AV distributor, Karma-AV has announced its involvement with Foundry, a new cinema design showcase created as the model application of CEDIA’s RP22 Immersive Audio Design Recommended Practice.
Foundry is the brainchild of Ben Goff of Cinema Lusso, Christiaan Beukes of integrator Sphere Custom and Cinema Lusso’s creative director, and Officina Acustica partner and CEDIA/CTA RP22 chair, Peter Aylett. In the process of defining RP22 guidelines, which focus purely on objective performance, they recognised the importance of providing the industry with a demonstration facility that transcended the usual limitations of brand or budget.
Built by Cinema Lusso in partnership with Karma-AV and Officina Acustica, Foundry comprises two rooms: a cinema space and a luxury media room.
“Foundry is not your average showroom,” said Beukes. “Not a space where you’ll see brand logos, lines of product or stacks of boxes. Foundry is a space that’s been thoughtfully designed and ergonomically engineered with the aim of pushing the boundaries of performance and innovative aesthetics together in such an unobtrusive manner that it doesn’t seem designed at all… it’s as much an industry wide R&D facility as it is our showroom, office, design studio, training/meeting space and CPD outreach venue.”
Foundry features speakers from Perlisten Audio and Ascendo Immersive Audio, both from Karma-AV’s line up, due to the performance and data quality necessary to complete ‘textbook’ RP22-guided installations.
“Both rooms deliver the highest performance audio and video reproduction possible within their physical constraints using a free choice of products guided exclusively by our technical requirements,” Goff commented. “Speaker specification for each room led us in totally different directions to products from different continents but sharing a dedication to creating exceptional solutions to specific engineering challenges. Little coincidence that Perlisten Audio and Ascendo Immersive Audio also shared a partner in the UK, having chosen Karma-AV as their distributor.”
Ian Severs from Karma-AV added: “We’re delighted to have been invited by Foundry to supply speakers from our fastest growing high-end lines, and we recognise the importance of solid engineering and the transparency of performance data to this choice. Perlisten and Ascendo allow us to offer integrators a great range of technically advanced products for the best product fit when designing truly immersive experiences in a wide variety of project applications.”