Inside Weekly - From Garden Audio Fixes To Big-Screen World Cup Nights

Your outdoor speakers worked fine last year, so why do they suddenly fail the minute the sun comes out? We get honest about the unglamorous side of custom installation: springtime service calls, weather exposure, amps that finally die after years in an outbuilding, and the kind of “you cannot make this up” issues that show up in garden audio systems. If you are planning backyard entertainment for summer or the World Cup, you will hear what actually matters for reliability, brightness, and setup decisions.

From there, we zoom out to the state of the AV and smart home trade. A recent industry poll shows the pain is spread across cash flow, margins, sourcing products, and marketing lead generation, with staffing and skilled engineers never far behind. We talk about what that mix means for integrators trying to stay busy, and why service, upgrades, and clearer outreach can keep work moving even when big projects slow down.

We also share a behind-the-scenes look at a home cinema build, including a ceiling fabric solution that saved the install when access got tight. Then we hit the news: a new Denon AVR aimed at modern living rooms and gaming with a path to HEOS wireless surrounds, Lithe Audio expanding PoE speaker infrastructure to combine power and Ethernet, a fully hidden Dolby Atmos demo space at Harrods, and distribution moves like Waterfall Audio landing with Match Distribution.

If you like practical installer lessons plus real product shifts in home cinema, AV networking, and immersive audio, hit subscribe, share this with a friend in the trade, and leave us a review.

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Transcript

Home Cinema Alliance Sponsor Message

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hi, and welcome to the Inside CI podcast for Tuesday, the 12th of May 2026. I'm your host, Stuart Burgess, and with me as always is my co-host, Mr. Simon Gregory. Good evening, Stuart. How are you? I am very good, my friend. How are you? Yeah, not too bad. It's been a little while since we've done one of these. Yeah, I was looking on Riverside earlier, and I think it was about a month ago, because we've both been we've had school holidays, we've had Easter, and we've both been flat out doing our stuff. Obviously, I've fully taken over Inside CI now, so I've now added another repertoire to my bow, uh, which now means that I I basically have no life.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

You've been a very busy boy, and uh yeah, Inside CI is keeping you busy, and uh you've been travelling up and down the country, which uh I think we're gonna talk about later.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, we'll get on to that later. So um, so to start the podcast off, what have you been working on since we last podted? What have you been up to?

Fixing Outdoor Audio After Winter

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Well, believe it or not, Sure, the sun has been out. And it has been really warm, not necessarily over Easter, but I think towards the end of Easter, uh it was uh very, very sunny. And a lot of our clients that we've done garden audio for uh called us up saying, This isn't quite working, Simon, or that's not quite working, which you'd expect with speakers and amplifiers that are outside or in a sort of an uh an outbuilding. So, but yeah, so we've been doing that really. Lots of service calls regarding that, um, some proof fishing TVs, trying to get those back working again. So they've not been used since uh, well, September time, I would say. October probably, yeah. It's been a while, but uh yeah, we're just trying to get those up and running again, ready, ready, ready for summer. So uh one garden audio system we uh we worked on based in Epping, overlooking the deer sanctuary, so it looked really good. Swimming pool, lovely. Uh one of the amps uh had blown, but it had been outside, not outside, but in outbuilding for nine years. So it's done, it's done okay. Um, and that was from uh clips. And then we had some Paradigm outdoor garden uh speakers, but uh the ants decided to chew away at uh the waterproof sealant and the tape that we'd put on and the and the waterproof boxes, and got in there and I unscrewed the the uh speaker and literally just come out in my hand with with nothing else attached. So uh there's there's some digging to be done and some replacement of speakers to be done as well. So uh yeah, the garden audio systems are uh well and truly on their way. And I think with this fuel crisis that is going on, uh that uh not many people will be going on horror this year. Uh and if you are, then fantastic. But if not, yeah, stay in your garden and uh yeah, have a have a garden entertainment system.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Well, didn't I? I noticed on the news this morning more and more airlines are cancelling. So uh yeah, you're not wrong. It's yeah, I think it's gonna be almost like COVID again, where we can go somewhere, but we don't want to because it's too blinking expensive.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yeah, yeah, 100%. So the the lack of fuel and the cost is uh yeah, a double, double whammy. So uh save your money and get a nice garden audio system, that's what I say.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Well, and leading on to that, obviously we are literally a month away, is it, from the World Cup? So if you had any inquiries for a gardens, because everybody likes to sit outside in the gardens to watch the World Cup. I've no idea, I can't think of what time the games are gonna be on over here. But are they very early in the morning or for England it's about 10 o'clock, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

For uh for other uh other nationalities, it's a bit later, so two o'clock in the morning, which obviously is not particularly great, but uh we are about ten o'clock. But yeah, I've had some clients ringing up wanting uh a projector that they can put out in their garden. So you know the little portable ones that that you can get, but uh none of the none of the people I uh uh we deal with actually sells sells them. So uh I uh I uh sent him some information. But basically the the brighter the better. I mean this projector that the client found was about three and a half thousand lumens, which is pretty, pretty, pretty bright. The ones I did find were in about two thousand, so um, but hey, it will be dark by that time. But uh yeah, so if you see anybody outside watching the World Cup, that's one of my clients.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yeah, well it's it it is it does seem to for some reason it's like a ritual, isn't it, to put the uh almost put a bed sheet up in the garden with uh with a uh a projector, you know, a soundbar and some titties, you know, regardless of what day it is, whether it's you know two o'clock in the morning or ten o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the afternoon. It's like we must watch our football.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Just don't scream and shout too loudly when somebody scores, but or swear too loudly when uh the opponent scores against you. But yeah, so doing a lot of that. Uh obviously TVs as well. There's a lot of promotions now coming along for uh for TVs for the World Cup. HiSynths are doing uh a competition where you can win tickets if you buy a high synths from them. Uh LG have just bought out their new TVs as well. Um I think you can pre- Yeah, I think you can pre-roll them. So the G6 range, the OLED series of that, and uh the uh C6s, uh their range of uh OLED uh TVs as well. So um yeah, everybody's getting quite excited about those. What more do you want? A new TV for the World Cup.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, I got a I think it was AWE, I got an email from this morning, and I clicked on there, had a quick look, and there was there was I've got a 77-inch uh LG G4, I think it was. Um and uh I attempted with the G uh 83-inch G3, but luckily they didn't have a price on it at the moment because otherwise it may well be an awkward conversation with my wife. I mean, if they'd sent it yesterday, it was my birthday, so I could pull it off as a birthday treat. I probably still wouldn't have got it, but you know, it's worth a try.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Well, happy birthday for yesterday. And yes, you could have treated yourself, but you snooze, you lose.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, I'll tell you about it. So, anything else you've been up to um with your tools being out and about, or is it uh just what we discussed as some paperwork?

