Home Theater Geeks 551 Transcript
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Scott Wilkinson [00:00:00]:
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I finish up my coverage of CEDIA Expo 2024 with my friends Mike Heiss and Joe Klusnik, who were actually at the show. So stay tuned.
Michael Heiss [00:00:17]:
Podcasts you love from people you trust.
Joe Klusnick [00:00:21]:
This is TWiT.
Scott Wilkinson [00:00:32]:
Hey there, Scott Wilkinson here, the Home Theater Geek. In this episode, I finish my coverage of CEDIA Expo 2026 with my friends Mike Heiss and Joe Klusnik. Mike's a journalist and an industry consultant and a jolly good CEDIA fellow, and, uh, he joins us from his home in LA. Hey Mike, welcome back.
Michael Heiss [00:00:57]:
Hey, Scott, good to be here.
Scott Wilkinson [00:00:59]:
Nice to have you along.
Michael Heiss [00:01:01]:
It's nice to be had.
Scott Wilkinson [00:01:04]:
And Joe is a Home Theater of the Month recipient in episode 517 and a home theater designer who's— one of whose theaters was featured in episode 547. Hey, Joe, welcome back.
Joe Klusnick [00:01:19]:
Good to see you guys.
Scott Wilkinson [00:01:20]:
Yeah, always glad to have you here. All right, part 3 of our CEDIA coverage where we're going to talk about some of the big demos And some of the trends that, that you guys have come to see after 4 days in Denver, Colorado. Um, which in fact, uh, I want to point out, the CEDIA Expo, as it has been for many years, was at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, uh, with the big giant blue bear standing outside looking in. And I always thought that was pretty, pretty great. I mean, that thing must be 30, 40 feet tall. But it's, it's, it's very cool. And it's the last time now that you guys will see it for a while, anybody will, because CEDIA is moving. Next year it'll be in Las Vegas.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:19]:
And the year after that, Atlanta, so I'm told.
Michael Heiss [00:02:22]:
No, no, no, Orlando. Oh, Orlando.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:24]:
Sorry.
Michael Heiss [00:02:24]:
Sorry. No, CEDIA is never I was there once and it didn't work out too well.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:33]:
Nah, that's true. That's true. I was there for, for Atlanta and, uh, I'm glad it's not going back.
Michael Heiss [00:02:41]:
Me too. It's a great city. It's just not the right one for this.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:45]:
Yeah.
Joe Klusnick [00:02:46]:
The Big Blue Bear might want to go to Las Vegas. You don't know.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:48]:
Yeah. Who knows? Maybe they'll, maybe, maybe he'll trundle over there.
Michael Heiss [00:02:52]:
The only thing I'm hoping for is that next year in Vegas or one of the manufacturers We'll have an event at the Sphere so I don't have to pay $250 to get into the bloody thing.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:01]:
Yep.
Michael Heiss [00:03:02]:
I mean, talk about a home theater demo.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:05]:
You know, I'm hoping to do a story about the Sphere at some point.
Michael Heiss [00:03:09]:
Have you been?
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:10]:
I have not. And it's one of the main things I want to go to Vegas for. Have you guys been?
Joe Klusnick [00:03:16]:
Yes.
Michael Heiss [00:03:16]:
Not yet. I'm too cheap.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:19]:
Joe, what'd you see there?
Joe Klusnick [00:03:20]:
Uh, it was a Planet Earth type of documentary. Yeah. But amazing scale, a fantastic sound. I can only imagine what it'd be like to see a concert in that place. Yeah, but yeah, a lot of really— before you get into the actual Sphere portion of the showroom, outside in the lobby you can spend 45 minutes beforehand and see the beamforming and the speaker technology. You can walk in front of a wall of speakers playing 4 different languages and hear each of them distinctly. You can see some of the robotics that they're using in there. It's, it's A very worthwhile spend of money.
Scott Wilkinson [00:03:58]:
This is another reason for me to actually go to CEDIA next year, and hopefully one of the manufacturers will have an event there. That, that would be awesome.
