Inside Meridian HQ And The Engineering Behind DSP Loudspeakers

A lot of home cinema builds fail for one boring reason: they start with a shopping list instead of a design. From Meridian HQ in Huntingdon, we sit down with Barry to get into what actually makes a system feel cinematic, and why the “made in Britain, built-to-order” mindset still matters when you’re spending real money on audio.

We go deep on Meridian’s DSP loudspeakers, where digital signal processing is not a buzzword but the foundation. Barry explains group delay and why timing coherence can beat raw frequency specs when you’re chasing realism, space, and that you-are-there feeling. We also unpack the practical engineering behind high-power arrays that get louder without the nasty side effects of comb filtering, plus how in-wall and floor-standing designs share the same core principles of inert enclosures and controlled performance.

Then we zoom out to system building: when a living room is better served by two exceptional speakers instead of a compromised surround setup, how to wire for upgrades, and what a modern all-digital cinema chain can look like with Trinnov processing. On the video side, Distributed by Meridian (DBM) and Barco projection come up as part of a balanced approach where brightness, viewing angles, and calibration matter as much as the audio. We also touch Meridian’s licensing and consultancy work, from Jaguar Land Rover systems to headphones and airline cabins, and why the brand promise has to sound like Meridian everywhere it appears.

Subscribe for more real-world home theater and hi-fi conversations, share this with a friend planning a cinema room, and leave a review with the one upgrade you’d prioritise first: speakers, processing, or projection.

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Transcript

Home Cinema Alliance Quick Pitch

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thinking of building your dream home cinema? Don't know where to start? Start with the HCA. At the Home Cinema Alliance, we connect homeowners with the very best in the business. Our members are trusted designers, installers, and technology experts who know how to turn any room into a breathtaking cinematic experience. Whether you're building from scratch or converting a spare room, our members are here to help you every step of the way. Visit our website to find your local member at homesinamaralliance.co.uk.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hi Barry, thanks for having us up to Huntington today. We are up at Meridian HQ, as I say, in Huntington, not too far from Cambridge. We had a Meridian Stroke DBM stroke barco day. We'll get on to the distributed by Meridian and the Barco, even though we've got the video up with Bar at Barco in Belgium, which pretty much covers everything Barco. Majority of people watching this will know Meridian, but just explain who Barry is and who Meridian are.

Made In Britain And Build-To-Order

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Yeah, cool. Absolutely. Well, thanks for coming to see us. These open weeks are great for us because it gives people a chance to come and visit when it's appropriate, when it's suitable. Open days are quite limiting. Businesses have to run and businesses have to look after their clients. So we do these weeks so that people can drop in on a day and a time that suits them rather than when suits me. So we we basically listened to our customers and made that decision from there. But yeah, so I guess for me, I've been doing audio video in one guise or another since about 2000. Um so quite a long time now when I think about it. Um started in tech support and um learned how products worked, helped out integrators at the time back in the early 2000s, um, troubleshoot, get systems set up, get calibrated, um, and then transitioned from there into sales. Um started to go out on the road with a phone and visit people and say, these are good, would you like some of these? Um and then just really grew from there. I've always been really fascinated with the manufacturing side of things. So the Made in Britain connection for me is you know really important. It's something we're really proud of, something we get to show off like it's unusual that you have a facility like this where you can see things from component level into fully finished and tested PCBs. Um yeah, Meridian's always been you know a fascinating brand for me. And as a business, Meridian's been around almost 50 years. So it started in 1977. Um, the first products were active loudspeakers, so already a massive shift to how everyone else was doing loudspeakers at the time. And I think the approach that Meridian takes to audio is what really separates us out, and that's also why other OEMs from around the world trust Meridian to deliver audio into their sphere as well. Um, so we just look at things differently. You know, we've done quite a lot of presentational stuff today, try and make it educational, not just like have a listen to this, have a listen to that. Here's why we did this, here's why we do that. And so by understanding psychoacoustics and how human beings hear things, it means you develop your products in a different way to deliver something which we really like to listen to. Not we as in Meridian, but we as in mancount mankind. And I think that approach is really different. Um and so, yeah, yes, we're a manufacturer, yes, we're also a licensing and consultancy business that we offer to large OEMs from around the world.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, I think what's what's always I mean, it's been a few years since I've been up here, but it's very similar still, apart from a few bits and pieces. I think the last time I was up here, Sulus was a product that you did. Oh wow, yeah. And you had a massive touch screen in the foyer where you came in and touched and picked your album artwork and that. But I think uh in a similar way that when I was at Barco recently, when you go out the back here, or out the front technically, or to the side, uh, and you go to the factory, you you see behind the doors of Meridian, and yeah, you see the guys who are sitting there doing the circuit boards, they're going through checking them, they're testing them, and then you uh you see all the carcasses come in for the the raw carcasses and the painted carcasses, and then you go up the back and the guys are testing them, and and it's just that and I think I said in the tour, you really do go to the whole made in Britain, as in like everything is pretty much as much as it can be made in Britain.

Custom Finishes And Handcrafted Details

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yes, hugely. Uh um I'm really proud of that, and I love the fact that we that we do that. I think it's just cool to be able to see that. And I see you know, if integrators bring up clients, there's a real difference when people go, That are they're gonna build my product. Yeah, yeah, those those guys that you that had had a chat with and you know you saw what they were doing, they'll build yours, yeah. That's right. It doesn't exist until you send you sign off on a PO for your system to the dealer, and then our factory will schedule a build. Like that's how it works. It won't be off the shelf, we'll make it. What colour would you like? And that's like, oh, okay, that's a huge shift because it's not a consumer electronics brand in that sense. It's a custom brand and it's built by hand for you when you order it. And I think that's super cool that we can still do that here. You know, the cabinets are made in the UK, all the PCBs are made here, almost all of our metalwork is UK sourced. It's a really UK-centric business, and uh a lot of clients really appreciate, understand, respect, love, enjoy the fact that their products are hand built and they're not built in batches, they're built to order, and they're built by people. Every single product, as you saw, every single PCB is tested, every single assembled product is tested, then it's production tested, which means it measures as it should do. You heard them listening to the speakers, right? They're they're listened to before they get packed up and they're measured to make sure they measure as they should do. Then there's a final vision inspection, then they're packed up, then they go on to the project. And I just think that's super cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Well it was like when we went out what was the gentleman's name at the back who was uh who was uh not the guy in the testing room, but the uh the guy who was out where we took the sheaf off the speaker. Oh yeah, Darren, yeah. It's like there was that big set of speakers there, and you sort of lifted the top off, and it was just this metallic sort of like pearlescent almost blue. Yeah, yeah. And it was just like when you looked at it for it was I mean, I know we I analogise our industry quite a lot with cars, but and we're both car f lovers, freaks you might say. Um, but it was literally like that flickery effect that you get on a car, and it was just beautiful. And that was just the carcass. That was just the carcass with the paint. So you the client can spec within reason any paint. Yeah, almost not within reason. Um will do unreasonable things. Yeah. So you could if they if they have a relationship with and I know you had a relationship or have a relationship with McLaren, they buy an orange McLaren, then you can do them in the same colour, basically.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Yeah, I mean sometimes the paint colours are locked by the manufacturer, but most of the time our painters are able to get to that. And it's a supercar level of paint finish, you know, it's that level of paint finish tell tells you what you need to know. Like, yes, we can get most of the supercar paint finish is all very close to that if the colour's locked as well. Um but it's about being uh being able to personalise and customize things. And that doesn't mean, oh yeah, of course you can customize the flagship speaker. No, you can customize our smallest bookshelf speaker. We'll we'll do um um custom paint finish on a on a five, six thousand pound pair of loud speakers for you. Happily, what colour would you like? Um that's the most customed product we sell is the 3200, the little bookshelf. Uh almost no one orders that in black, which is a standard finish. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And I I have to say actually, I had a set of those for a while, for a few years, until we moved house. Or actually I moved office. Uh, and they were phenomenal. You know, I mean, okay, I know we've gone right the way up to the top end today, but you know, for a smallish set of bookshelves that are a nice piece of furniture, whether they are on a sh on a shelf or on a set of stands, they are bloody good sounding speakers.

