get a phenomenally high resolution ution Dynamic clean clear high resolution uh balance and and how has that being accepted by a more traditional I suppose high-fi audience what um just originally um when we brought uh the professional monitor to uh to the public there was a little bit of reticence because they didn't really grasp what a professional monitor was but there's professional monitor and professional monitors and we we're at the very very top end so whether you're mixing mastering or producing a film score or you you're mixing Atmos we're at the very very Pinnacle of that uh for instance I mean Dolby used PMC as the reference um so you've got various studios around the world in La I believe yeah we've got we've got mix Studios We've Got U we've got uh La Nashville and London where we you where we um demonstrate their products and we also do instructions on Atmos mixing um so we've pretty much the authority now for w w Atmos music mixing I think the whole music side of Atmos is really interesting and we ran a news piece on it um long long time ago and somebody piped up on social media that well it's not natural and it's not right and all the rest of it and Peter yeah who was the boss of PMC uh piped up said the mono people said the same about stereo when that first came out that's really stuck in my mind about it it's a it's quite an interesting thing because if it's because we actually mix Atmos as well so we know how to treat music so we mixed um you know the real Holy Grail of of jazz music um kind of blue and Sketches of Spain for Miles Davis and it the approach we took was a very very sympathetic view of it and we were involved with the with uh miles DAV his family um and under their kind of guidance as well we remix those and it's a very beautiful natural feel it's not a pingpong effect you haven't got crazy the sacks coming out of the real rear channels U it's just a very very absorb sound field so you're really absorbed in the piece of music rather than sitting away from it and it and it's just a beautiful thing and when it's done sens sensitively and with that with those artistic values of the artist in in mind you do get a yeah it's a very absorbing very well it's a very emotional and you've got one of your guys that mixes for Dolby atmosphere indeed yeah we've got he mores who um worked out of PMC Studio London for quite a period and has uh produced some really really nice Dolby Atmos mixes do you think we could have a word with him yeah we could fabulous we'll do that yeah hi um I'm here with he mores uh experienced U mix engineer that's worked with uh PMC for quite some time both in Stereo and in uh Atmos um and he hi hi and what are you doing for us at ISC 2024 so I'm here to just uh explain to people from the uh custom install Market really uh to to emphasize the point of the connection between Pro and and customer and highi yeah because I don't think I don't think PMC in some people's heads people don't really understand in the pro market PMC is the market leader yeah and it's and it's particularly in Atmos but also in Stereo it's what most people go to as the the best monitor speaker in in available yeah so when you're buying a a custom install system from PMC or a a Hi-Fi home system you're hearing exactly what the mix engineer was intending you to hear when when the track was being recorded and mixed so my role here today is to just tell people that story that's because it's a great story and uh uh and the more people hear it I think the more they'll they'll understand that by by listening to PMC high-fi and customer install they're getting the real story they're getting they're getting what people intended is there um is there a particular aspect of uh PMC loud speakers that that you would say is um what's the biggest benefit of you PMC as as a l speaker me for me the biggest benefit is the lack of distortion okay because as soon as you introduce a distortion into a speaker you start to get like looking through glasses that or listening through glasses that are covered in mud you can't hear a big thing for a mix engineer particularly in in modern day hip-hop music is the difference between the kick drum and the bass or the 808 when you're listening through Distortion you can't hear what where one ends and the other one begins so it's almost impossible to to place those things so it's like literally like trying to paint a picture when you can't really see the colors so I would say that the lack of distortion is what sets PMC aside from all other monitoring systems and that just gives you a Clarity that is unparalleled I've never heard it in any other speaker is there anything about PMC that speakers that apply themselves well for immersive formats you know like Atmos is there something specific about them well the lack of distortion but also the the CI system yeah you know the thing about about Atmos is it's it's quite hard to install in in in someone's home or because the size of the speakers is is is difficult logistically the CI system is really easy to install particularly the heights can always be difficult because if You' got a low ceiling so uh for me it's that what you're what you're doing with when you're installing a CI system or PMC CI system is you're hearing exactly what the mix engineer and the artist wanted you to hear