Michael Heiss [00:04:07]:
Well, there was a CES. I think Delta Airlines had an event there, but just the logistics of getting there, uh, is not pretty.
Scott Wilkinson [00:04:16]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, when that happens, we— I'll have you guys back on. We will talk about it. But for now, uh, let's finish up with CEDIA 2026, uh, in And I will, I will start by saying we're going to talk about some of the demos and the trends, and I'm going to save the trends for later, except for this one, which is there weren't nearly as many, if any, million-dollar-plus systems that were being demonstrated at CEDIA. These cost-no-object systems seem to be kind of out of favor. Uh, Joe, what do you— Well, Mike, go ahead.
Michael Heiss [00:04:57]:
I wouldn't say out of favor, but as much as anything for financial reasons. And again, I, you know, I hate to keep bringing it up, but I, I know I've been around CEDIA from the beginning.
Scott Wilkinson [00:05:09]:
Yeah.
Michael Heiss [00:05:09]:
And I know a lot of the guys that put these things on and the cost, it's the ROI and the—
Scott Wilkinson [00:05:16]:
Return on investment.
Michael Heiss [00:05:19]:
I was going to say, I could tell you, but I won't. What it costs to put one of those things together, just the drayage to get all that stuff from the dock, not from the airport, not from the ship, but from the dock inside and then back out to the dock so the truck can pick it up. You're talking almost 5 figures just for that. And a number of the manufacturers said it ain't worth it. And there were some brands that just said, I'm not going to do that anymore. And again, that's not just a knock on CEDIA, that's an issue that the trade show world in general is having these days. Yeah, economically.
Joe Klusnick [00:06:03]:
I'll say 2 things about that. You know, back in the day when I was exhibiting at CES with other companies, there was not a really good way to get that information. Now on YouTube, with podcasts, there's a wealth of information out there that I think you can at least hear about or learn about these things much quicker than you could in the print days. So I think that, yeah, you are seeing less of an impact from some trade shows, and that's not this industry specific, that's all of them.
Michael Heiss [00:06:31]:
That's everybody.
Scott Wilkinson [00:06:31]:
Yeah, yeah.
Joe Klusnick [00:06:33]:
So I, I think that's a big part of it. And then some manufacturers said they'd rather take that same money and put it into a showroom that's there, you know, 365 days a year for a customer to get that experience. Uh, I know Harman, for example, was offering rides to Golden, Colorado, where they had a ProSource demo set up where you could sit inside the JBL Synthesis Theater.
Michael Heiss [00:06:57]:
You can take a lot of dealers out to dinner for what it costs to put out— put on one of those shows. Or if you're a dealer, you could say Give me some MDF, you know? Don't buy me dinner, give me some MDF. Give me, you know, better— no, I mean, seriously. I mean, there's a lot of money in all industries, and especially with the cost of memory and tariffs, you know, all of that stuff, it ain't what it used to be. It's not the freewheeling days of yore.
Joe Klusnick [00:07:29]:
Hmm.
Scott Wilkinson [00:07:31]:
Well, still, there were some impressive demos.
Michael Heiss [00:07:33]:
Absolutely.
Scott Wilkinson [00:07:33]:
So let's, let's talk about those. So the first one up is, uh, from— well, and these demos, I should say, combine a number of manufacturers in one room. So first up, I want to look at the one that had the Ascendo Audio, uh, the Christie projector, MadVR Labs processor, Seymour Screen Excellence screen, Storm Audio processing, Acoustimod acoustic treatments and Muvia seats. Now, I love this photo. Which one of you sent me this photo?
Joe Klusnick [00:08:06]:
That was me. Uh, that's Chris Seymour, and apparently he lost a bet, had to wear that suit. I'm sure Mike would appreciate—
Scott Wilkinson [00:08:13]:
Mike?