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yeah, paperwork, service calls, I say, trying to keep yourself busy. Uh it's a pretty, pretty tough time out there for a lot of people and uh all trades, I think, really. It's uh uh one company I spoke to the other day, so it's it's fallen off a cliff, is his exact words. And uh I've got an electrician who's a friend, and uh yeah, they're very quiet as well. So uh, but yeah, you just got to try and keep yourself busy and uh yeah, just do service calls and bring older clients. That's what we've been doing. Bring older clients who've got projectors and got the garden systems and older TVs that we installed nine, ten years ago. And uh yeah, most of them seem happy to do uh do an upgrade. So uh there's there's always business out there to have, and uh obviously the dedicated cinemas that we're doing as well. They're always in the pipeline, but obviously things are a bit slowed down at the moment.

The Biggest Business Pain Points

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah, no, I completely agree. I mean, actually, we're just gonna bring this up in a minute, but I'll I'll bring up a little call, well, a little uh post that um uh our friends at Essential Install magazine put up uh a couple of weeks ago. They put up a little survey uh on LinkedIn, uh which was uh titled Installers in the Smart Home and A Smart Home AV and Automation. What's the biggest challenge in your business right now? And they basically put four options as you normally do. So option one was cash flow, pricing, margins. Uh, second one was sourcing the right products, third one was marketing and lead generations, and the fourth one was other, and then please let us know in the comment. What I found quite interesting, but yet wasn't a surprise, was literally all of them were almost about the same percentage. I mean, cash flow was 23%, sourcing the right products was 21%, marketing was 28%, and other was 28%, with the comments on other being uh shortage of great engineers in the AV IT security. Uh, that was by Steve Moore, um, and by uh Andrew Fox was almost similar, which was basically finding staff. So I thought that was quite interesting. The fact that you know they in Central Install magazine put this uh poll out, but it's such a split between everything that everybody's having issues. There doesn't seem to be a defining reason why you know people are finding it hard at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yeah, no, it's a very interesting poll, actually. And I think if uh you could have ticked more than one, then you would. But uh, as you said, due to the percentages, that obviously is the case. But uh I I I I personally ticked uh the uh lead generation is uh is what I I ticked. So but it's it could have been any of them. Uh others very interesting. Obviously, uh people are looking for grid engineers and technicians and that kind of stuff. So they're they're obviously people are looking for those those kind of skilled, uh uh skilled workers.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yeah, and unfortunately we have heard on the great vine of people merge in, people closing down recently. So there are you know, I'm you know, the other podcast I do with Steve um uh is about his gaming, and it's the same in that industry where people are consolidating, people are you know, unfortunately losing their jobs, AI is coming in in certain ways. So um, so it's definitely a date, it was definitely a time to get on LinkedIn and get into your uh get your resume up to date just just in case, you know, because there are jobs out there, we are seeing jobs out there, it's just there's lots of people going for them.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah, it's a few people in our industry have uh unfortunately uh lost their jobs due to uh restructuring um and things like that. But uh so in our industry, there's there's always a job to be had, and uh hopefully those people are got a job sooner rather than later, and uh yeah, we'll announce that news. Yourself? You've been driving up and down the country as usual.

Building The Beckenham Cinema Room

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah, so uh well the first thing is the Beckenham cinema. Um that I have well I have finished my side of it. We we were brought in to build the room, so uh I'll put a picture up on the screen now. So we've gone in there and built the room out using Roddy's Cinema Build Systems um uh framing, the coffer, it's a double coffer, uh, and then also the uh wall framing as well, and then we used one of his new colours of hug fabric on the walls. Um, and then we had some like I call them troughs, but the client didn't like me calling them troughs, but they're like they're like wooden troughs on the wall, which sort of divide the fabric, and then and then when the electrician comes back, they're gonna have some nice light fitters in it, and then seats are turning up, and then we've got um you can see that we've got a Crix MX30 system in there, uh, and then we've got a screen uh I always get these confused. We've got a screen research uh masking screen going in. Uh we've got Paradigm um going in, so um amplificate power amps and processors. Then I think we've got Mad VR going in uh and then Surgex, and it's it's a full pulse cinemas job that we're doing uh with it's with another integrator, but um we're pretty much doing the whole cinema because he's doing the crestron side of it. So uh yeah, that that's pretty much finished, and it's been quite nice to finish. It's uh I know you can see it now, but my hands have got blood coming from them. So I did put a bit of blood into that job.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Nice. The the pictures you sent me, it did look a rather sexy room, but uh blood on that coloured fabric.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

What colour was it? I think it's one of his very new fabrics. I think it's called Earth, I think. Um, but it was uh it was a mixture of non-perforated and perforated, because obviously you put perforated over the speakers, and um yeah, I mean it was the ceiling was particularly hard. And actually, a shout out to Roddy. You are a bleaking genius, my friend. He I was really struggling and with the ceiling, and I was in all the cinemas I've done, I've rapped, you know, which is you know, a good like uh probably about 30, I would imagine. Um I've never done Roddy's fabric on the ceiling with Roddy's coffer, and what I just didn't think about was getting the tool in in the coffer recess, and and I'm like, what I should have done was made it a bit deeper than I couldn't have got the tool in, but of course I just didn't think about that because I'd never done it before. You know, typical in installer thing where because you've not done it, you don't really compute it. No, you're like, yeah, that's fine, I could do that. And I was speaking to Roddy on the phone, going, Have you got any ideas on this? And we were tossing ideas around, and then he came out with the genius idea of going, Well, why don't you just back wrap some 20 uh some 80ml MDF? So I worked out that the ceiling was going to be in four panels, and then I worked out so sort of down the sides, and then I worked out across the back it's gonna be three panels because obviously you've got the projector in the middle, and then you've got two panels left and right. So what I did was I mirrored the back look on the front, and then I mirrored the side either side. And yeah, what I basically did was I I brought it out, I think it was about a hundred mil, wrapped the fabric, but so if anyone's never done it, what you do is you put like double-sided sticky tape on the back of the wood, you put the fabric on top, you say you put the you put the uh the face of the wood down, and then you back wrap it over it, stick it, and then staple it. But what Roddy said, which worked really well, was you didn't do the front of it, you left that sort of dangling, for want of a better word. What that meant is then you could screw it to the ceiling with it through the wood, and then then what you did was you try when you tracked the inside of it, that flappy bit of fabric went into the first bit of tracking, so you didn't have a black uh black line around it. So that very clever that that my friend was bloody genius. So and that's and that's why I buy from him, and this is not a sponsored advert. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

That's why we use people like that in our industry to uh get you out of a jam that you got yourself into.

