Following a successful CEDIA Expo 2023 in which home audio – particularly immersive audio – was front-and-center on the show floor, it was time to talk surround sound with our “Audio Guys” regulars on the latest CE Pro Podcast.
Joined by CE Pro All-Star Band keyboard player Steve Haas, who is a nationally recognized acoustician in the residential and commercial audio markets, along with the CE Pro Podcast resident audiophiles Steve Silberman, director of sales, West for Savant, and Paul Bochner, owner and president of Electronic Concepts, the trio dove into several immersive audio related topics.
Building on the momentum of the expo, which took place on Sept. 7-9 in Denver, the CEDIA trade group just collaborated with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) to release their RP22 Immersive Audio Best Practices guidelines.
Haas, Silberman and Bochner discussed the state of home theater, immersive audio and the possible impact that RP22 could have on the future of system installations.
“I think immersive is huge, you’re seeing big commitment from the big streaming services and the labels,” notes Silberman. “So, I think it’s going to go beyond just movie entertainment.”
RP22 Education Can Elevate System Design
Commenting on the influence of the RP22 best practices within the market, Bochner says that integrators will need to educate their clients on why the guidelines are important and what they mean for system design.
“I think the overwhelming majority of our customers are not going to know what it is or care about it. They’re just going to hope that they pick the right integrator to do the right job,” states Bochner.
“Having Steve Haas here because he’s someone that actually knows how to do this stuff and understands it, he is the right kind of person to bring into these projects,” he adds of Haas’ SH Acoustics‘ portfolio of services.
Underscoring the potential of the guidelines and the difficulty of developing the best practices, Haas adds that many smart people from across the industry had to come together and agree on the document.
“It’s something that at least a lot of people in the in the industry who matter agreed upon, which was a feat in itself. It’s hard to believe that there is a document that has all of the names that are in there, agreeing at least, mostly on what that document should say,” points out Haas.
“And so the document covers a lot, right? It covers speaker placement. It covers acoustics in all different aspects from room treatments to isolation, to noise control – all those things that we do in acoustics. It covers the immersive formats very well.”
In addition to the RP22 document, the trio of audio experts also discussed the future growth of immersive audio on future music title releases, and to close the podcast out, Silberman, Bochner and Haas, shared their thoughts on developing future audio enthusiasts.
Hear much more from the Audio Guys by listening to or downloading the podcast above. Find past episodes of the CE Pro Podcast by subscribing to the CE Pro YouTube channel or our Apple and Spotify podcast feeds.