09.05.2008 — Throughout CEDIA, Lee Distad will be reporting on vendors and products you may not be hearing too much about.

The show floor at CEDIA Expo 2008 can be a noisy Gong Show. But even among the chaos, great entries manage to stand out.

JVC Professional, in part to avoid the madness, set up a couple of cinema environments next door to the Colorado Convention Center in the Denver Performing Arts Center.

My colleague Robert Archer already summarized the key features of JVC's new D-ILA projectors, but I wanted to drill down the more install-centric features.

The image quality of the 1920x1080, extremely high-contrast ratio DLA-HD350, DLA-HD750, DLA-RS20 and DLA-RS30 is indeed spectacular. But it's their ease of install that makes them most attractive.

The two best things, in no particular order, about the new D-ILA line are:

• The fairly radical horizontal and vertical lens shift
• Two 12v triggers that are probably used to control the 2.35:1 masking screen and the anamorphic lens

It's been ironic that for the last couple of years there have been more entry-level, install-friendly projectors that are high-end models.

A spectacular picture is great, but it's not every day you're given a blank check and asked to build a room from scratch around a projector.

At least in my market, both my friend and client dealers find retrofit installs to be more common, where they install a projector in an existing room.

And not all of those installs want or deserve a $1,000 projector. That's why it's great to see JVC present install-friendly projectors that deliver high-end performance.

Totem Acoustics Tribe In-Wall, In-ceiling Speakers

Vince Bruzzeze and Lucy Lentini, from Totem Acoustic, can always be counted on to have a surprise or two in store for visitors. This year they debuted their stunning Tribe in-wall and in-ceiling speakers.

Using similar long-throw neodymium drivers as their Tribe on-wall flat-panel speaker, the Tribe on-walls delivered astonishing depth and clarity, and the dispersion and imaging of the in-ceiling model was amazing.

It's a true test of a loudspeaker when it sounds good in a trade show booth. The Totem speakers did a great job in a challenging environment.

Even more shocking was Totem Acoustic's debut of white as a color option to its speaker line. Call it the circle of life: white speakers are back.

I still own a pair of twelve-year-old white PSB Alphas that a customer ordered and never picked up. At the time, I couldn't sell them to anyone and eventually kept them for myself.

According to Lentini, one of their dealers in Florida pushed them for white speakers. Much to her surprise, they took off, and have been popular with cutting-edge interior designers.

The entire line of freestanding and bookshelf Totem Acoustic speakers are now available in white, black and their wood veneers.



Lee Distad is a freelance CEDIA Certified Professional Designer who offers design and process consultation to firms in the Custom Installation industry, as well as copy writing and other professional writing services. Lee's business and industry blog can be read at http://www.leedistad.com

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