Manchester Summit And Installer Tools

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, and then the other thing was uh I bid to two events. So first event was a few weeks ago was the senior business summit in Manchester. Is that the first one of the year? Is that correct? Yeah, that's the first one of the year. If my memory serves me rightly, we've got Edinburgh coming up in a few weeks as we record this. So as it goes out, it will be the next week or the week after, I can't remember now. Um so we've got hold a second, let me do my due diligence here and bring it up on the thingy. So we have uh Edinburgh on the 20th of May, and then we have um Bristol, I think it is, on the 9th of June, and then in July, we have the 7th of July, we have London. So it and it was really, really good. I mean, hats off to everybody came. There was, I think it was 29 exhibitors there. I think the venue helped, did it not? Not really. I mean, it was Man City, no one wants to go there.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

They could have won the Premier League and now they're blowing that, so uh that's that's not gonna happen. But uh, but no, it looked an amazing venue, I have to say.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I was uh even though I'm not a Man City fan, it was a stunning stadium. I mean, to stand there and look at it, and then obviously from the outside it was impressive, less impressive, because at the end of the day it's a stadium with car parks around it, but um no, I mean, inside it it was very impressive. So um, but no, it was it was really good. It was good. I mean, it was nice to see some new faces. I mean, Ron from KEF was there, I put up a post today. Uh, they were showing off, um, funnily enough, they were showing off some garden audio that they've just released, so some garden speakers which look really nice. Um, and then you know, you had some familiar names there, like you had the guys from Pulse Vision, as I call them, um, you had the guys from Reiko, you had the guys from um Mostech with uh Nico, um, you know, Karma, 1AV, AWE. You had loads and loads of people there. Ian Morrish, you know, he gets everywhere, that guy. Um, yeah, so that was that was good, that was brilliant. Um was it a good turnout? I to be honest, it always seemed busy. Um, it's always a bit hard to gauge unless you're looking at the figures. But people were always wondering and people were always talking. Now, was it as busy as London? No. I mean, London was heaving last year when I was there, but that's because it's London. 100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

I I think what people have said before is is it's not as busy, but you get a chance to talk to who you want to talk to. I think with a London one, as you said, it is so busy that you you want to talk to somebody, but they've got about five or six people around them, and you're like, oh, I come back. And each time you come back, there's more people around there. So uh it's it's pros and cons at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Well, the thing is, it was like if you could talk to people, it's like you know, like um, I call them the A-team, uh uh Jason and Damon from Audus, because they are like they have something for everything, you know. They've always they they've always got loads of stuff out, and like Jason was showing me this really cool like small version of a fox and hound. Uh, so it was a uh a generator and a receiver, so something it was all it was like two little like USB sticks, and you sort of something you can carry it on you and then put onto an HDMI to test the HDMI, but you haven't got to carry like a massive case with you, like a you know, a massive fluke-sized case or something like that. So, but I think you're right for an event like Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, they're quite good when you want to sort of get you know down and dirty with the trades and have a good conversation with them. Say London is very, very busy, so you know there's lots of people providing for people's time.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

They are, yeah. Eldos is like the Swiss army knife of the uh of the industry, aren't they? It's uh something you think, oh I really need that, or I don't need that, but you never know when you might actually require such a unique tool like that. So uh that's uh but yeah, no, it sounds sound sounds good. And anything on the uh RP32 or anything like that?

Alta Labs Networking And Better Margins

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Or not that I noticed. I mean there was some there was because it's a business conference, it's more business-related topics. Um, so it wasn't so much about standards and things like that. I think the standards they pretty much say for you know ISE and obviously we've got the Cedia Expo in Denver coming up in September. Um, and I think they might even be doing a little bit of EI Life, I'm not sure. But no, I think it was very much like business related stuff because it is a sort of tech and business summit. Um talking of Audus, uh, I did go up at I did go up to Jason's pub. I never realised Jason had a pub, and it looks like a very nice pub. It's a bloody nice pub. It is a you know, it is the type of pub that I said to my wife and the other Simon, the one that we both borrow. Um, it's the sort of place you would definitely go for a meal whenever, like with your mum and dad. It's a beautiful place. So was this their open day they did? Is that correct? Yeah, well, it was an open event for a new brand they've taken on. Um, so basically, they invited, we had sort of like Jason's got like an outdoor gazebo. I mean, a gazebo's an understatement. It's a gazebo with a bar in it and tables and all this lot. So it's basically, I mean, Damien was telling me how they had to expand the pub during COVID to, you know, be able to open, but obviously, but not be inside where there wasn't any airflow, you know, back in those COVID days. Um, so orders have taken on a brand called uh Outer Labs or Alter Labs, um, and and it's the only way of really describing it is it's uh quite a few of the guys are ex-Ubiquity. Um, so they uh were heavily involved in a lot of elements with unifying ubiquity. And what they've done is they've created a brand which is very similar in respects of the essence of it, networking, not like door entry and cameras and all that lot, but just some really good, you know, switches, uh, one router or router, um, one you know, one router, one router. Um, you know, they're releasing a rear facing uh switch because they've listened to the A V guys. Um, because obviously the IT guys like silver and front facing, the AV guys like black and rear facing. Yes, they're they're a pain in the back side.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

They are when you try and shut the door or uh cupboard door, then uh yeah, those cables are in the way, you're like, ah.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

But they had some really um they had some really good little um solutions. So they had some really good little solutions where they were easy to install, they were easy to adopt, they could all be done via your app on your phone, really nice and straightforward. And then they had some really cool um I see if I could bring it up. I can't remember what it was called. Let me just bring my other screen down. They just had some really good ways of you know doing um deployment. So they basically uh do you know what I'm not gonna be able to find it now? Um they had just it was just the way you logged into it and the way you did the cloud management on it, it was just it was so simple to do for each project, and then they basically had like a really good way of deploying Wi-Fi, so it was almost you know giving everybody the same access to the Wi-Fi, but without having to use multiple, multiple SSID keys. So it was almost like one login, um, but they then basically gave you access to it to different ways of getting into it. So you could you could quite easily, you know, lock down a children's network, you could quite easily lock down a guest network, but you didn't have to go in and keep on, you know, doing lots of like reconfiguration. Um no, I was really, really impressed with it. More importantly, more importantly, unlike you know Unify, uh unfortunately, I'm gonna say it, um, you actually make some profit out of this stuff. It wasn't expensive, but so it's the sort of price you look at and go, okay, that's a good price. And it basically, yeah, and you make some margin out of it, which obviously is important for you know us integrators.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