DSP Speakers And Why Timing Wins

SPEAKER_02 8:14

They're they have that iconic look, um, and they sound fantastic. I mean, I have a pair in my kitchen, they're the most listened to speakers at home. We have four meridian systems at home and one TPI system. Um, you know, you can't sell things and then not buy it yourself, I think. It's the it's kind of for me, you know, it proves like I would buy this with my own money. I might not be able to afford most of the things that I sell, but that's fine. I like ambition, I like the thought that one day I might be able to. Um so yeah, 3200s I have in the kitchen, and they get listened to more than any other loudspeaker in the house. They're they're fabulous, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

So when it comes to the range, explain the range to me of I mean, obviously there's the the in-room, on-floor shell uh speakers, and then you've got the in-wall like we've got in the cinema we've got in here. So tell me a little bit about the range that Meridian offer.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Yeah, so the range are they're all called DSP something, and the DSP stands for digital signal processing. So in Speaker Land you have passive speakers, active speakers, digital active, and then DSP active. Um we first made our first DSP active loudspeaker in about 94, that sort of period of time. So the difference is there you feed digital audio into the speaker, so there's no chance of picking up noise or losses along the way. So that's the purest feed into the speaker. And then inside the speaker, you've got a digital signal processor. Um we call it a command board, it's basically the brain inside the speaker, and that's where our engineers can apply the crossovers, the relative gains, the timing delays that we might want to add or otherwise into the system. Um, and then that goes converted to analog into the power amplifiers. So with us, if you've got a drive unit, there's an amplifier that drives it. So a two-drive unit speaker will have two amps, a five will have five amps. So each drive unit has its own amplifier, and our engineering team has decided what signal gets sent to them, at what volume, at what time. And the time is the most important thing. Because we get obsessed with frequency response. How low does it go? How high can it play? How loud can it play?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

That doesn't matter. Well you were talking when we were in the uh room earlier, when we're in the the hi-fi room, uh you were sort of talking about how um you know the the different sounds will come at you at sort of an angle, but within the the speaker it re-levels it. So fundamentally the sound from each of the individual elements hit your head at the same time. And actually, you do some quite cool stuff where um you you know you were putting three speakers on the wall, for instance, but rather than all three of them playing the same sounds, they were sort of assisting each other just to go louder, basically clearer. Well not clearer because it was clear right down to right high, but just to give you that more ump for those bigger spaces.

High-Power Arrays Without Comb Filtering

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Yeah, so that I mean that's two two different um unique technologies we've created. So in a loud speaker, if you've got an eight-inch woofer and a 25mm dome, and you put a voltage into both those drive units at the same time, the dome will move faster because it's smaller and lighter. The woofer will take time to move. In a loudspeaker, that creates a delay between bass, mid, and high frequency. So that that shape you do with your hand is exactly that, the high frequency lead first, then the mid, then the bass. The lower the bass, the slower that is. And that's called group delay. Everyone really knows about that if they're a speaker designer. So some speakers might be angled back a bit to try and it correct some of the group delay at higher frequencies. But when your speakers can play th down to 40 hertz, 30 hertz, 20 hertz or below, the group delay can be significant. So in a DSP loudspeaker, what you can do is you can delay the mid and high frequency signal being sent to the amplifier to match the delay of the woofer. So all of the audio leaves the speaker at the same time. And so that's why we say that timing is more important than frequency, because in the real world, when we hear real instruments, they're perfectly in time. A kick drum and a snare and a hi-hat, they're all played at the same time. The noise of your f of a finger on a bass string and the bass note leave the bass guitar or the double bass at the same time. So if a speaker can mimic that real life, it sounds, as you witnessed, more natural, more lifelike, more real, more authentic, more immersive. So those are the types of things that you can do with, you know, a DSP loudspeaker that you couldn't do, um, for example, without that finite control of the woofer and the mid and the high frequency. And then yeah, using three speakers to be louder. Of course, yeah, you put three together, they're louder, they are, but they interact with each other and they'll they'll negatively interact with each other and basically create peaks and dips in audio called comb filtering. So sometimes it'll sound and other times it'll sound really open. Um, you can't have that. So what our engineering team did was they created our high power array processing, which is patented technology. Um so when I say own engineers, these are people with doctorates in audio engineering who present on the AES board, you know, the Audio Engineering Society. So these are people that are quite good uh and quite knowledgeable about audio. So they created um two different profiles for speakers in close proximity. So we have primary and secondary speakers, which means that the outer pair play different signal to the inner speaker, which means that they rather than constructively interfere with each other, they can constructively boost the SPL. So three speakers, nine dB more output. So we go from you know 115 dB, 117 dB at a metre to about 125 dB at a metre.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

So an extra 9 dB or an extra 9 doesn't sound a lot, but basically double. But it's double yeah, it is it's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

And that's still, as you saw, within 10 centimetre installation depth. We don't need any more equipment in the rack. We can do all of it just in more speakers. So as long as the client has funds available to to do this, then we can use three speakers for left, three speakers for centre, three speakers for right, have super high SPL, but we'll still have the fidelity that we expect from a Meridian loudspeaker because we're still using the same drive units. So we still have that high frequency detail, we still keep all that timing resolution, we still have all that bass impact and that mid-range vocal clarity. All of those things are still intact, we just have another 9 dB to play with.