Michael Heiss [00:08:13]:
No, in fact, no. I asked Chris and I said, did you get that? And I told him the secret of where I got my suit from, and he apparently got it from, from someplace else. But I had a very similar Uh, shot for that. And that's actually a good one, Joe, because you can see what's going on behind there. And then, you know, the screen that, that he had there was, uh, you know, it was pretty cool.
Joe Klusnick [00:08:39]:
Yeah. And that, if I remember right, was a drop-down masking screen, and they were able to hide the tab tensioning within the black velvet border. There was a lot of technology just in the screen, let alone all the speakers.
Michael Heiss [00:08:51]:
He made a big point about that.
Joe Klusnick [00:08:53]:
And Scott, this was the receiver-powered system that I mentioned earlier. So this is using, uh, I think a Storm Fusion 20.
Scott Wilkinson [00:09:00]:
Yes, Fusion 20. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a receiver, not a processor with separate amps.
Joe Klusnick [00:09:05]:
Yep.
Michael Heiss [00:09:06]:
But again, in fairness, this room was smaller than the old, uh, of 2 or 3 years ago, the Trinnov Pro Listen Barco Nerthius room was even bigger than this. But that's, as you just said, but that's the point.
Scott Wilkinson [00:09:25]:
Yeah.
Joe Klusnick [00:09:26]:
And this was— this room was about an order of magnitude less expensive than their previous. I think in last year's show it was a $1.4 million setup with dual 64-inch subs. This was a $170,000 setup.
Michael Heiss [00:09:41]:
Well, Peter Aylott told me it was, uh, The goal was a quarter of a million. Okay, so, uh, some Italian name that I can't pronounce. Uh, yeah, those guys too. Peter will slap me for that. Who are the same folk that used to do the big Trinnov Pro listen room. And he said that was the benchmark. We're going to do something as good as that for a quarter of the price.
Scott Wilkinson [00:10:08]:
Uh, we have another couple pictures of that room that I want to show people. Um, I think one— yeah, here's the back of the room.
Joe Klusnick [00:10:16]:
Yeah, and so if you look at the ceiling there, you can see the introduction of their new, uh, surround speaker. I mean, this is, you know, a speaker that can be used, but this is an entirely flat speaker called the Panoramic that's supposed to have, you know, 180 degrees of dispersion between—
Scott Wilkinson [00:10:33]:
right, we talked about that in the last episode, and it did the trick.
Joe Klusnick [00:10:36]:
Yeah, and it was a very, very convincing surround bubble in this, uh, in this room.
Michael Heiss [00:10:42]:
When you—
Joe Klusnick [00:10:42]:
they played Sinners which has a great pan of music and audio all the way around. It felt very Holosonic.
Scott Wilkinson [00:10:51]:
I think— yeah, here's a picture of the ceiling.
Michael Heiss [00:10:54]:
Yep, yep, that one was mine. Yeah.
Scott Wilkinson [00:10:55]:
Okay, uh, and that's that, that, that technology where there's no cone driver, there's no dome driver, it's just this flat—
Michael Heiss [00:11:05]:
It's like pebbles. It feels like pebbles.
Scott Wilkinson [00:11:07]:
Huh, how weird. Uh, there was one picture, one more picture from this room I think Joe sent me. I just love this photo. I mean, it's modern art.
Joe Klusnick [00:11:17]:
Yeah, these are the new Acoustimod, uh, acoustic panels systems that's going to be engineered in Italy but manufactured here in the US. And it comes in a couple of different sizes and makes the acoustic treatments easy to look at, easy to install, and very reasonably priced.
Michael Heiss [00:11:36]:
And I wish I didn't have my camera before the show opened and to see what's under that transparent, acoustically transparent cloth is pretty interesting. So it's just another, you know, it's another alternative way to do things.
Scott Wilkinson [00:11:53]:
Yeah.
Joe Klusnick [00:11:53]:
I believe, did that incorporate lighting also as part of the panels?
Michael Heiss [00:11:57]:
No, the panels be panels.
Scott Wilkinson [00:12:00]:
Okay.
Michael Heiss [00:12:00]:
So that's the trick Peter Maurizio did.