in a way that's kind of easy to inst sure listic okay cool thank you very [Music] much [Music] [Laughter] [Music] he so we're here at ISC 2024 with Cedric from waterfall audio who are a French company that makes some really distinctive loudspeakers made out of glass and we've been following you guys for years and years and years I believe you've been doing this particular show for years and years is that the case yeah exactly we've been doing V show since 2004 because custom install is our biggest Market it's like 5% of our Market is in custom install we do a lot of project with our dealers and distributors in residential and as you say we are famous for making glass F speakers so we don't make only glass F speakers we have a specific bran which is great for custom sers which is the professional custom Ser run for private theaters but right now today we are really proud to introduce our new range of speakers with our new technology so this new technology is called Jetstream it's a new damping technology which is replacing our original technology which that bik from 20 years ago which was called acoustic damping F so this technology is good thing is you can see through the speaker so you will be able to spot it it's like a turbine with blades and this has many technical Advantage we manage uh avoiding reflection on the cone we have a better bus response better mid-run response and we can manage heat dissipation this new technology is really bringing our speaker performance to a Next Level all our speakers are equipped like it's been the case for more than 20 years by atom drivers which is also a French manufacturer which is made in B so it's a cerico product and um also the new thing is that the range was originally from free speakers iguasu Victoria on nagara so we keep the two original model which are going to become with the name Victoria igu and Victoria XT for the jet technology and nagar nagara was top of a range with only one product with a horn that was a glass horn now we have three NRA xt1 xt2 and xt3 now we're showcasing the xt2 this product uh this product we incorporate a new material for us which is wood the thing is we do it with solid wood so it's a wood horn five is cenc unassemble unpolished unish and this product is really making a new design the so xt2 is a the same size as the over nigar which is xt3 with a glass horn so we have two big speakers in the run xt2 and xt3 one xt2 is the wood horn xt3 is the glass horn and this one as a little sister which is the nagara xt1 which is smaller will be able to see also it's beautiful I have to say it looks beautiful not heard it yet will you be at um Munich this year uh it's not decided yet because we had so much running in with a we just coming it's been like last year has been really intense because we have all the production of the new products coming in some new development in Europe all this products is 95% European mate have to say it's all assembled in the soft France as I said the atom drivers are from France aluminium from France wood is from France glass is from Germany and other parts are from Portugal what kind of wood is it out of Interest so the the classic so in the Niger rch we will have a classic Model with Beach wood which would come from Germany and then we have the Walnut which is French Walnut from French Forest made in France with CNC process in France and assemble in to be [Music] precise [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so we'll start probably over here right new Steinway lindol uh Soundbar it's full range uh CR uh dual 10s uh it's uh around 50 kilos made of solid aluminium it carries over the drivers from our S15 so it's got our amts um and yeah for for uh it's our first ever sound it's a concept so a gauging feedback from the dealers and the clients that are coming and but it's a it's a hell of a piece it's it's like the soundar isn't it it's quite sound bar yeah 50 kilos you need a strong wall as well so you don't want to put down some plaster B you need need some raw plugs um but yeah it's the we we had a lot of demand for uh smaller form factor keeping things underneath the TV but still trying to keep as close as we can to that stereo separation and the Imaging and the just the the high-fi sound that we produce so that's our attempt it we didn't want to do one really any Slimmer in terms of width we can go wider but it needs that much room to breathe so you know cabinet volume things were really important you were here last year I remember you guys being here last year what do you think sets ISC apart from a more traditional II um the I guess the main difference is that is it's more Innovation I would say is probably one of the ways I word it there's a lot more about AV in general over IP um and I think it's it's more of a custom install it's more lifestyle it's more whole house um but the funny thing is a lot of the brands that you probably see at the high five shows do have that side to them you know there there's name and foco over there there's montor over there there's you name them they're probably here um so yeah and and the funny thing is we do a lot in cinema world so we do a lot of Home Cinemas and that's more this market and on that really so [Music] yeah [Laughter] [Music] [Music] hey no yeah my love my love yeah oh we oh oh a
2024-02-11 22:57