In-Wall Vs Floorstanding Design Truths

SPEAKER_01 14:39

So what I loved about that the talk you were giving when it was that was that you had this problem, and then you came up with a solution of doing what you did in the respect to the three speakers, and it wouldn't work, it didn't sound great. Absolutely, yeah. And then it's like, oh, it's not gonna work, you know, I'm not gonna show. And then the engineering guys went, give us 48 hours, and then 48 hours they came back with a solution. And that's what I think I love about Meridian, uh, you know, and I love companies like Meridian where it's almost like you almost get the sense that you know it's not just a machine that is just turning. No, there is a lot of um for for want of a better word, there's a lot of geeks. It's yeah, there's a lot of fun, there's a lot of exploratory fun in, you know, finding out solutions or pushing boundaries or you know, supplying clients with stuff that they I mean, let's face it, meridians are not it's not cheap, it's not massively expensive, it can be, but it's an investment that someone will buy like a piece of furniture, especially obviously the in-room ones, and they will sit them in front of their windows with their the picture we had out in the hallway there with the the you know World Trade in the back, and there's a beautiful set of meridian speakers sitting there. So when it comes to the floor standing range, and then when it comes to the in-wall cinema range, how are they fundamentally different? Obviously, apart from one sits on the floor and one goes in the wall.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Um interestingly, they're not fundamentally different. That's what I was hoping you were gonna say. Yeah, because the loudspeaker design and the principle is the same. What's different is you're more limited with positioning with an in-wall, because it goes in the wall. So with uh with an in-room speaker, you can move it away from a wall, closer to a wall, you can change its toe relatives. So you've got a lot more positional um opportunities with that loudspeaker. Um it has drawbacks, obviously, it's big visually, so you need to disguise that or make it as a statement piece. So different colours, different size models that we have for different outputs, larger scale rooms. But inherently, what we're doing is we're making really, really inert cabinets. So the box should not be heard. Um you saw in the in-wall speakers the bass drivers are uh have a completely different internal cabinet to the mid and high frequency drivers because we don't want those in in to interact. Do exactly the same in the in-room speakers, too. Um, you know, we look at an ellipse, for example, really compact, you know, less than three kilo small loud speaker, it does not resonate, it does not rattle, however much you want to play it and however loud you want to play it, it will it will not do those things because it's not a musical instrument. It's recreating any musical instrument from an organ to a triangle to a cello to a viola. If you can hear the box we haven't done a good job, you pay a lot of money for a really expensive box that you do not hear. Um which sounds counterintuitive, but that's exactly what you want. You want to hear the drive units and that's it. So if we've done a good job, which we have, then you won't ever hear those boxes. There will be purposeful, in case of the ellipse or 8000 XE, that's a statement piece, or it's subtle, it's it's it more fits in with the decor. If it's in an in-wall loudspeaker, it's hidden behind fabric, it's behind a screen, it's got a grille on the front of it. Um but the inertness of the enclosures, you know, the bitumen we put inside the um in-wall loudspeakers, the extra dampening and bracing we put on the large aluminium baffles on the front, they're all designed to make the cabinet acoustically invisible.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, and they are, and then whether it's I mean, we picked up one of the smaller speakers in the factory, which was bare wood. Oh, that was a 8,000 head. That was a sorry, 8,000 head, wasn't it? And that, you know, I didn't pick it up, but that looked heavy. Yeah. And I can and I've fitted Meridian speakers, including your lovely ceiling speakers. And uh they uh they they do feel I suppose it's a I always say it's a little bit like a watch. They have a good quality feel to them. You know, they they have a reassuring feel knowing that the value and the quality is there.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah, we we don't make them heavy um because it's funny or because we want to see you guys working out or uh or otherwise, we make them the weight that they are because that's how much mass they need in order to have resonance control within the box. Um so it's like, well, that's just how heavy it is. Um and yeah, a 320 holding it up above your head height, yeah. You might have had some wheat abicts in the morning. We'd have done 14 of them in one day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very tired. You're there doing your curls at the moment, you should be doing shoulder presses. I might do that.

Meridian Range And Simple TV Hookup

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I'll do that in the give me a couple of those and I'll and I'll do the my my let's do uh shoulder presses through February and I'll do those with the uh with the in-ceiling. Shoulders like the rock.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Um so when we go to the range of let's say floor standing, we start off with the DSP 320s, wasn't it? Uh 3200s. Sorry, 3200s, most eight.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

And then we go up to the 5200s, which um like we saw those today, they're connected to our um new UHD one-to-one, so that's our EARC device. So basically, um that means that you can connect to television to any of our loudspeakers. You don't need anything else, you just need a little box. Fits on the back of the TV, it's powered by the speakers, TV remote or the sky remote or the Apple TV remote, turns the system on, turns the speakers up and down. Super simple, like really nice solution. So in reception, yeah, we've got that connected into a pair of 5200s. Um at the moment, we've got like a um California Sage metallic green, which is um the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 colour, which looks lovely. So that's um yeah, you get two, you get a base driver, a mid-bass, and then a tweeter. So bigger cabinet, um, more amplifiers, you get three amps, three three drive units. Um just has a yeah, more sense of scale. Um that's the key difference between going from a 3200 to a 5200, you just have a bigger sense of scale. Um dedicated tweeter, so you get a bit more um uh detail in the high frequencies as well. And then we go from the 5200s to the 7200s, which again, bigger. So two woofers, dedicated mid-range and a tweeter. Um, yeah, and it's again just just designed for um more scale. So it plays about 10, 15 hertz lower, a couple of dB, more output. Um, but really that dedicated mid-range driver really opens up the sound stage. So you just start to notice more details, more sense of space. Um, there's nothing wrong with any of the speakers below there, but as you spend more money, you really do start to feel that quality of the experience does improve. Um, and it should do, right? If you're spending more money, there should be a discernible difference. Sometimes people buy with their eyes, they buy the big one just because it looks cool.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Um and that's totally cool. I'm happy with that. I'm sure that most integrators will be happy with that as well. Um, but the range really has scale. So when we move up from 7200s to DSP9s, you know, that is one of the very best speakers, my opinion. Yeah. Um, that you can get. It's people listen to that speaker and they're gobsmacked that you've got almost a kilowatt of power and the cone area of a single 16 inch woofer in a slim. That looks really sexy. It's so sexy it won a Red Dot Design Award.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

There's not very many products that win a Red Dot Design Award. It's won a London Design Award. It's a really beautiful loudspeaker, curvaceous, but ridiculous performance. You know, we did the demo earlier. I saw you laughing in the back when we played uh the the organ from um uh the Royal Albert Hall.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

It's just the the the bass and just the well, I think what I've always I mean I can remember with one of my previous trips here was that listen is Gregory Porter, and I've always said I've never heard Gregory Porter sound go good apart from live. Yeah. Um because what I always the staging you get from a meridian speaker is you do hear the you know the the the brushes of across the drum in the background, the triangle going off and it does send to you know especially when you get up to late the the the DSP9, you you start to that becomes even more alive in your ear and and it almost replicates the original sounding of the music.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Yeah, it's just that resolving power. So there's there's two things. One, don't add anything.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