That's what you want. Profit and reliability. We we don't ask so much, but that's all we want. Profit and reliability, which uh you don't always get nowadays, but uh that sounds uh sounds really good, and I hope that's successful for those guys.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah, well, you said uh you say uh reliability, they do have um like on tap phone support, so there's someone to talk to. Uh it was called out of pass, so it's uh it's configured, unlimited passwords, uh effortless scale to thousands of users, secure guest Wi-Fi, um, limited uploads and speeds, you can limit that, you can decide VLANs, um, you could create schedules, but it it just is what they tout as like one SSID, you know, with multiple different ways to assign it. And then also, which I thought was really good, was we always like a freebie. Um so they also do a training program which was called Basecamp. So that's online training and in-person training. Um, but then they also do a um, they also do like a um an incentive. So basically, the you know, if you use them, you spend money with them, you do get a rebate, which is paid back to you. And then also they do do trips every year. So basically, uh it's called the uh it's called the Alta Summit program. Uh so this is all on their website. So if you go, if you just Google Alta Labs, um basically, um if I could find it now, there you go. So they do different tiers. So they basically do uh if you're tier four and you've installed 50 units, um, you can get up to 100 pounds cash back, but you could also get an a reward trip entry. So what they do is they will basically take people away as a thank you for doing their products. So it's one of those classic cases where between one and four it's you know 50 to 1,000 uh units installed, and you get between one and four uh entry trip award entries, and you get you know a hundred cash back up to ten thousand pounds cash back.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Nice, it's like the good old days. You know, this is I used to do that when I was in retail. Basically pioneer did that. So when uh the Kuru uh uh plasma come out that uh they did an incentive like you just mentioned, but so yeah, you've got you got a cash back. I think you sold a telly and you got 20, 30 quid or whatever it was, and uh you sold enough, then you got uh a trip away. But was it C CES took people to Vegas if they uh if they if they sold enough products from the from their company? But yeah, I think that's a really good idea, and uh yeah, more people should do it. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Well, going back going back to my retail days when I was just out of college and I was working for Victoria Wine. I mean, I got a free trip to Portugal by selling loads of ports to my clients.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Where is the trip anyway? Does they say do they say that?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

They change it every year. So I think but not like South End or something. It's like Well, no, they're a Californian company, I think. So so the last trip they did, I think, was to Cancun. Excellent. Get selling. I mean, I'll put a link in the description of the QR code up on the screen now. So go and have a look, because you know, obviously, and and this is not paid, I'm getting no money for this. But I was really, really impressed, especially as I've just sort of been looking at ubiquity and doing some stuff for ubiquity. It was just it was just a little bit more, I hate to say it, it's a little bit more integrator-friendly, and obviously the most important thing for us as integrators, we make some money out of it.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Yeah, nope, which is always good. And any cool news we will promote.

Voicemails, LinkedIn Group, And Directory

SPEAKER_01 25:55

So uh yeah, definitely. So, right, so we're gonna get on to the news. Before we get onto the news, uh, don't forget you can comment, review, and subscribe to this podcast on whatever platform you're watching or listening to. Um, also, the the platform that we use to host the podcast for us um have now uh embraced Apple video platforms. So this podcast you can watch on YouTube, but you could also watch it on Apple Podcasts in video as well. And also they've added a new little feature to it, which is you can leave us a voice memo. So if you look at the comments of the podcast or the comments on YouTube, I'll put a little link in there. And what you could do is you can actually leave us a question. So if you've got a question to ask us and you want your Dulcet tones to be broadcasted to the world on this podcast, click on the link, leave us a message, and we can answer your question and then basically uh interact a little bit more with the people who are listening to this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Is this where uh we can get rid of some of our merchandise, Stuart? The best question or uh the funniest message wins uh wins a cap or uh a meridian t-shirt, something like that? Think that's a good idea?

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yeah, I've got I'm trying to build up my stash, let's say. Um the only thing I am realizing by speaking by entering this world of uh promotion and publishing is uh is how merch works with a lot of our distributors and uh a lot of our distributors have um invoices attached to merch, shall we just say? So if you are a uh manufacturer listening to this, then uh please reach out because what we're trying to do is give away some some of your merch in return for a free shout out. And yeah, if you interact with this podcast, leave a comment, leave a review, or something like that, then we'll do a draw and you know draw some bits and pieces out. Um we've also just started a group on LinkedIn. So if you go on LinkedIn and search Inside CI, you can follow the news channel, but then you can also follow the group. Um, and then another thing, and actually one of the things that I've sort of like been looking at with Inside CI is that I sort of inherited um on the current website we've got is a directory. So David created a Inside CI directory, which I thought was really, really useful. So I've gone through it and had a bit of a clear out, and I'm trying to get brands and you know, manufacturers, distributors involved in it and integrators. Um, so you can sign up for it. There is a charge, uh, I'm not gonna lie, but you know, reach out and we can talk you through it. But I don't know about you, Cy, but I go on a lot of forums and a lot of platforms, and I quite often see, do you know who distributes this? Do you know who distributes that? Do you know where I can get this from? Do you know where I can get that from? So what we've done is we've not only listed uh manufacturers and distributors by manufacturers and distributors, we're not only going to list the products by type. So let's say speakers, amplifiers, projectors, projector screens. But first and foremost, at the top of the website are the brand names. So if you click on, let's say, fox and hound, it will ping up and show you who sells fox and hound. If you click on Amina, it will flash up and tell you who's who's distributor for Amina. Uh, Barco, lots of other brands. I mean, we've got loads and loads of brands on already. So I just thought it for me as a game, uh, me as an integrator, looking at Inside CI, was like, do you know what? That's a really useful platform where I could go, who distributes October these days? Click on it, and it's there. It tells me straight away who distributes it, and I can reach out and give them a call.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

It's such a great tool, as I said to you before. It's uh I bet I bet you had a few uh manufacturers that either had disappeared or uh were no longer selling that that that product on the on that uh little database you had. But say I think it's very important. We had a client uh call us the other day, wanted some kef speakers uh for his West Wing, and he was trying to install it himself and wanted our help, etc. etc. Um, but a lot of and I think on one of the forums we had as well, who who now distributes kef? Or is it direct? And nobody really knew. So I think you gave us Ron's details, and we're now uh uh a direct uh account with them, but uh with without either you knowing or your database, we could have gone on there, clicked on kef, who's selling kef, direct, call this number, set yourself up an account. Little things like that just makes makes life so much easier, like Crix, for instance, obviously uh yeah, just just changing and uh going to C A V D. So little things like that that not everybody would have known or might not know about, but they could go on your website, click on that and uh on the inside CI website, and uh yeah, away you go. You know exactly who to contact and what to sell.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