Joe Klusnick [00:12:03]:
Yeah, gotcha.
Scott Wilkinson [00:12:04]:
Put the, put the lighting behind it. It's very effective. I, I really like it a lot. Uh, Joe, you, you told me that this was the best projection-based demo you saw and heard, right?
Joe Klusnick [00:12:16]:
Yeah, so of all of the sound rooms, I think this one was my favorite. I think they did a great job picking really good material that really showed off the strengths and capabilities both from an audio and a video standpoint. So great experience in here. They were using the Kaleidescape as a source, as almost all of the booths did. So yeah, really good experience in there, very enveloping sound. You know, these are somewhat enclosed, but you can also hear, you know, all the other show floor noise. But, you know, I think this is a surround sound system that anybody would be happy to have in their home theater.
Scott Wilkinson [00:12:56]:
Okay, next up is— oh, and this is the equipment, I guess, from the Ascendo.
Joe Klusnick [00:13:00]:
You got it.
Michael Heiss [00:13:00]:
Yeah, so there's the Storm, you know, with the 25 on it there in the middle, right?
Joe Klusnick [00:13:05]:
Yeah, so from top to bottom, you had the back of that Christie projector, uh, some of their networking stuff, the Kaleidoscape, uh, Terra and Strato, MadVR, the Storm receiver, and then the amplifiers that were driving the subwoofers from Ascendo.
Scott Wilkinson [00:13:20]:
Mm-hmm, very good, very good. All right, next up is the Runco Focal, uh, name.
Michael Heiss [00:13:31]:
Uh, not Runco.
Scott Wilkinson [00:13:33]:
Sorry.
Michael Heiss [00:13:36]:
Well, there's a Freudian slip.
Scott Wilkinson [00:13:37]:
There was a Freudian slip because Barco used a DV LED called the Runar. And so I just looked at that on my notes and I immediately, I immediately came up with Runco. Sorry, Sam.
Michael Heiss [00:13:52]:
Sorry.
Scott Wilkinson [00:13:55]:
Barco had their— oddly, the, the big booth or their big demo that Barco was part of was not a projector. It was a DV LED called the Runar.
Michael Heiss [00:14:07]:
And how did that sound, Joe?
Joe Klusnick [00:14:09]:
So these were the Focal Utopia speakers, and you can see center channel above and below the screen. And I believe they were borrowing some technology from Storm to try and, uh, you you know, bring that to a center alignment. It is a good sounding room. Uh, it's one of the better implementations of these speakers that I've heard. And you can see also the, the multiple, multiple use of those 6-inch woofers, uh, as part of that system, and then the subwoofers outside that.
Michael Heiss [00:14:36]:
But again, a good— that, you know, thanks for, for taking that shot. That's another great example of what to do about this. You can't punch— you can't have a perforated DVLED screen, right? And how, how do you align the center channel and the left and right too, um, and also not have any, you know, uh, acoustic issues from this big solid thing in the front of the room, right?
Scott Wilkinson [00:15:01]:
Exactly. Uh, the amplifiers were from a company called Naim, N-A-I-M, a British company. Here's another shot of that room with more—
Joe Klusnick [00:15:11]:
These, these are all under one corporate umbrella also.
Scott Wilkinson [00:15:15]:
Oh, that's true. Focal and name.
Michael Heiss [00:15:17]:
Sorry, I dropped your name.
Scott Wilkinson [00:15:21]:
Um, and here are the seats, which, uh, I forget where they came from.
Joe Klusnick [00:15:28]:
Yeah, very comfortable. I, I'm not sure the manufacturer on those, sorry.
Scott Wilkinson [00:15:32]:
Yeah, but notice no projector in the back. And, uh, Joe, you, you really like this demo too, right?
Joe Klusnick [00:15:41]:
Yeah, I thought this was the best picture I saw at CEDIA. That, that screen, um, very bright, very good contrast, very good colors. Uh, really impressed by it.
Michael Heiss [00:15:51]:
Hmm.