It's really important. And two, make sure it's timed right. So if you can maintain the original timing accuracy of the recording in the first place, you will hear those things. You will be able to resolve those things. You know, ty many is the time that a dealer will bring a client and they'll say, I won't be able to hear the difference. Cause why? Because I'm old or because I because I've deafened myself at various concerts and you have to speak up when I talk. Doesn't matter. If your hearing range is reduced, so you can't hear above 8k, 10k, who cares? Yeah. Doesn't matter. What you can absolutely resolve at any point in your life when you have hearing is timing information. And if the timing information is preserved, the the music comes to life. The room comes to life. You hear the room. Now, actually, with the new speakers, we haven't made any more high frequency information. We have the same bandwidth we had for probably 10 years or more, where we've really gone into the on the new new the new DSP platforms really have allowed us to dig much lower and in into lower end bass. Um, you know, minus 3DB of 20 Hertz and 18 Hertz of our biggest loudspeakers is ridiculous for a floor-standing loudspeaker. Um doesn't matter if you've lost some high frequency hearing, you'll definitely be able to hear and feel you know that low frequency information. As you saw, when we remove that low frequency information, the room and the scale of the system sounds different. Yeah. It sounds smaller. So even if you do, if you do have recessed hearing at high frequencies, not a problem at all. Um you the whole thing comes to life when you've just got all of the timing accuracy there in the first place. And that's one of the things that we're like absolutely obsessed with is maintaining that timing accuracy.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

So when we look at the uh the in-wall models, I mean obviously you would be remiss to go, oh well, the in-room floor standards, they're great for a two-channel system or a hi-fi system or a two-channel system either side of a TV. But when we go to the room upstairs, you are using those in them along with the in-wall speakers. So from a hi-fi point of view, obviously it's relatively simple to uh implement a set of meridian speakers into the house. Um what would be the typical type of so if you because obviously the amplification is built into the speakers and the speakers are wired together uh by a cable, aren't they? Yeah, J45 and then plugged into the walls. Yep. Um and then you generally have a room controller for each room, which then gives you access to which then gives you access to some of the on-demand services, streaming service or to connection to rune. When it comes to the cinema systems and you're dealing with multi-channel, um the speakers themselves, you can you mix and match them in the room? So you could do I don't know if you've got a big enough baffle or wall, you could put some floor standards behind the wall with the some in walls and some in ceilings, uh, or you could just do the whole room in wall in ceiling.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yes, yeah, is a short version. Yeah. We don't make cinema speakers, we don't make hi-fi speakers, we make loud speakers. They should be able to do both. And the podcast. Uh they should be able to do both. Um we don't there's not a difference from our perspective. Um, so there are hybrid systems, uh, our distributed in the US, Ryan has got a pair of uh DSP 8000s either side of his screen.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

So it looks cool. Uh and he's got a DSP 750 behind the screen as a center channel. Works phenomenally well. Um up here in this system we've got three in-wall speakers and in-wall speakers for sides and rears, and um in-wall speakers uh for the ceiling or in-ceiling speakers, whatever. Yeah. Any speakers and in-ceiling if you put it in the ceiling. Ceiling, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Well, once it's there, it is in the screen. Just more wheat of bits and both arms press.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Yeah. Two-man job. Um and in the theatre upstairs, we've got large speakers in in behind the screen, the DSP 8000 XEs, we've got DSP9s for side channels. Yeah. Because you can.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Because you can. Um beautiful matte. Oh, yeah. Of course. We've got to look at the video as well, right? Right man speakers.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Yeah, we've got to make sure we're minimising reflections. And then we've got in-seiling and in-wall speakers for the surround speakers. And you heard today our our latest um revision of the DSP 750, so that was the the newest version of our 750, our reference in-wall, which has a new DSP, has a new um platform that we took from the XE and the 9, so it's got that new new electronics in there. Sounds it sounds bonkers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah, it did, because we sort of before we sat down and started looking at some um DCP content and and sort of the final sort of like presentation thing, we all stood there with our backs to the screen listening to these shiny new speakers. In a wall. In wall, but in ceiling first. Oh, yeah. The ones in ceiling, where it played the trick on me again, because you've done that before where you started playing them and you're looking at the walls, going, Oh, they sound good, and then you're like, no, no, no, they're the ceiling ones. Um, but they did, and then and obviously again you added the bass and you I'm sorry, you added the sub and subtracted the sub. And and they just yeah, I mean, I mean, okay, they're uh they're a hefty speaker, um, but you know, a set of those either side of a you know a big format TV or a big format uh barco, was it Runar? Yeah, the uh DCI LED wall. Yeah, you know, something like that with you know those around it, you're gonna get some phenomenal sound. You don't necessarily need to sub.

Why Two-Channel Beats Bad Surround

SPEAKER_02 28:34

No, I mean that's the surprising thing with that new platform. It's new to me as well, right? They went in the wall last week. We knew they were gonna be there, right? We've got an event on. Yeah. Um but I I started playing them today and I was way off axis, and one of the things we really pushed with on the on the revis the revised version was it, and it's the same thing really we wanted with XE and 9 was to have a wider sweet spot. So we wanted to open up the dispersion because you can get better coverage in a room without having to rely on such heavy toe angles, which adds depth overall. Uh, and I was way off axis, and I had got goosebumps. I showed you guys, I was like, oh wow, these things sound amazing! Like I was basically in line with the left speaker, and I had so much of the right right speaker information still just just reaching where I was. Uh, and I thought, yeah, like these uh well done, boys and girls, like that's a that's a great step forwards. Um because in a cinema application, side channels, front channels, left and right, we're gonna have so much more cohesive bubble of sound around the room. Um but yeah, I mean we use those in-wall speakers, pair of them either side of a TV is an amazing system, super discreet, you know, future automation wall bracket, all the electronics go on the back, TV on there, HDMI EARC, maybe a streamer, you know, one at a rune streamer or works of Sonos streaming, which we can integrate as well. Pair of speakers, brilliant, want to do an upgrade, Daisy Chain off a pair of in-wall subs, super discreet. It's only 100mm depth, not loads of boxes, everything's made in Britain. Yeah. If you put a future bracket in there as well, which is really cool. Um, and you just get a really lovely system that looks fabulous, sounds fabulous, super easy to control. It doesn't need to be complicated. Don't stick surround sound where surround sound is not required.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Well, I think I think we Simon's sitting behind me here, being nice and quiet. Um, I uh I um we we had a conversation on the last pod we did before Christmas, and we were sort of saying about, you know, I was talking to a client and he came to me wanting a surround sound system. And the more I talked to him, the more I realised that he actually listens to music more than he does surround sound. So I sort of said to him, Well, look, why don't you go two channel first or two point one channel first? And if you really want to add the surrounds, add the surrounds, but actually, because I think more people are understanding that actually a TV with a good set of speakers either side of it will completely outperform sound wise and everything wise than a not cheap but a substandard surround sound system. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

