Daniel J SaitMeridian Audio opened its doors earlier this month to welcome over 40 technology integrators, industry professionals, and press to Meridian Live, a one-day event that provided visitors with the opportunity to experience a range of new product demonstrations and get an understanding of how they can introduce and sell Meridian products and its distributed brands to their clients.
A highlight underlined by Meridian was the Reference Digital Theatre demo which provided attendees with the opportunity to hear the new Meridian DSP In-Wall Loudspeakers from the Architectural range and get a hands-on feel for some of the ‘insides’ of these speakers.
Meridian says the new loudspeakers — DSP640.2 and DSP520.2 — enable integrators to deliver the authentic, superior audio performance that customers want for their home cinema or media room installations.
These models are the first to be powered by the new Meridian ‘CLASS-M’ DSP engine and to integrate Meridian’s ‘DYNAMIC’ Hi-Res amplifiers, for renowned audio quality in a wide range of installation applications. Look out for an exclusive EI review of the DSP520.2 speakers in EI very soon.
This session also allowed visitors to get an idea of the performance that is available from distributed partners — Barco Residential, Display Technologies, and Cinema Acoustic Treatment Systems (C-ATS).
Bragi rights
Visitors also experienced the new Barco Bragi 4K LED RGB with native Cinemascope projector in the Media Room.
Benefiting from Barco Residential’s Cinemascope technology, the Bragi projector uses the latest in HLD and LED illumination technology for colour fidelity and sharp imagery, designed to immerse the viewer in an impressive movie-watching experience.
Bragi Cinemascope has a motorised DCI/P3 filter for HDR performance, meaning that the projector will support both SDR and HDR viewing, as well as Barco’s unique RealColor processing for simple and accurate calibration.
Professional-grade optics ensure the best possible picture quality with all new ‘Pulse’ electronics, together with a unique automatic aspect ratio detection function that will automatically scale the image to fit the resolution.
A factory tour took attendees on a journey of Meridian, starting with a look back in time to the first ever products created by the company and some of the key technology launches over the past 40 years.
“When manufacturers open their doors, you feel like you’ve won a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory”, comments Mike Ranpura, Smart Life AV. “Getting to see the inner workings of how Meridian speakers are made during the factory tour was fascinating. It’s not often that you get to understand the engineer’s perspective of why products are created in a specific way.
“It’s even more rare that you get to hear a complete line up of speakers used in all scenarios from Hi-Fi through to home cinema. We are always sceptical of specifying speakers that we have not heard. After attending Meridian Live, I am not only confident about specifying Meridian, but I can tell the story of Meridian to my clients”.
The reception features a range of audio products, set up in a number of different applications and providing visitors with the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the sound of Meridian. Featuring demos of the M6, DSP3200, DSP5200, DPS8000 Special Edition loudspeakers, this area also showcases the capabilities of the 218 Zone Controller and 210 Streamer.
The next Meridian Live event will take place in November and is an exclusive event for current dealers, their staff, and press to explore the company’s approach to of high-resolution audio.