Joe Klusnick [00:15:54]:
They played some animation in there that looked just stellar.
Scott Wilkinson [00:15:57]:
Oh, beautiful. Yeah. Now, uh, Mike, your favorite demo, as it has been in the last few years, I think was the Quantum Media Systems, right?
Michael Heiss [00:16:07]:
Right. And one of the reasons is not only the video, but the Quantum Media is in a huge— down in the lower floor, 2 floors below the exhibit hall, in a huge meeting room, no acoustic treatment. And they used to use these sort of funky TPI speakers with vents that look, you know, look too weird. And this year they were using TPI speakers again, but with conventional drivers. And again, I have to say, in a huge room with— I believe it was a Storm processor, but the sound was amazing.
Scott Wilkinson [00:16:50]:
Even with no acoustic treatment.
Michael Heiss [00:16:51]:
With no acoustic treatment and hard, you know, convention center meeting room folding walls and just speakers slammed up against the wall. But to the issue of how do you get the center channel. 3 speakers across the top and 3 speakers across the bottom.
Scott Wilkinson [00:17:09]:
And we have a, we have a graphic of that. You don't— didn't take a picture of it.
Michael Heiss [00:17:12]:
There you go. No. Oh well, that was the picture that I took of the, of the demo. Yeah, of the poster. Okay, that was, that was actually on the screen.
Scott Wilkinson [00:17:21]:
Oh, I see.
Michael Heiss [00:17:22]:
Okay, yeah, that was the demo screen. And the other thing that I mentioned, uh, in one of the earlier episodes is the output of their processor was feeding separately the main screen in the center, but the 3 pairs of left and right screens. So you could do all sorts of creative things with that. And it was, it was quite amazing. And again, in fairness to Quantum, I overexposed this or I overbrightened it. I guess you don't expose things anymore just to show the room, uh, from the screen. And there you can see on the left all the different modules, uh, to put this together, right?
Scott Wilkinson [00:18:06]:
Yeah, this is the Quantum DVLED, um, XDR5 8K, so it must have had 8K resolution.
Michael Heiss [00:18:13]:
Yes, it did.
Joe Klusnick [00:18:14]:
And my Quantum was also in the Kaleidescape booth, correct?
Michael Heiss [00:18:18]:
Uh, did not go in the Kaleidescape booth.
Joe Klusnick [00:18:20]:
Okay, I think that was another part of the display. Yeah.
Michael Heiss [00:18:23]:
Right. And this is also the, you know, for those with access to such and the budget. And this is also, uh, the only, uh, other than the Onyx, um, DV LED that has DCI. So if you're doing Bel Air circuit kind of, uh, installations, uh, this will work, right?
Scott Wilkinson [00:18:42]:
Um, Crix also had a demo room, and, uh, we talked about them in the audio portion, part 2. Uh, the Australian audio company, uh, which I thought I had never heard of before, but here is, uh, an example of their demo room, which is— Joe, I think you must have seen and heard.
Joe Klusnick [00:19:01]:
Yeah, so they introduced a new 18-inch driver here. So this was a Trinnov setup, waveforming, uh, using 4 in the front, 4 in the back, but all 15+ of the other speakers were identical. So they were using this, uh, OM55, I believe, was the model number. But it was a dual woofer, uh, single waveguide type of a driver, and it was in every other position in the room, and it gave a very, very cohesive sound all the way around.
Scott Wilkinson [00:19:29]:
You remember what the projector was?
Joe Klusnick [00:19:32]:
Yeah, that's the Epson 7000.
Scott Wilkinson [00:19:35]:
Okay. Oh, and here's a list, here's a list of the equipment in that room.
Joe Klusnick [00:19:40]:
OWX55, pardon me. But, but again, here you can see that they're really calling out what the price points were. And this was a big shift from years past where everyone was touting ultra-high dollars. They really were trying to talk about how, uh, reasonable this system was priced, uh, quote unquote.
Scott Wilkinson [00:19:57]:
But compared to last year, it was.