I mean, uh yeah, sit a cinema system, go for it.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Let's put the channels in, in a room. Let's design the system, we've got guidelines for that, we all know what they are. Let's build a system to that specification, let's go for it. Um if it's a living room, a living room, yeah, you know, where you live, yeah, um, or a kitchen, or any of those places, uh you just want a TV and some tunes, just put in some really nice tunes and make it look lovely, make it really easy to use, make it sound fabulous, it's brilliant. I mean, I don't have a cinema system at my house. I'm too for too poor, or I've invested uh money poorly in cars. Yeah, it's same same. Either way, I don't have a much m enough money to buy a cinema. Um, so I'm not gonna have one. So I have all of my systems are two channel systems. I watched all of Stranger Things, of course, and all of Fallout actually. I'm up to date on the Fallout series on Amazon on a 65-inch telly with a pair of meridian speakers. Here sounds wicked. I know I'm biased because I sell it, but honestly, it sounds incredible. You get height, you get depth, you get width, you get sound out to the sides, really spacious sound. Um, and I don't have the DSP9s because I'm poor. But if I did have the DSP9s, it'd be even better. Um I have 5200s in the living room, and they are absolutely fabulous. And then, as we talked about, you know, you finish watching a few episodes of um Stranger Things, you pumped it. And what's good about Stranger Things? It's got a banger of a soundtrack, absolutely wicked. So then you fire up Rune and you start playing music, you go, yeah, these sound wicked. So you just use the speakers for everything. And so I haven't really even thought about TV audio in a million years because I just it's just a pair of speakers right on the back of it. Um the UHD one-to-one makes that even easier because you just press it, turn it on, and it works. Um, but that is so much more satisfying. And the other thing is, um, you're less inclined to fiddle about with stuff.

unknown 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

You know what I'm saying? You set a system up for a client, especially if it's in a living room, they're like, oh, can I have the rear channels? Is the sub loud enough?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

And they're always watching WC Southeast News, and I've got no surround sound channel. Yeah.

Processors And All-Digital Cinema Chains

SPEAKER_02 33:24

And you're like, well, it's just two speakers, but it's proper. And they just melt and they disappear, and you end up with a fabulous experience. You get hooked in straight away. When you listen to music, it properly sounds like you're listening to music. Um it's not fatiguing, it's really enjoyable to listen to, and that for me is what we should be delivering in in a living room, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

So when it comes to multi-channel sort of cinema rooms like this, you're generally obviously you're putting the speakers in. Um obviously Meridian do offer the design service if you are an integrator watching this. Multiple senior award-winning design service, yep. Nicely segue, shoehorned in there. Yes. Um, I remember I did one in Wimbledon, which was uh DSP 8000s, I think it's got 9000s now. DSP 8000s, they were uh the the rears were M8s, M6, yeah. M6s, and then the subs, and then we had the four in ceilings. M6 is one of the very best surround speakers ever.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Yeah. They're so good. The off-axis dispersion they have is incredible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

And they all fed back into the multi seven one the multi-channel controller, which then we paired with uh a Trinov Altitude 32, I think. So so that is a typical sort of something that handles the processing, the uh the image processing or the sound processing into the meridian out to the speakers done.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Yeah, exactly. That and nice and simple. Yeah, it is, and I think you know, Trinov's new altitude CI is fabulous for us because uh two-fold, like if we're doing a meridian system, we get a two U processor, so it's more compact than the 16 and the 32. Space is always a premium. Um but that has up to 32 digital outputs, so that can go digital straight into another two 16 channel 271. So we're 4U for 16 channels and we're 6U for 32 channels. Everything's uh can be 9624 high-resolution digital audio. It's a really, really nice solution. If we're designing a system um for a room that's um using TPI speakers, then we use the Donte or AS67 output from the Altitude CI, and that can go straight into TPI's DSP. So for us, like that that new Altitude CI platform um where we don't need DAX because we're a digital loudspeaker company, or we're a we're we're in the case of T TPI, we're using their DSP. We'll see tomorrow when we pop up there. Um, that's a really cool solution for us. Um, it's a really, really great processor. Everyone knows the optimizer, you know, it's a great room optimizing process. Um, so that that's yeah, that's that's what s surround systems look like for us now. Um, is a all digital um system. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

So we mentioned there a couple of other brands. Obviously, we've mentioned uh uh Barco a few times. Uh obviously we have distribute by Meridian, DBM. Tell us a little bit about DBM and the brands that you distribute.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yeah, so w when I joined in 2015, um we really wanted to have a CI focus with Meridian um because that's where we could see um custom installers work with high net worth individuals. They like nice things, we make nice things, we should make it easy for the CI channel to specify Meridian products and install meridian products into the client's home. So um one of the ways we thought that would make that process simpler is by creating the design and spec service. So we took the guidelines from Cedar at the time and put those into our design packages. Um so Chris on our design team creates all of those. He's done hundreds of those. Like I mentioned, won a couple of awards for the integrators. Is it use that service? Um, but rather than say, oh yeah, hey, is you need to pay for that. Um part of what we wanted to offer was to say, well, we'll we'll do that design for you. Um obviously it benefits us because it's got our stuff in it. Um but we'll do that design for you. So it's done to to spec, it's done to standard, it's done to guidelines, um, it utilizes the products, and then you go, Well, I can't just do the audio. Because you're gonna say, what screen shall I use? Well, how big should it how big should it be? Um, we know those guidelines too, right? Because Meridian Mode uh sold projection systems before you know 2005, six or seven. We used to do projection systems up to about 2012, something like that. So we already have pedigree of projection and sound is half of a cinema. So we started saying, well, yeah, in that room size, you need this screen size. Why is that? Well, because of these viewing angles. Oh yeah, cool, that makes sense. What ratio should I use? Well, because of the ceiling height, you're going to use scope and you're going to tell a client while we're using scope and what that means when they watch 178 content. Okay. So how much what projector do I need? Well, it's not what brand you need, it's how much brightness you need. Because it's just engineering. So then we started specifying projectors based on brightness versus screen size. Uh, and then we went, Oh that those barcos are good. They got loads of brightness. We can do big screens with that, perfect. So we started to recommend Barco projection systems, and then had a meeting with Barco and we said, We really like your projectors, they're dead good, they are. Um, and we had a discussion and they said, Well, yeah, why didn't you start specifying them and supplying them into the UK as well? And we said, Yeah, right, cool. That sounds like a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Let me think for a second.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Yeah, so I mean I'm a I'm an audio video geek. Well, cars and then audio video, but can't get paid doing the car thing. So um yeah, I thought maybe the audio video thing's probably a better career choice for me. So yeah, we we started specifying um those, and then obviously we started investing in calibration equipment, so spectrometers training to make sure we've got the ability in-house to be able to offer calibration service, for example, so we can um well we can service all of the DCI machines which have a 12-month service schedule, like a car, clean the filters, check calibration, um, check software, read files, uh uh realign DMDs. It's uh it's quite an involved process, and that's part of maintaining the warranty, so we can offer that service in-house. You can of course get Barco to do it, but we wanted to be able to do that in-house too. Um and yeah, so we started to sell um sell Barco alongside Meridian, and then other people were like, Oh, you distribute things, yeah. Alright, cool. Do you do you want to do this thing? Are you interested in that thing? Um, and really it was for me like yeah, if I can stand up in front of my customers and say, I would buy this with my own money, I'd put it in my own home, yeah. Yeah, like I would buy this my own money. Um, and I understand it and I can tell you about it. So they're two quite serious criteria for us. Because if it's a thing I don't understand and can't tell you about, I don't want to sell that because I don't understand it. I shouldn't get paid for something that I don't understand. Um, and so we've kind of kept that ethos within um DBM where the products we have to love them and want to buy them ourselves or covet them. We have to be able to explain them and they have to fit within the range as well. Um, so there can be overlap, but it should be positive overlap. Um I don't want to offer five of the same things, and you can just choose whether you want the meridian one and da da da. Um and actually when you look at the range from any objective or or even just because it feels like it should be like that, that's how it's really developed itself. So we only sell Barco video products. So if you want a projector, they start at 14,500 pounds retail. I don't have a five grand option.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