And I can remember talking to the guys at Pulse and saying, Yeah, I know I can ring you and get a price, uh, but you know, I do my quotes or did my quotes on a Saturday or Sunday, you're not there. So, you know, this is back before they obviously got together with Midwitch or Envision and then they didn't have the website. But, you know, for me to be able to do a quote on a Sunday and go, oh, this client's asked for chords, cables, let's say. Who distributes chords now? You click on there and it takes you to the distributor or distributors that you know can supply you cords. So it's a bit, you know, there's quite a few products on there at the moment, but as you're right, I had to delete a load of stuff off. Who's sending pioneer TVs? Yeah, it's pioneer plasmas and things like that. So I've cleared a load of stuff off. We want basically more people to come on there. Also, there is a space on there for integrators. Uh, so what I also want to do is obviously Inside CI does see end users as well. Um, so we are gonna put on there, you know, um non-trade-related services. So if someone's looking for a cinema designer or an electrician or an installer for smart homes or a network engineer, we're gonna add that. So if you're listening to this and you are an integrator, um, do reach out, you know, email me at hello at insideci.com because you know, we do want to add, you know, professional bodies on there as well as you know, manufacturers and distributors. Because also, as we find out, you know, in our group with HGA, you know, sometimes, I mean, our our Simon, our Simon is now doing some work for Kevin and Angus at New Wave as well. Um, because sometimes you're busy and you need people to help you. So actually, you know, to go on there and go, oh, I need an electrician, click. Where's an electrician in um, you know, I know Bayesing Stoke? Oh, he's in Basing Stoke, I wonder if he'll do it. You know, it's just trying to get a database which is integrator-friendly, and you know, as I say, be an integrator for 20 years. I'm trying to look at it as an integrator as quick as possible and easy to find somebody.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Yeah, it's a great it's a great little tool, and as you say, it's uh you you being an integrator and me being an integrator, it's you see it from the other side rather than somebody who's trying to write news and and uh do interviews and things like that. So uh, but no, look at looking forward to seeing that when it's all all up and running.

Denon AVR And PoE Speaker Updates

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Right, getting into the news. The first news story is with you about a new deno receiver.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Yeah, very exciting. It's uh a brand new AVR, the S uh 980. But what I think makes this uh quite a unique uh amplifier, it's not all singing, all dancing. That's probably the best way to describe it. So it is built for movies and games, is what it's trying to say. Um, but what you can do, it has a flatbed audio of 5.1 or 7.1. So if you can't do Dolby Atmos and it it's not a big, big room, so a dedicated cinema, maybe not more of a media room or small cinema room, so you have a flatbed audio of 5.1 or 7.1, or you can figure it to uh 5.1.2. So uh the spatial audio doing the Atmos for that, if you can get uh the speakers in the ceiling. So if you can't, then a 5.1 system or 7.1 system. So it does all you need to do, it's got the 4K 120 hertz, which is really good, 8k sources, uh obviously Earth built into that as well. But what I really did like about this, and this is uh not out straight away, it's a firmware update sometime in the future, but with their new Dead and Home uh HEOS-based system, because obviously there's HEOS built into this amplifier as well. They've got the little, I don't even see them, the little bookshelf HEOS 200s, 400, and 600s. But this will do wireless surrounds. So we've actually got a client who's got quite a big living room, so there's a fireplace which we're gonna build the wall out. I think you're gonna help us with that, uh, and do a little fabric system uh on the front wall with a nice big TV. But to get speakers to the back of the room or in the middle of the room because it's a very big room, is pretty tricky. But if you had this little amplifier that could do wireless surrounds for the 200 and 400s, that could tick the box very nicely.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah, I mean it's the perfect little say little, I mean it's uh it it looks to have a uh uh recommended retail price of$7.99. Um I I did have a look, I'm not sure if it's on AWE's website yet, but um I looked last week or the week before, I can't remember when this story went up on the website. So 28th of April, Steve put it up, um, and it wasn't there yet. But it yeah, as you say, for yeah, almost my lounge downstairs, which I'm currently running as a 5.1 for a dead on amp, um, I can quite easily put this one in and actually make it a nice little 5.1.2 because I don't need anything more than that because it's a relatively small room. I haven't got the sidewalls for a seven-point system. So um, yeah, I mean it's a it's a great, you know, it's Wi-Fi, it's Bluetooth, it's got AirPlay 2, and it's rune ready as well. Um there's nothing to dislike about it. And as you say, yeah, the the uh to be able to use the down-on-home 200, 400, or 600 speakers as wireless surrounds, you know, especially if you're I don't know, if you've done a nice little cabinet with uh some speakers and a TV, and you've done all the cabling, and then the client says, Oh, I want to add, you know, I want to make my two channel system into a surround sound system, you can add a centre speaker quite easily, but you're like, Oh, I can't get the rip cables now to the rears. I've got a couple of plugs there, so actually, yeah, let's use the dead-on-a home speaker.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Yeah, no, I think it's a really good amplifier. So even just thinking about it, I I I've got a 11-channel uh integral amplifier in my living room, but I've only got 5.1, so I can't get atmosphere because uh the the kids are above that room and trying to get cables up there is impossible. Obviously, I've got uh surround rear speakers, which is fine. Um, but I I don't actually need an 11-channel amplifier. So something like this 5.1 or uh say 5.1.2 little system would uh yeah do do do nicely when I get like the wireless uh rears as well, then uh yeah that helps with uh cabling. So yeah, no, a very a very nice little project product.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

The next story is with me. Now I always struggle with this name. Is it it's Lithe, isn't it? Lithe. I always want to say Leith, but no, it's not Leith.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