Michael Heiss [00:19:59]:
Yeah. Well, and there's still a market for those big systems, but, you know, this is above the real sweet spot of the market of what senior folk do, which has traditionally been in the you know, kind of $50,000 to $7,500-ish, uh, range.
Scott Wilkinson [00:20:18]:
Um, that— you mean $1,000?
Michael Heiss [00:20:20]:
$1,000, yes.
Scott Wilkinson [00:20:21]:
Yeah.
Michael Heiss [00:20:21]:
And, uh, well, you know, but $165,000 for that, that, that's a, that's a damn good theater.
Scott Wilkinson [00:20:28]:
Yeah. Did you see that demo, Mike?
Michael Heiss [00:20:31]:
No, I did not.
Scott Wilkinson [00:20:32]:
Did not. Okay. And then finally, I wanted to mention the Lumigen Christie Next Level demo. I don't know if either of you guys saw that one.
Joe Klusnick [00:20:43]:
Yeah, I did get a chance to get in here. Um, very similar setup to a lot of the other rooms. Um, again, partnership with a lot of different manufacturers in here. Um, you know, most of these demos ran 15 minutes or so. They would show you 4 or 5 clips, uh, from different movies and try and really um, cover the bandwidth of, you know, everything that the system was capable of. But as you can see, equipment in the room in this one.
Michael Heiss [00:21:12]:
Is that a Storm?
Joe Klusnick [00:21:14]:
I, I don't remember on that one. I apologize.
Scott Wilkinson [00:21:17]:
Uh, it is a Christie projector and a relatively small one. It could be that new one that we talked about in episode 1, part 1, um, which is a single-chip LED with a DLP with a color wheel, uh, must be blue and yellow phosphor, blue laser, yellow phosphor, but we don't know for sure. Um, okay, let me, uh, let's go to the lightning round now, uh, and ask, ask each of you, what did you expect to see but wasn't there? Joe, let's start with you.
Joe Klusnick [00:21:56]:
So, you know, I, I knew the Trinnov booth wasn't going to be there for their big theater, but I was disappointed, you know, we didn't see the JBL. Uh, big system. We didn't see really, uh, much in the way of Marantz or Denon, who've been staples in years past. So there were some, you know, manufacturers that we were used to seeing that, uh, weren't participating in the same way they have before.
Scott Wilkinson [00:22:17]:
Mike, how about you?
Michael Heiss [00:22:20]:
Well, um, in addition to the manufacturers, and again, you know, not having the, uh, Denon and Marantz and, and those folks is, uh, You know, it was a little disappointing, but, you know, the market be what the market be. But I'm thinking more about trends. And it wasn't so much things that I didn't expect, saw that I didn't expect to see. What I didn't expect to see and indeed didn't was HDMI 2.2, which is now a year and a half post-introduction and it's still out there. And out there meaning there are no chips. It ain't here yet. And whether it will, you know, appear in this market or not remains to be seen. What benefit it brings outside of some gaming stuff to the market, you know, also remains to be seen.
Michael Heiss [00:23:07]:
But it wasn't there this week. I was hoping, please, a new Apple TV 4K, not for CEDIA. Not there. There weren't that many soundbars. Now you talk about CEDIA installations and you don't think of soundbars. But soundbars just weren't a thing there. For the most part, they weren't—
Scott Wilkinson [00:23:29]:
Except for SVS. We talked about that in episode 2.
Michael Heiss [00:23:32]:
Right. But there were more of them. And it's not— excuse me— that that category isn't there. It's just that not everybody's having a 6-figure theater. There are other theater or other applications. And it wasn't there. I'd throw in things I did see and didn't expect to see was a huge booth by Ubiquiti, which is a networking company. And they had one of the biggest booths there, you know, to show the importance of networking, especially in a world of AI and all the 2-channel stuff.
Michael Heiss [00:24:11]:
There were, you know, a bunch of things hiding, hiding behind the sheets. That maybe we'll see soon.
