It’s not surprising to see a European manufacturer that is growing to setup shop on U.S. shores, but what is unique about Trinnov Audio’s move into America is its commitment to market education.
Just before the long Memorial Day weekend the French company held a grand-opening event for its U.S. location in East Hampton, Conn. During the day-long event the company hosted several “industry friends,” including representatives from Ascendo Immersive Audio, Officina Acoustica, Kaleidescape, and Barco before concluding the day with an approximately 30-minute system demonstration using components from each of these companies.
The underlying theme of each of these companies’ presentations beyond their respective product introductions was what each of these brands could do to help integrators to deliver high-performance AV system installations.
Setting the stage for the entire event was Peter Aylett of Officina Acoustica and CEDIA. Wearing his CEDIA leadership hat, Aylett provided an overview of the jointly developed CEDIA/CTA RP22 Immersive Audio Guidelines.
In an hour presentation Aylett pointed out key points within the best practices document, and throughout the discussion he also made a point to note the document is not a set of standards.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
“RP22 is a recommend practice,” emphasized Aylett. “What we have done is collect a set of guidelines.”
During his presentation Aylett stated RP22 will help to move the industry away from the paradigm of expensive equipment retailers that it has traditionally operated.
“Our mission is to make the residential [industry] much more professional,” said Aylett. “So, RP22 is going to be disruptive.”
Later in his presentation Aylett suggested the industry move away from sales processes that involve line-item bids in favor of sales techniques that emphasize the fun and value the systems provide. During this portion of his presentation the CEDIA educator pointed out that value and budget should be considered two different things.
Representing the German high-performance audio company Ascendo Immersive Audio, Geoffrey Heinzel provided an overview of the company and its products. Heinzel pointed out the company’s origins date back to 1999 and its current flagship product Black Swan loudspeaker.
Later, shifting to the topic of subwoofers and bass, Heinzel provided an explanation of the company’s Infrasonic Subwoofer products.
“Infrasonic bass is an essential part of any high-performance theater,” according to Ascendo Immersive Audio. “It pressurizes the room and evokes the physical response that is intended by more movie soundtracks than you might think.”
Stepping up for a second time as a presenter Aylett offered some background on his home theater company Officina Acoustica.
The U.K.-based Aylett pointed out the company’s acoustical products are hand-made in Italy and the products are designed to provide homeowners with style and performance. He went on to discuss the installations the company has performed throughout the world, as well as the long-term viability Officina Acoustica’s designed solutions offer customers, and he circled back to his RP22 discussion.
“Start with the room,” advises Aylett. “They [acoustics] are the very first thing you should think about.”
Arguably the most familiar brand during the day was Kaleidescape. Presenting for the popular home entertainment company was industry veteran Andre Floyd. Floyd talked about the high levels of performance Kaleidescape brings to the home AV market through its growing library of high-bitrate, uncompressed content that includes attributes such as 4K, HDR and Dolby Atmos.
Floyd also pointed out its relationship with Trinnov Audio, which includes the availability of Trinnov demo content from Kaleidescape.
Concluding the presentations was Arnaud Laborie, co-founder and CEO of Trinnov Audio. Laborie explained his company’s recently announced WaveForming technology. Opening the presentation Laborie stressed that small rooms are difficult environments to achieve uniform bass because of room modes. Solutions such as the use of multiple subwoofers he stated will eliminate standing waves to a certain point. According to Laborie, two subwoofers will nullify two modes, but they also double two other modes.
As part of Trinnov’s WaveForming solution he continues there are four key concepts the company utilizes that enable the technology that shapes room acoustics rather than simply treating room acoustics.
“WaveForming is a massive change in the way home theaters are designed,” said Laborie in a press release for Trinnov’s WaveForming design tool.
Describing some of the elements of the WaveForming technology, Laborie says it incorporates the use of subwoofer arrays that are controlled by digital signal processing (DSPs). He added the technology, which was announced in mid-2023 works on frequencies that are extremely low all the way up to approximately 120Hz to 150Hz.
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