Meridian Live! immerses integrators in High Res Audio and home theatre

Around 60 members of the CI industry gathered at Meridian Audio’s headquarters in Huntingdon, for Meridian Live, a showcase to celebrate  the company’s 40th anniversary. Attendees were treated to demonstrations of new products, took part in hands-on workshops, and enjoyed valuable networking time.

Attendees were encouraged to develop their skills with further training, and to grow their businesses with case studies. John Buchanan, CEO, also used the event to present the new brand book to attendees, a tool for integrators to show prospective clients.

The event cast a spotlight on the new 200 Series, and revealed how these products could be applied to real-life projects. There was an in-depth briefing on the 251 Powered Zone Controller, 271 Digital Theatre Controller and the 218 Zone Controller.

Meridian’s dedicated Digital Reference Theatre was the venue for High-Resolution Audio and home cinema. Accompanying Meridian’s DSP Digital Active Loudspeakers, DSW Subwoofers and a 861V8 Reference Digital Surround Controller, were a Barco Residential Wodan projector and DT screen. Cinema-ATS acoustically treated walls enhanced the movie-watching experience.

Meridian also unveiled its new media room at the event, featuring the new 271 Digital Theatre Controller, and offered an early look at the Barco Residential Medea projection system. Available as part of Meridian’s complimentary Design and Specification service, the new media room features complete solutions offered by Meridian and its partners, as well as advice on how to integrate Hi-Res Audio into residential projects for the best possible results.

“You read about these products, but you don’t believe them until you see and hear them,” comments Stuart Paton of Home Integration. “I think that it was a very constructive and informative day. I liked the new media room and all the integration with several media; Meridian’s never done that sort of full integration before because it didn’t have a complete solution, but now there is, and it’s much easier to understand that.”

Peter Russell-Wilks, of Clever and Simple, described the day as “really helpful,” adding: “It’s good seeing the new products that haven’t quite been released yet, in the applications they are going to be used in. Listening to them, seeing them and then getting an explanation on how they actually work and how they are programmed has been really informative.”

Des Lee, of Media Max, said: “The cinema room blew my mind, and the new media room is very good. These rooms show what can be achieved with different budgets.”

Dave Henderson, of BrownHen Solution, was also impressed by the theatre. “We really liked the way that we got the surround audio feeling with height from the ceiling speakers. It was also good to see the way that Meridian incorporated audio treatments into the room - behind the false wall and all around the room on the ceiling. In the new media room, we like the way that the projector is mounted on the wall – we might look do this in one of our projects.”

There was also a chance for dealers to learn more about the relationship between Meridian and Jaguar Land Rover, with demonstrations of in-car speakers.

Meridian is currently offering all CI dealers a 10 per cent discount on orders placed before the end of November, as well as partner rates for personal purchases.

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