So therefore, I'm already only going to be able to offer something at this level. And really that fits in, you know, if you want to buy a single Meridian loudspeaker, it's two thousand pounds. Yeah. Oh, you want stereo, both you this it's four thousand pounds, or it's five thousand pounds.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

It fits in with the I feel that everything you do within DBM is is it it complements the Meridian brand and in it not fills the spaces or fills the gaps, but it it sort of like enhances the experience. So you will build a uh a cinema with meridian speakers, it will sound phenomenal. You put that through trin-off price in, it sounds great. You put that through a uh barco projector, then all of a sudden you've got stunning visuals like we've got in this room. And it's logical.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

If you had a a 2,000 pound uh multi-channel speaker system, you wouldn't put a 10,000, 15,000, 30,000 pound processor on the front end. Doesn't make any sense. If you put in a 50, 60,000 pound loudspeaker system, why would you put a thousand pound AVR on the front of it? It doesn't make any sense. So it's about fitting together. And then when you when you do that, you end up putting 50% of the budget, ish, give or take, into audio and audio processing, so speakers, amplifiers or or active loud speakers, processors, um, and then you put the other half of the budget in the screen, the porthole, the projector, and the video processor. Um then you have a balanced system that hits the recommended targets for brightness, sound pressure, viewing angle, all of those things. And so the system's very balanced. You know, it's not about having a mega audio and meh video. Or mega video and meh audio. But they're both brilliant. If you spend more, they're more brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Well, and I think the thing is you you have a lot of people and I've had customers who've come to me and they've seen a set of speakers, and like these speakers maybe£15,000, and and you go, they say, Oh, I want to pet what you what are you driving them with? Oh, I haven't got anything, I need something to drive them with. Okay, well, we probably need to spend about another 15,000 on that. What? So well generally if you're buying a pet set of speakers for£15,000, you need£15,000 worth of amplifier. Yeah. Uh so actually, you know, when you look at the meridian uh offering, because you've got everything in one cabinet, literally, um, it it does make it more palatable and easier to install and doesn't take up your life with 48 U's worth of power amps.

Design First Then Upgrade Over Time

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Yeah. It's all very compact. Most of our systems, if it's if it's just two speakers, it's just going to be half rack width, one U, and maybe an HDMI thing behind the TV. It's really simple. All robust digital connections. Um Yeah, and if you you know, there's maths, right? If you've got a 15 gram pair of speakers or whatever it is, if it's passive loudspeaker, look on the back. What's the efficiency rating? What's the power handling? We need a power. Poweramp that will allow you to hit your SPL target based on those two numbers. So it doesn't matter which one you quite like the look of, it needs to be this many watts. If you want to hit this level of these figures mean something. Yeah, they're not just random numbers. And and so you know, we're a digital actor or a DSP loudspeaker manufacturer, but you know, TPI isn't a DSP manufacturer. They have an off-board DSP, they have a power amp, they have a they have a passive loudspeaker. They're all partnered to match the efficiency, to match the power handling, to match what we're trying to achieve. So the other thing is that we want engineering numbers with these products. We want to know um how m how if it's an active speaker, WASMAX SPL one meter, is that like full full bandwidth or is that a burst? Let's have that information. If it's a projector, how bright is it? No, how bright is it really?

SPEAKER_03 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Um show me.

SPEAKER_03 44:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Um what contrast is it? If it's more than five digits, I'm not interested.

unknown 45:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

I want to know anti-contrast, give me a checkerboard. What's the colour palette? How broad a colour space can it render? Okay, cool. Uh what aspect ratio is it? Oh, it's native cinema scope. Perfect. We, you know, we're selling a scope screen, we should sell cinema scope projector. So we need to know these things, these building blocks, to make sure that they all fit together. Um, and it just becomes logical because then you're not saying to someone, I think you've got lots of money, therefore you should buy a lots of money system. You go if you look to your room, and based upon that, the maths, the engineering, the science has told us the minimum spec of system we could put in this room is this. That will deliver these things. If you wanted to have better levels of performance, greater immersion, this is where we're at. And if you wanted the best system that we can possibly think of for this room, this is what we would deliver. Now we have our own name for that. You call it standard performance and reference. That's just an internal naming for us to give differentiation. Maybe now there would be, and we had we do classify them, you know, that would be a a um you know a a one on an RP22. This is a two, this is a three, this will get you some seats as a four, for example. So those are the types of guidelines but we use and have done for a long time, standard performance reference. They're not ultimate num names, they're just what we use internally as a way of you know saying this is where we want to be.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

Well, I think whenever we speak to a client, um, and I know every HCA member is the same, it's like those initial questions are what size is the room? How many people do you want to sit in the room? It's not about necessarily your budget, it's about what fits the space. Then we'll talk about what your budget is and what fits the budget, and we'll find that nice ground. But it's about what works in that room to build a proper cinema system and what falls within your budget, Mr. and Mrs.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

Yeah, don't sell that Atmos Dream if the client doesn't have the funds to have four really nice overhead speakers. Just give them five really good bed channels and a really nice sub or two.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

And as we always say, it it's you know, cabling doesn't cost nothing, but cabling's cheap. So you can wire for a full-blown meridian system, you can wire for full-blown any system, and then you can add and upgrade over time and actually initially invest the money in something that you're gonna use, like buy those, you know, the LCRs, you know, that's gonna make the big difference, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Yeah, dialogue, impact, all of those things, musicality, all of those things. We're gonna want to have something that sounds great. It's gonna be behind the screen. So put some good ones in there. Um, you know, prewire for Atmos channels, pre-wire for some extra subwoofer locations, pre-wire for front widths, pre-wire for all of those things, but um ultimately deliver something that makes you smile, gets you excited, and then add more channels if that's a thing. Um saying I can get you a cheaper one, yeah. Well why don't you tell them with that in the first place? Oh, because it's not very good. Well, I don't want that. It's really hard to say to someone, um, yeah, yeah, just have the cheaper one, it's fine when they've seen something that's really good. So don't make it cheaper by putting in a lower cost thing. Make it cost less money by putting in fewer things and provision for them later. A really good 5.1 system is phenomenal. Yeah. Normally you'd be unhappy with that. A good a system that's got really good spatial resolution, a really good two-channel system is brilliant, you know? That gives you depth, width, height if it's set up properly. So of course a five-channel system can be amazing. Of course we can add more speakers in a year, 18 months when you've got some more budget. That's the way I would do it. Um, and just that's what you're delivering. Um, it makes more sense. You you're spending the money where it's appropriate. You're gonna have something that's great straight away and can be amazing later on.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Some people may be watching this going, I know that name Meridian. You know, all this new information I've got. You also do a lot of licensing of your products. I mean, one of the one of the big automotive ones is with Jag uh Jaguar Land Rover. I always struggle with that. Jaguar Land Rover. So a few a few people watching this might have a Range Rover uh or or a Land Rover defender, which they open the door and they've got the Meridian badge in it. Tell us a little bit about uh the licensing that you are involved in and why Meridian are involved in it.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Yeah, so we uh we operate a licensing and consultancy business. Um we've got some amazing engineers spread across software and hardware with lots of experience, many, many years of experience, and that experience you can't buy necessarily because it's not a high it's not a one person that knows everything. The knowledge is spread across very different areas of the business. We have a dedicated research and development team that do things like high power array, the base and space stuff we saw in the the ellipse, which just makes people go, how'd it do that?