We we interviewed them at uh IT this year, and uh I think on the on the uh on YouTube it's got quite a high number of views.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Well, I think it's it's a cool I'll be brutally honest with you, it's the sort of product that I would have looked at a few years ago and go, what? You know, that's not a proper speaker system. Why? You know, I've well I've got to know the guys, and and actually I like I I got the story behind them as well, but what this this cool little product, so I'll read this product off of You Guessed It Inside CI's website. Um it's like um Lite Audio adds Ethernet distribution to PoE speakers as a bolt-on platform. So Lite Audio has expanded the capabilities of its patented PoE Bluetooth platform with the addition of combined power and network over a single cable. A move is aimed squarely at simplified infrastructure requirements for custom installers. Designed for the company's Pro Series ceiling speakers, the upgrade modules enables both power and Ethernet through one PoE cable, reducing the need for separate cabling runs to uh in residential or commercial projects. The original PoE bolt on delivery PoE input with power passed through, allowing Leith Audio Pro Series speakers to be powered by one Cat 6 cable, eliminating the need for locals main cables. Where it gets good is the enhanced module introduces the important upgrades designed by now adding an Ethernet output alongside the PoE Plus Plus input. This practically means that a single PoE plus plus cable, should you say PoE now, PoE cable can simulate sim simultaneously power a speaker and deliver a live network connection, reducing what was previously a two-run power and network into one.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

I don't know. It's very clever, almost like almost genius. You think, oh, I don't need that. But actually you do, and let's say you want to see more of that, it's on the uh on on the web, on the uh YouTube uh accounts that we have. Um it's got two two two thousand three hundred views, so uh that's uh pretty pretty good going. But yeah, you want to see the guys at uh live audio and their their new uh PoE uh information, then uh yeah, it's all on the video as well. But yeah, no, great little product from those guys.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Yeah, excuse it, excuse the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom in the background, but someone was decided to play speakers very, very, very loudly at the same time, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 39:55

It was the end of the day, and uh yeah, it was party time, beers were flowing, and uh yeah, it it came out really well. But uh yeah, no, great little podcast. Uh sorry, a little video that.

Harrods Hidden Atmos Demo Room

SPEAKER_01 40:05

Yeah, this um so this story is obviously on the Inside CS website, so go and have a look, it's right at the top because it is a lot longer than the you know three paragraphs I just re uh read, and it's got lots of key information in there, like you know, distances up to a hundred metres, uh, you know, supports up to ten speakers. So please go and have a read on that because uh it is a very, very good little article, and you know, the great the guys are great there, got a lot of time for them. Um the next story is with our friends at Cinema Lux, and it's with you.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Yes, Cinema Lux Boys. Uh shout out to them. Uh they've joined up with the Faraday group um and they've moved into Harrods. They're on the fifth floor of Harrods, uh, which uh it's uh yeah a very well, I don't know last time we went to Harrods, but uh it's it's it's still pretty uh pretty pretty crazy, but uh a playground for uh lots of uh electronics and things like that and uh lots of nice food. But yeah, they've got uh part of the Faraday Club, they've got uh a live arena audio specialist of LQ sticks are in there, uh so we know those guys really well, and obviously they've got a really great um uh demo facility in uh Highgate, but the obviously they're now in Harrow's to get uh more eyes on the product. Um, and uh yeah, they've uh collaborated with Cinema Lux, so they've done the interior design. I think it's uh a 60 grams worth of uh plus worth of uh insulation and colliderscaper in there and everything like that. But uh it's it's a it's a 12 uh speaker Dolby Atmos system, uh, which obviously completely hidden. So uh all behind uh Cinema Lux's uh fabric track system. Um got control four in there as well, and uh some very nice fancy uh sofas, as you would expect from uh from Harrods. But uh, yeah, they've they've joined up with uh those guys, and that looks pretty impressive. So I need to go and see that as soon as.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Uh yeah, don't take the wife because she'll bankrupt you if you take her to Harrods. Um so uh um no, the yeah, so 12 12 Dolby Atmos speakers uh or Delve Dolby Atmos cable speakers. I mean, I know the video we did for L Acoustics and HomePlay uh in London, you know, those speakers are like a hundred millimeters, not yeah, a hundred millimeters cross. So they are tiny. But but the yeah, I mean the sound you get from them, and you know, if you're an integrator listening to this, then you know, try and go to Highgate and see that. If you're a an end user listening to this, then reach out to a HCA member on the homesteaderalliance.co.uk because it is a stunning facility. And I I question anybody to go anybody who goes there who has got a client that wants a brilliant system or an end client who could uh uh afford the uh entry-level price to it.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

Yeah, speak to Nick or Simon and uh they'll have all the HA members and go down there. But it is it's one of the best installs I've I've ever I've sorry, installs, best uh uh uh system demos that I've ever been to, to be fair. It's so unique as well. It's not like you stand and sit there and and listen to Lady Gargar singing for the thousandth time. It's uh a completely unique experience and it's it's so immersive. It goes from watching a movie, listening to some music, having a concert, just yeah, it's a complete experience for you, which is what what it should be. So they've now managed to do that uh uh at Harvard. So get yourself down there and have a listen.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

And also, um, we've just had the is it smart home expo in Mumbai, which I saw a lot of our friends are out.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Yes, they are. It is it is the place to be Mumbai in India. So uh uh Cinema Lux have just announced that they're doing Cinema Lux India, so uh good luck with that. And I saw say a lot of our friends over there as well, Art Keustic and uh and everybody. So I think Mumbai India is the new place to be.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Well, I I spoke to I think it was It was I think it was yesterday, was it? I spoke to Mike Beattie on WhatsApp. Um, and he was like, mate, you've got to go, you've got to go to it next year. Uh uh, it's unbelievable. It really is the new hotness. He said, The people are amazing, he said the place is amazing, the show was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

So uh Yeah, we met a few people uh from Singapore and India in uh in uh ISC, didn't we? So very nice, very nice gentlemans, and uh had a good nice chat with those guys, and uh they said, Anytime come over and we'll look after you. So yeah, no, we'd we'll love to go out there and film next year.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

So is that so are Cinema Lux producing it in the UK still, then shipping it out to India? From what I believe, yep.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

So they've got a a representative uh from what I can tell, uh based in India, and uh the products will all still be built in-house in the the UK in uh Marks Tay, Essex, and uh yeah, obviously their level of quality and expertise is second to none. So uh I assume that'll then be built to fit, shipped out, and uh away you go. And then somebody obviously in India who's uh qualified and Cinema Lux Trust will install that for you. Obviously, they've got dealers out there as well who will obviously all be trained and uh can install that, I suppose, as and when to work with all their equipment. But yeah, no, run by here we come.