Scott Wilkinson [00:24:18]:
Yeah, hopefully so. Okay, let's talk about a few of the trends that we've sort of hinted at over these last 3 episodes. Um, one of the ones that struck me was all-in-one DV LED. So you've got these big direct-view LED screens that are already sort of put together rather than having to assemble tile by tile. What did you guys think of that?
Joe Klusnick [00:24:48]:
Yeah, from an installation standpoint, it's a lot easier if that, you know, all the Lego pieces are already on one set. So that the challenge that it doesn't overcome, of course, is getting that into tight environments, right? With a modular display, it's really easy to go around a corner. If it's all put together, it gets a little bit harder.
Scott Wilkinson [00:25:05]:
Yep.
Michael Heiss [00:25:05]:
Well, I mean, that's like, you know, when Panasonic years ago had the 103-inch plasma. I remember, you know, I used to say it bends in the middle but only once. And, you know, and that's the same thing here. Samsung actually started this all-in-one configuration, I think about 2 years ago at CES or InfoComm. And it's great for the installers. But, you know, the Samsung way of doing it is it wasn't all in one, it was 2 pieces. So at least you could kind of maneuver it around the corner. Or Yeah.
Michael Heiss [00:25:41]:
But, you know, it's a, you know, is it new construction or is it a retrofit? Is it getting the grand piano into the 67th floor of, you know, some New York City Millionaires' Row condo? You know, that kind of thing.
Scott Wilkinson [00:25:55]:
Mm-hmm.
Joe Klusnick [00:25:56]:
But both Samsung and LG were noticeably absent.
Michael Heiss [00:25:59]:
Well, they were both there, but you had to find them. Right.
Joe Klusnick [00:26:03]:
And they didn't show anything new and they didn't show their DV LEDs.
Michael Heiss [00:26:08]:
You know, if you wanted to see that, you had to go to CES or you had to go to InfoComm or anything.
Scott Wilkinson [00:26:13]:
InfoComm. Um, another trend, and I think you guys saw plenty of it, was, uh, uh, audio over IP, uh, otherwise known as Dante or sometimes AES67. Uh, would you say that that, that is a growing trend?
Joe Klusnick [00:26:32]:
Yeah, I think that's, you know, speaking back to the need for a really strong network, this is all audio over internet protocol, so it's all connected with a Cat6 type of a connection. We started seeing this really kind of coming into the consumer market. It's been in the pro side for decades.
Michael Heiss [00:26:49]:
Forever. Yeah.
Joe Klusnick [00:26:50]:
For years. But, um, we're starting to see with companies like Trinnov and Storm Audio Control more and more— Ascendo has some pieces also of, you know, network-connected amplifiers. And, you know, You're almost setting up the system entirely on a laptop, uh, in a way you never have before. But those connections are a lot easier to make when you've got one output coming out of your processor and it's all just going into a networking switch.
Scott Wilkinson [00:27:18]:
Multi-channel, you know, all 16 channels or whatever coming out, coming through one, uh, network cable, which speaks to, Mike, what you said about, uh, Ubiquiti, uh, this one of the largest booths in the show.
Michael Heiss [00:27:31]:
Yep.
Scott Wilkinson [00:27:31]:
Being a networking company.
Michael Heiss [00:27:33]:
Well, and, you know, and clearly there are a lot of things that CEDIA folk hang on the network. And in fact, in the Ubiquiti booth were, you know, doorbells and locksets.
Scott Wilkinson [00:27:44]:
Sure.
Michael Heiss [00:27:44]:
And other sorts of things. Ring had a fairly— and not for the first time— had a fairly decent-sized booth as well. So, you know, it's definitely something that is coming of age in the— in what we'll call the CEDIA market.
Scott Wilkinson [00:28:02]:
Joe, you mentioned to me, uh, the, uh, increasing importance or appearance of AI.
Joe Klusnick [00:28:10]:
Yeah, and we were seeing— well, we're seeing that everywhere, right?