SPEAKER_01 49:55

That is a phenomenal little speaker for Bonkers. For what is an in-room single speaker? When you sit-I mean, I sat here earlier, listened to it, and the spatial awareness of this speaker is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

That's what really good audio engineers and DSP and research students can do. Um, and those research students work within the research team. You know, they've gone, we've put them through their dissertations, they're coming to work for us. So that information is super valuable. You can't shortcut that. It's really hard to. So what happens is we work with larger OEMs who come to us and say, Hey, we've got this new vehicle. Um, we want a really good sound system in here. And then then that starts the question, what's good?

SPEAKER_03 50:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Let me show you. You know, we've got a 32-speaker iPace that we've kitted out with additional channels and technologies that we go, well, we've got all these things that we can offer you. What are you interested in? Blimey. Didn't know you could have that. Um, and so the technologies allow you to show what's possible with lighter components, you know, thinking about EVs, but it doesn't really matter. All cars want to be lighter because then they go faster, they stop better, they use less fuel or electric, whichever way it is. So using technologies about being smart about how we're delivering that impactful bass, that immersive sound, um, is really, really interesting to these these um OEMs and that they want meridian technology in their vehicles. So um, you know, a lot of our business is helping these um guys elevate the experience for their customers. Um, and we're proud of what we do. So, yeah, it's got a meridian badge on the grille. Of course it has, it's a meridian product. You know, a Range Rover system sounds like a Meridian system. Doesn't matter what drive units it uses, doesn't matter what amplifier it uses, doesn't matter that they're in a door instead of in a speaker. Um it's a meridian system and it sounds like a meridian system.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

You want that you want that synergy between the client listening to that meridian system in their house, or maybe having the Range Rover first, then buying the Meridian system, or having the Meridian and then buying the lane. You want them to have that same because it's got your badge on it.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

Yeah, absolutely. And it's not we're not selling a badge, we're selling an experience and we're selling something that we can be proud of in that space. It doesn't matter what that space is, if it if it ticks the boxes for our level of performance, then absolutely um we would be interested in having that discussion. I had um there's very few end users and clients that um I directly know or contact, because we're a B2B business as Meridian and as DBM. But sometimes when you do um demonstrations with clients, they you get to meet them and know them and otherwise. Um one client, um it's not hard to work out my email address, right? If you know my name and you put a dot in the middle and then put Meridian at the end, oh look, an email goes through.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

Well you had a phone you had a phone call when we were waiting to do this from someone up north and and I heard you, you were having a conversation, what you want, da da da. I'll put you in touch with the the local dealer on the back.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I mean my my mobile number's on the DBM website. How else would dealers that don't know me find it? But sometimes clients' phone, cool. But I got an email um from a client um who said, Hey, I just wanted to tell you uh he's he loves what we do. Like I can't tell you how much he loves what we do. I can, it's everywhere. If he has a property, it has Meridian in it, right? Really? And when I say Meridian in it, it has it's dripping with meridian. Like he's he really likes it. And um he said to me, Oh, hey, uh I just wanted to say I left my house in London, I got in my Range Rover, I drove to Heathrow Airport, I got on the aeroplane, I went in the first class cabin, I put Meridian headset on, I landed in LA, I got out of the plane, I got in a Range Rover, I drove to my house in LA, I had Meridian. He's like, I had Meridian door to door, and that was the most awesome thing. Thank you so much. And I was like, how cool is that? You know, like he's he's not only, you know, seen the brand when he was on a BA flight, when he was in his Range Rover, but he's the ultimate arbiter of quality, right? He's put his money where his mouth is. He's bought Meridian many, many, many Meridian systems over many, many years. And he said, That's a Meridian system, I'm a Range Rover. This a Meridian pair of headphones I'm listening to. And that's really what it's about. Um it got even better because then he said, I'm building a house in Ibiza.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

I need a Range Rover in a Meridian system, I need a course, right?

SPEAKER_02 54:28

I'm gonna need some more stuff. So then uh, you know, we started talking to um his his dis the distributor over there, and long story short, he's got eight thousands in his kitchen. In his kitchen? Yeah, XE's as well, yeah. Jesus. The the guy is a a legend. Yeah. He's a really, really nice chap, and he's got exquisite taste, obviously. Uh he's also got eight thousands in the cinema there as well. It's a fabulous, fabulous system.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

And he loves it. I think I I took a little bit of B-roll of the the the shelf you've got out there, and on there you've got the um uh British Airways headphones along with some others, and on top of it you've got engineered by Meridian, is it on top of it? Yeah, that's right, yeah. So you the client knows that they're picking up. Yeah. And they've been, you know, they're not just a badge slapped on top of it as an advert advertisement, they are actually a meridian sounding product.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

Yeah. Where wherever we have the brand then has to deliver the the promise of performance. So we're on British Airways, we're on uh United Airlines, we're on Japanese Airlines. Um we just uh went into the um Marscraft um boats. Yeah. Uh which it That was not that was No, I mean it's like what does the client need? Yeah. Client needs to be not on the boat.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:48

Where there are they? They're water skiing out the back and the boat's hooning along at twenty-five, thirty miles an hour. Alright, cool. Where are the speakers? Well they're on the boat. Yeah. So they need to be loud, then you oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um and so, you know, that's what the challenge is. Deliver me exceptional stereo audio whilst I'm jets, you know, whilst I'm skiing on the back of the boat.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

Okay, cool. Let's go. And I think you look at that through the whole meridian range from the the clips there to the bookshelves to the cinema speakers, it is that. Deliver me exceptional audio quality, whatever my scenario is, and then when it comes to cinema, can you also supply me the the exceptional image quality and so on and so forth?