Waterfall Audio Distribution Shift

SPEAKER_01 45:19

Yeah, no, well done to the guys at Cinema Lux. It's uh been quite good knowing them, and they're on a great, great journey. So um excellent. Right. So next story is a uh another product moving around. So uh our friends at match distribution adds waterfall audio uh to their premium brand portfolio. So again, reading from our beloved Inside CI website. Um, yeah, well, there is, it's like I've got to promote my own stuff. Um match well, if actually, in all in all seriousness, I I have noticed, you know, obviously what generally happens now is you know, Steve is the editor of the website, so Steve is gonna put the article up, and then I I let Steve put the article up because he either gets the press release or I get the press release, or we both get the press release. So Steve puts the article up, and then he obviously writes it, you know, as a journalist's word with a press release. Um, but then uh I noticed that you know our friends at Hidder Wires, our friends at Essential Install, and our friends across Europe and the globe are all pretty much put the same story up. So you could probably go and find this same story at Hidda Wires, or you can find the same story at Essential Install, but you might as well come and find it us. But Stuart, there is only one Steve May. So Well, there is, exactly. There's only one Steve May.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

It's his fault that he's put it up on Inside CI, so go and read it on Inside CI.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

So, right, getting back to the article. So, yeah, Match Distribution has been appointed the exclusive distributor of Waterfall Audio across the UK and Ireland, extending the French brand's presence in the custom installation market. The agreement will see Match introduce and support waterfall audio speaker portfolio across both territories, targeted integrators, installers working across high-end residential and luxury audio. Founded in 1996, Waterfall Audio has carved out a distinctive position in the upper echelons of the loudspeaker market through its use of tempered glass cabinetry, which is stunning to look at, and a minimalist industry design. No one quite makes a speaker like Waterfall. So, I mean, I've come across them quite a bit in my time. Actually, funnily enough, there was a guy in Hastings, I can't remember what the business is called now, but he was distributing them at one point because he wanted me to buy his business. Um, but uh I it was he was more commercial, but so that wasn't what I did. But uh, but yeah, so no, another brand moving around. So yeah, match have got waterfall.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Yeah, no, we uh well I started selling uh waterfall probably '98 when I started in retail. And I remember the the first time I saw them, just these beautiful glass speakers. We were used to obviously selling wood speakers from Kef and Ruark and Riga and Lynn and that kind of stuff. Um, but they they were beautiful to look at, they sounded amazing. Nadine is is fantastic. If you never met Nadine, then uh yeah, please please go up and say hello to her. She's uh she is lovely. Uh they always do some great champagne at uh some events as well, so that's always uh worth worth a chat and uh grabbing a free glass of champagne. But so so Mark Mark obviously is part of Match uh and uh they are now distributing those. So yeah, another that's a great uh acquisition for for those guys. Uh again, we filmed them at ISE, didn't we? For the the some of their products that uh that they sell at Match now. But yeah, I think their portfolio uh is coming along nicely uh at match.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Yeah, I mean I saw obviously we saw them well, we saw them at ISE, but I also saw them at EI Live last year, and I was quite impressed with the the sort of portfolio. They are uh reasonably new. I mean, I think we were talking to Mark at ISE 2025 when he was just sort of I think he had the business cards printed for ISE 2025, but but the company wasn't really founded. But I don't know, I suppose in a little bit like the way that you know I'm coming into Inside CI as an integrator, you know, Mark has been around, you know, uh in the industry for quite a long time. He's been involved in many, many different brands, and now he's got the opportunity to do something new with match. Um, so yeah, they you know, really happy for them. They've got some great little products and Waterfall, you know, is a a good a good brand to bring on there and fits a couple of spaces that they've probably had before.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Yep, no, most definitely. So they've got some really nice brands on board. So uh yeah, have a chat with Mark and uh he'll be happy to help you. Or you can find it on your new uh database.

Immersive Music Showcase With Trinnov

SPEAKER_01 49:49

Yeah, I don't think he's on there yet. I've not tapped him up, so I'll give him a shout to Mark. Tap him up if you're listening. Yep. Um got to get the lights on somehow. Um so the one other thing I'm just gonna briefly touch on was our our good friend Randy reached out to us today uh from uh Mag uh speakers and uh made me aware of uh an event that Pulse Cinemas are putting on together with them and Trinoff Audio. Um so they're putting on two dates. Now it's extremely, extremely limited. So they're putting on two dates, uh uh Pulse Cinemas on the 9th of June and Envision House on the 10th of June. Uh, if you want to look at it in register, go to Pulse Cinemas on LinkedIn, all the information's there. But the reason I'm bringing this up is that it just sounded quite cool. Um so I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

It's a groundbreaking event, Stuart. You forgot to mention groundbreaking, that's a groundbreaking event.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Well, it's one of those things that the only time I can put that I've been to something like this was actually when Kef opened the gallery and they were playing uh a well, they're playing Ziggy Stardust album, which had just been remastered into Dolby Atmos. So we were sitting in the the big cinema at uh the gallery in London with the big muons at the front of it, and it it was listening to David Aboe, he listened to Ziggy Stardust, but in full immersive audio. So what Poles are doing is uh I'll read this. It's basically we're proud to present the unmissable uh showcase from Justin Grey featuring his Grammy a winning immersed album delivered using Trinos Audio technology. Join us in June for a rare opportunity to experience the album in in its tender delivery through immersive spatial audio, bringing together all 38 international artists immersed merged. Sorry, immersed is a fusion of music, film and storytelling grafted into a deeply engaging and developing experience. So, right, yeah, I'm gonna pop along to Invision House and have a look at this because I think Dolby Atmos is brilliant for movies, but if you've not listened to music or Dolby Atmos, you are missing out. Music, Dolby Atmos was made for music.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

Oh hundred percent, yeah. And I I've I've said that for a long time, and I can't believe it took so long for music to actually be developed for Dolby Atmos. I mean, as they did as Paul described it, this is not a demo, it's an experience. So, yeah, you've got the Grammy Award-winning cinematic album for spatial audio, uh plays you at the center of a 360-degree orchestra. So something like that. And we we kind of experienced that uh at IC, didn't we, with uh uh L Acoustics when they're doing their their DJ and you have the guy with the uh the musical instrument, uh was it wasn't the violin, was it cello? Cello.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

So it's a cello cello, and then the DJ pulls out a guitar at the end of it, which is just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

You're just so immersed in it, it's just doing something completely different. You haven't got the same standard demo sitting down as like, yeah, that sounds good, and you know, I've heard better, or I've heard worse, or yeah, that's slightly louder, or the explosion's slightly better, etc. etc. Something like this is an experience, and that's where I think we now need to move to to make it more of an experience for for clients and for and for uh installers as well, really, because we've all done this for quite a number of years, and you want to be enthusiastic about it to the client. But if you're not and you're just sitting there and watching Transformers for the thousandth time, for instance, you're not you're not gonna be that excited with the client. So little things like that, or big things like that, really, I think making an experience for you, the installer and the end client, I think is uh is very, very important in this day and age.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