Scott Wilkinson [00:28:13]:
Everywhere. I mean, that's not really surprising, I suppose.
Joe Klusnick [00:28:16]:
No, but, but companies like MadVR, uh, were touting, you know, a lot of the native language type of setup. help with installation, help with sales over AI. We're seeing that with Trinnov and their interface with it. So we are seeing them leverage or take use of some of the really big powerhouses in AI out there to bring that into the home theater.
Michael Heiss [00:28:45]:
And Josh, for goodness sakes, that's the name of the company, Josh.ai.
Scott Wilkinson [00:28:50]:
Yeah, right.
Michael Heiss [00:28:50]:
For those who are not familiar with Josh, is you know, over the last maybe, I don't know, 5, 6 years from nothing, from zero, are up there with Crestron and Savant and C4 as albeit a high-end control system. And they are, you know, increasingly using AI in their system.
Joe Klusnick [00:29:14]:
And had a line outside their booth, it seemed like, the whole time.
Michael Heiss [00:29:16]:
Yep.
Joe Klusnick [00:29:16]:
Yep.
Scott Wilkinson [00:29:17]:
Yep.
Michael Heiss [00:29:17]:
Wow.
Joe Klusnick [00:29:17]:
Wow.
Scott Wilkinson [00:29:18]:
So do you think any of these companies are going to lead to the Extinction of humanity in the next 6 years?
Joe Klusnick [00:29:24]:
I didn't see Cyberdyne on the floor, so I hope not.
Michael Heiss [00:29:27]:
Well, but at least we'll have music to accompany the end of civilization.
Scott Wilkinson [00:29:30]:
Yeah, well, you know, at least there's that. Okay, well, listen, this has been fantastic. Any last thoughts about CEDIA?
Joe Klusnick [00:29:42]:
I look forward to it every year. It really does help to rekindle the excitement around this. I'm a big home theater guy, and that's what, you know, really draws me to this stuff. So being able to see those, uh, impressive demos is always a lot of fun.
Michael Heiss [00:29:55]:
Uh, you know, I, I sort of mark it as somebody who was there from the beginning. I sort of mark this as an inflection point, you know, and not to say good, bad, or indifferent, but as the world is changing with AI and with internet-connected devices, um, this will be a good marker, a good, you know, put that pin down to see where things go. So that we have a comparison point moving forward with a lot of good stuff though that was there.
Scott Wilkinson [00:30:23]:
Well, I have to say, I was not unhappy to not be at 5,000+ feet for my asthma, but I was really sorry, you know, to miss all that great stuff. And I'm so grateful that you two were there and agreed to come on the show and and share it with, with me and with our audience. Thank you so much.
Michael Heiss [00:30:47]:
We went so you didn't have to. My pleasure, always, Scott, you know that.
Scott Wilkinson [00:30:54]:
Uh, well, thank you, thank you. Uh, Mike, where can people find you online?
Michael Heiss [00:30:58]:
Uh, hiddenwires.co.uk, twice.com, uh, tvtechnology.com, and michaelheiss, just my name spelled out, .com.
Scott Wilkinson [00:31:08]:
Very good. And Joe, uh, where about— what about you?
Joe Klusnick [00:31:12]:
Uh, you can look me up over on AVS Forum under JSKMDWK username.
Scott Wilkinson [00:31:18]:
Great, fantastic. Well, thanks again, you guys. This has been a really fun conversation, and, uh, I look forward to doing it again in January for CES. How about that?
Michael Heiss [00:31:29]:
See you around the web.
Joe Klusnick [00:31:31]:
Have fun.
Scott Wilkinson [00:31:31]:
Cool, man. Thanks. Thanks to you both. So that's it. CEDIA 2026 is in the history books. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. Now, if you have a question for me, send it along to HTG@twit.tv, and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show. And if you have a home theater you're proud of, even if it's not $150,000, $250,000 worth, Send me some pics.
Scott Wilkinson [00:32:00]:
I'd love to see them. Maybe we'll get you on the show to talk about it. Until next time, geek out!