SPEAKER_02 56:33

Yeah, and that's exactly that. I mean, I like I say I'm a an ashamed video geek. Um I know as much or I love video as much as I love audio. I literally I I couldn't say for sure. And cinema is the best of both those things, you know. So being able to offer integrators who we've worked with over many years and over many projects, and they know that they can rely upon us to choose the right products for the installation and also support it as well, right? You know, the had a phone call um earlier today from a system that went in in 2003.

unknown 57:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

And the integrator said, I don't know much about it, but um you know, wants to do a new control system upgrade and what should we do? And I said, Does it work? And he goes, It sounds wicked, mate. That's the first thing you said, you know? And you're like, well, yeah, it should do. Yeah. And that's a system that's 23 years old. Um and it's still working and it still sounds fabulous. So that handcrafted built mentality, that made in Britain mentality, means that the robustness, the reliability, we put a five-year warranty on all of our products as well. Um we're really proud of what we do, and it does, you know, it does it it is good, it does last. And um the the licensing and consultancy side of the business is just doing more of that for more people. So more people around the world globally will know or have a good experience of the Meridian brand in various different ways now. And so when integrators say, Oh, we like using Meridian in our systems, the client is more likely to go, Oh yeah, I know those guys. Not who? And that's that's big, you know, it's half the battle is not having to explain. Because almost most well, most of the brands that we sell, right, in this in in in specialist audio, in custom, whatever you want to call it, they're like, Who? It's not Bose, it's not a it's not Coca-Cola, you know what I mean? It's not a brand name, it's not Aston, it's not Bentley, it's not it's not a brand name that they've seen or or known. They're like, Who's that? What do they do? Um, and so this is becoming a a bigger secret, uh more well-known secret. And um most people go, Yeah, if I've if I've heard it, yeah, that's good, that is, that stuff, that's good.

Demos, Support, And Saying No

SPEAKER_01 58:44

And I've had it, you know, I've had people go to me, oh yeah, he's got a meridian system in it. My brother bought a uh a Discovery, I think it was, um, his last car, and that had Meridian system in it. And he was I mean, okay, he knows what he's talking about, uh, not as much as me, obviously, but he uh he would be like, Oh yeah, it's got a meridian system in it. So obviously, you're a global company, you obviously have distribution in major majority of countries across the world. Um on Meridian's website, it will show you your local distribution or in that country. In the UK, obviously, go to uh Home Center on Nancy's website first. Obviously, please first. But obviously, go to uh DBM's website where you have a dealer locator on there. Um the facilities here is obviously open to integrators and people like, but it's obviously open to end clients as well uh to come and have a look at through a dish. Through an integrator, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, sorry, through an integrator. Yeah. Yeah, so someone who wants to come here, I mean, we've got uh we've got this room here, we've got the big room upstairs, uh or the bigger room. It's different, isn't it? It's different, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:47

I mean we've got yeah, so we've got two cinemas, one with an in-room system, one with an in-wall system, um two or three different barco projectors depending on what we're doing at any given time. So you've got a real you've got the ability to see from like 15 grand up to 110k, you know, um systems here. Uh so yeah, we can we can host demos there. We've got various spaces to listen to music in, which is really key.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

So is that the little room with the very nice? Yes, we've got the engineering listening room. Yeah, that that was phenomenal. Anyone who c ever comes here and is just here for cinema, if you've got you don't already take them in there, take go in there because it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

If we're not doing any NDA stuff, then we absolutely do because it's just such a wicked experience in there. Reception's always always good fun because it's looks like a really acoustically challenging space. Yeah. Hard marble floor, glass, um, tall ceilings. Um yeah, the speakers really get get to party in there. So yeah, those those experiences, those demos are really key, but also we'll bring stuff to you, right? We'll just jump in the car, drive it over, do a demo. Um projector, speakers, garden speakers, whatever you need. You know, we can um uh we can absolutely get you know, bring that to your client. Do a demo in the garden, do a bring in a different projector to tempt them to upgrade, you know, once they've seen what's possible with something like a Heimdall or an I-600, it's really hard to go, no, no, I'm very happy with my very dim, aged 1080.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:10

So especially in because they're so used to it in their own home, yeah. To do like you know, like we've done with a couple of the the projectors here to sort of rig them up at the back of the room and you can flip between the two and just see the difference between those. And actually, you know, the the the what you get for your money with the Barco, a lot of people perceive Barco as being 100,000 plus and and it's not. No, you know, it can be, but it can be a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

I mean, preferably, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

Yeah, preferably, obviously, we all work on commissions. Um but actually, you know, the sub-20 projector, uh sub-20,000 pound projector, it's a phenomenal piece of equipment.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

Brilliant. I mean, you know, 8,000 lumens, all glass optics, bunch of lenses, it's mega, you know? Again, would I buy one? Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, I've I've wasted my money on other things. Uh one day maybe I would, but uh, yeah, it's it's phenomenal. And that's the same, you know, with um with everything that we sell. If it's correctly specified, everything that we give you will be brilliant. It doesn't matter whether that's outside, whether your room is 15, 20 meters in depth or whether it's three or four meters in size, we'll have a solution for you and we'll just engineer and design a system that works in that space.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

It goes back to what we said just a minute ago. It's the design. This is what I got, this is what I want, yeah. What works. Yeah. You know, before we even talk about, you know, kit list or prices or anything like that. 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

We we um we we don't want to see we don't we won't just say, oh yeah, thanks for the order, yeah. Shift out of the door. We're like, oh yeah, cool, nice. What's that for? Um Oh, okay. I yeah, uh no, I don't I actually don't think that's gonna be appropriate. Um so we've turned down orders and we've uh we've refused to uh let someone buy a more expensive component if we don't think it's suitable. Um you know, it it's about getting the right solution. Um and we want to be sure that what's being delivered is something that's gonna be exceptional. And um if there's a compromise because they want the better one, aka the more expensive one, well if that's gonna impact negatively, maybe it's a projection system and it's gonna need to be in a separate booth. I haven't got room for that. I'll just have it in the room. No, you won't. It's too noisy, it's not gonna happen. Um so we'd rather make sure that we've got the right system um and we've got the right performance. And that's where you know distribution comes in. Ridian can't make every system for every room. Yeah. It absolutely can't do outdoor. This is active, it's got 230 volts in it. So, like, absolutely we can't do that. Um, you want to do a nightclub? Cool. These aren't PA, these aren't high output loud speakers, they're residential speakers. Don't worry, we've got exactly what you need. If you want to have a 1500-person nightclub in your basement, no problem. We've got you covered. We can do that. You'll see that tomorrow. Um, so it that's where distribution is powerful because it just means that we can offer the right thing over over more project use cases.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

Excellent. Well, I think we'll wrap it up there. Um, thank you very much for your time. Is there anything else you want to add to the end of this podcast? Or have you pretty much covered everything you wanted to cover?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

Uh I think, I mean, you know, thank you for everyone that supported us over the years. We really appreciate it. Um Yeah, and thanks for putting your trust in us. Thanks for continuing to do so. Please do get in touch if you want to do a demo for a client at their place, at your place, whatever, in their garden, in their cinema, in their living room. We've got the products. Um, we can we can arrange that. If you'd like to see any of this stuff, if you've been, oh yeah, I've been meaning to get up to there, we'll do.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:48

Barry will drive to iBefa and show you a setup in iBefa if you really need him to. He will have to be there for the whole week. Uh it's two weeks minimum stay. And mainly around visas June, July, August era. Well, not with these freckles. Yeah. Huntson isn't the sunniest place in Europe. Awesome, mate. Well, look, thank you very much for your time. Uh, as I say, we're off to uh go and see some more lovely facilities tomorrow. But uh thanks for your time and uh thanks for today. Thank you very much. See you soon. Cheers, buddy, thank you.