It's a it's also from an integrator's point of view, and from a client, it's a good sales, you know. Like I know when we had the showroom, we always started off with music, so we would play them some music, no screen. Uh so it may be like Gregory Porter, you know, no, no, no pitch on the screen in Atmos. Then we turn the screen on, and then we maybe play some Gregory Porter, but you know, a live track filmed, you know, somewhere, and then that would then move on to movies and then end up with a full, you know, balls out action movie, you know, reaching 115 to 120 dB at the end of it.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

But you can relate to music, can't you? That's that's the thing. You know what a a drum sounds like, you know what a guitar should sound like, you don't know what an explosion in space sounds like. Well, actually, you shouldn't hear anything, but that's by the by. But a big loud explosion, not many people experience that and you don't really want to. But if if you've been to a live concert or an event, you know when it sounds like a good system. So when you hear it on a decent system and it sounds really, really clear, Gregory Porter's voice, etc. etc., you're like, wow, that that sounds really, really good. So yeah, no, I'm well, it's my birthday that day, so I'm not sure I'll be going. I might be getting whisked away for uh a special birthday treat, but if not, I will be there. So that's the pulse day, because there's no way you're driving to Bracknell. No, pulse, definitely. Half an hour, half an hour away instead of an hour and a half away. It's much closer.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

I think if I ever see you in a vision house in Bracknell, I think I'll have a heart attack.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

I I did it once, it was a lot, there's a long way to go, I have to say. Long way to go and come back. Come back as a word, it's like three hours to get back for me. So uh yeah. So either of those, yeah, sign up and uh yeah, but spaces will go fast, I can tell.

More Headlines, Newsletter, And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 55:40

Yeah, definitely. Um, so that's the end of the news we're gonna read out. Um, there are loads of news articles which we've put up in the last few weeks. So we've got stuff on there. Arma Home appoints Charlie Henderson as management director. That is literally fresh today as we're recording.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

I thought that was another Charlie at one point. I uh I had to double read that it was Charlie Henderson's. Oh, did you? Not another Charlie.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Yeah, we still don't know where that Charlie's gone yet. He did speak to me the other day, but he won't tell me. He won't tell me. He's going somewhere. Yeah. And then we've got uh a Shay Ling, debut advanced Android M390 streamer Dak. Um Cedia have created a new department which aims at connecting members to designers. Um Wharfdow adds a center speaker to its retro heritage line. Uh Lerve acquires French luxury outfit uh Cambas. Cabas. Umbas, uh Jamot Loudspeakers, uh Jamo and Wharfdale in one podcast. Did you ever think this would happen?

SPEAKER_02 56:35

Not in a million years. No, it feels like I've gone back in time.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

JMO Loudspeakers uh uh prepares for an industrial comeback at the high-end Vienna show. And Samson debuts a premiere, you get ready, 14 meter wide on X Cinema LED display screen. And it's excellent, it's mainly for commercial, not for residential, because that's one big house. That'll fit in my living room, no problem.

SPEAKER_02 57:00

I was I was quite concerned about the uh high synths one. That's uh that's 136 inch for 100k, and I thought, oh, that that'd be nice. That'd fill my wall very well, but uh yeah, trying to get that in the house, I'm not quite sure how that would happen, but uh that's that's a big big screen.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

Well, I think that's it, isn't it? It's like the prices are coming down on those bigger screens. I mean, 77s and 85 OLEDs are achievable, then you do jump still up to like the 1900 inches, 130, and all that lot. They are they are still quite expensive.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

So the 110 inch is only 13k from HiSynths, which is not bad. I'll take two and put them next to each other.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

But all that news can be found on Inside CI. So uh we can uh on Inside CI, and I will put up a QR code now for you to scan. But uh yeah, but also don't forget you can get your weekly news from Inside CI directly to your inbox every workday, Monday, or Tuesday if it's bank holiday morning. So it will be a roundup of all of the news that you might have missed through the week because you've been busy, busy installing. So uh I'll put a QR code on the screen now, link in the description. So go and sign up, there's some great little bits and pieces on there, and also if you are part of the mailing list, when I get some merch out of some of the supplies, and I have to speak to David, I'm bound to get some trinoff stuff out of him. Um when we do get some merch out of it, uh, then we'll include anybody who signed up to the newsletter in the prize draw for that. So that's it. So, you know, thank you, Simon, for uh podding. Um, thank you for taking your time. More and welcome. If you uh if you want to catch up with us, uh you can head over to uh insideci.com, uh insideCI News on most platforms or inside CI. Um and uh if you want to get involved with the podcast, then leave a message, leave a comment, or you can email hello at insideci.com. Also, don't forget, again, you can leave a voicemail in the pod link. So if you've got a question for the show, uh do leave the question. I'll be honest, I ain't gonna read all of them out or play all of them because some of them are probably not things I'm gonna want to put on here.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

Some are gonna be rude, I can tell you that for nothing. Even I might even I might leave a dirty message. See more butts there.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

I'll don't give them Simpsons ideas, that would be that's all I'm gonna get. Uh Cyber, where can people find you on your internets and websites and socials?

SPEAKER_02 59:23

So uh Simon, I can be found, and cinema rooms can be found on all the socials. So Instagram, LinkedIn. We've also doing a little bit more on uh YouTube as well now. So uh we obviously did the uh case study with Redline, so we've done some we've done some videos for that. And there's also a video on there of Martin and I having a bit of a chat about their white glove service and uh how how they can help the uh the industry and the HCA members and what what they offer. So yeah, generally that that's where we can be found. But yeah, give us a call, uh give us a call, give us a chat on and sit up. Obviously, the website as well, the new website is uh looking good, and we're adding news to that regularly as well now. So uh yeah, that's uh cinema rooms.co.uk.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Excellent. Right. Well, the next podcast should be the 26th of May. Um, but I think that's correct. Um should be the 26th of May, but I'm gonna be in France.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

So it sounds like half-term to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

So uh well that's that's to be honest, that's when it goes up. So we we're gonna have to we'll probably look at week starting the 18th to to do a recording before we both go off to half-term holidays. So um, but no, but thank you, Simon. Thank you for everybody who listened and uh contributed to this podcast. So if you want to get in touch with us, uh please click on the links in the description below, uh, or email hello at insideci.com. We've got lots of stuff coming up, loads of great ideas whizzing around this brain for this new platform I have my hands on. So um, but so Simon, thanks for your time and thank you for uh everybody who listened. Thank you.