NDA attended the launch of a brand new cutting edge Digital Media room at Muralto’s London based showroom last night.
Muralto owners Jane and John Buckley officially open the Digital Media Showroom. |
Installed by RSAV Solutions Ltd, this is the first Digital Media room of its kind in London that features top of the line product’s from world renowned audio specialists Merdian. Meridian’s products are already a firm favourite with interior designers since they can be incorporated seamlessly into the design of a room.
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| Facing the action: the front view of the Digital Media Showroom. |
For the visuals there is a 55″ Loewe 3D TV, and at the tap of a touchpad, a cinema screen extrudes smoothly from the ceiling and a projector springs to life. To add to the effect colour changing LED lighting has been installed all around the room that reacts automatically to what media is being used; when the cinema screen is on the lights fade, when music is played they flicker to the beats and they can even match the colour being displayed on the screen, so suddenly the mood of what you are watching is all around you.
Controlling all of this simply and seamlessly is the intuitive Crestron automation system that can be accessed through the Crestron touchpad or an Apple iPad and iPhone.
Media rooms like this are becoming ever more popular and interior designers need to be aware of the planning required to achieve such an integrated system. Despite what people may think, digital media systems like this do not operate wirelessly. In order to get the highest quality visuals, audio and responsiveness, cables and access points need to be installed in the walls, which is very hard to do if the furniture has already been delivered.
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| Complete control at your finger tips – literally. |
Another important consideration is where to store all of the kit used to power the system, such as blueray player, games console, PC, sky box etc. They are kept in a rack mount that is the size of a fridge freezer and need to be kept out of view, otherwise the illusion is spoiled.
Talking about the technology used in the media room, managing director of RSAV Solutions, Rob, said: “I consider this to be the first stage of the fully intergrated digital media room. The technology is moving forward all the time, and with our leading edge partners such as Creston and Meridian we always aim to be at the forefront of Digital Media installations.”
Alan Boothroyd, the co-founder and lead design of Meridian was also at the launch. Talking about Meridian audio he said: “Unlike other speaker manufacturers, we build the amplifier into the speaker. this enables us to make them up to eight times smaller than other speakers with the same performance. People want to hear audio, but they don’t want to see it, so the smaller the better for the best quality sound.”
