Over fifty dealers gathered at Meridian’s headquarters in Cambridgeshire, UK on June 22, 2016 to learn more about what hi-res audio can offer clients and how it can be integrated into the home as part of the manufacturer’s “Hi Res Experience Day.â€
Alongside three workshops exploring the technology behind hi-res audio, integrating hi-res audio with streaming services like Tidal, and the benefits of hi-res audio in the home, attendees had a chance to see a Meridian’s speaker’s journey – from circuit board to end product – at the manufacturer’s onsite factory facilities.
Throughout the day, the message was clear: hi-res audio can be a driver for integrators delivering higher quality sound to clients, and reap the benefits of installing higher value products required to achieve audio that’s a cut above the mp3 format.
Seminars outlined how hi-res audio can deliver the optimum listening experience – to the extent the sound quality been approved by record the artists themselves – of lossless sound without being comprised by data allowance. CTO Richard Hollinshead demonstrated this with a series music and audio recordings, whilst explaining the science behind it.
Meridian was instrumental in the early development of the much-anticipated MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) format unveiled in 2014. Business relationship manager Matt Holland, and, international sales consultant Hugo Fitzjohn outlined how the right backbone (such as Meridian Sooloos) is essential to deliver hi-res audio across an ecosystem, and how it can best deployed in projects.
"Throughout the day, the message was clear: hi res audio can be a driver for integrators delivering higher quality sound to clients"
Daniel Lee of Media Max commented: “It was great to learn more about the Design and Specification Service, and Sooloos. We are increasingly using Sooloos on our projects and it’s great to see how easy it is to add zones and additional storage.”
Meridian also offered the chance for integrators to see the potential of hi-res audio in a real-life setting with an impressive home cinema set-up featuring three DSP8000 active loudspeakers covering left, centre and front channels, with two DSP5200 for the side channels with two in-wall DSP640 and four DSP320 loudspeakers for rear and top channels respectively. A surround sound processor with Room Correction, four DSW sub woofers and a HD621 HDMI switch and audio upsampler for playback completed the installation, with a powerful Barco Apollo 20 projecting on a 170-in acoustically transparent woven 2.40 ratio screen with lateral ensuring the quality of audio was matched visually.
The experience proved invaluable for installers like Olive AV, with Simon Williams commenting: “It was great to hear the full potential of Hi Res audio for cinema and music at the Meridian demonstration facility. Meridian’s unique approach (maintaining the highest possible resolution from source to each individual drive unit) made for a highly detailed and involving experience.”
WATCH: Check out how Meridian built its hi-res audio cinema experience below: