TechRadar hit the ground running at CEDIA Expo 2024, scouring the floor for the best new gear unveiled at the annual custom installation technology show. The products below represent just a short sampling of what’s on display at CEDIA Expo, an event packed with some of the most sophisticated home entertainment gear available.
Unlike the CES trade show, which is something of a zoo, with every technology under the sun featured, CEDIA Expo maintains a tight focus on home theater and smart home tech. We’ve strived to keep a similar focus for our awards list, seeking out the type of products TechRadar readers would be most interested in, be it one of the best 4K projectors or the best Dolby Atmos soundbars.
This is the first time TechRadar has presented awards at CEDIA Expo. We’d previously only reported on the show remotely, so it was a thrill to actually be present on the show floor this year.
Continue checking our Home Theater Week coverage for news from CEDIA Expo and IFA 2024, along with a range of in-depth features on home theater-related topics. If you’re a home theater fanatic like us, we’re sure you’ll find something to like.
Epson QL7000 3LCD projector
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Epson has dramatically changed up its projector line for 2024, showing a trio of new Q-Series models at CEDIA Expo 2024. All projectors provide significantly boosted brightness over previous Epson 4K home theater projectors, with the QL7000 ($29,999, around £23,100 / AU$44,600) being the brightness champ at 10,000 ANSI lumens.
In case you were wondering, 10,000 nits is an incredibly high brightness level for a projector, and it allows the QL7000 to deliver bright, contrast-rich images even in a room with overhead lights on. Epson’s QL7000 demo at CEDIA showed off the projector’s ability to effectively battle room lighting using an obvious use case: NFL football. Viewed on a Stewart 180-inch Phantom Halr+ screen, the game looked like it was being displayed on an enormous TV, and when Epson switched over to displaying Top Gun: Maverick, the picture looked equally compelling, proving that you can watch movies with the QL7000 in high ambient light conditions as well.
Epson’s top new projector isn’t just good for sports and movies but, with HDMI 2.1 inputs and 4K 120Hz support, gaming as well. The projector’s stylish angular case allows it to be hung from the ceiling like a piece of techno-sculpture, and there are multiple lens options, including a short-throw lens for close-to-the-wall installations.
Sony Bravia Projector 9
It’s been a minute since Sony introduced new home theater projectors, but the Bravia 9, the company debuted at the CEDIA Expo, was well worth the wait. The Bravia Projector 9 ($32,000) is one of a pair of new projectors, with the Bravia Projector 8 ($16,000) offering a less expensive Sony projector option.
Taking on the same naming scheme the company is using for its new Bravia 9 mini-LED TV and Bravia 8 OLED TV, the new projectors sport a new XR Processor for Projector with features like dynamic frame-by-frame HDR tone mapping, XR Black to enhance contrast, and HDMI 2.1 inputs with 4K 120Hz support for gaming (and a very impressive 12ms specified input lag similar to what you find on the best gaming TVs). Brightness is specified at an impressive 3,400 lumens for the Bravia Projector 9 and 2,700 for the Projector 8.
I didn’t get a chance to see the Projector 8 in action, but the Projector 9 generated a high level of buzz at the show. During the demo I caught, one that used a 9.2.4-channel Focal speaker system for incredible sound, blacks in Zero Dark Thirty looked incredibly detailed – perhaps the best I’ve ever seen on a projector. Contrast and color were also top-level, making Sony’s Bravia 9 a serious high-end home theater projector contender.
Samsung The Premiere 9 ultra short throw projector
Samsung’s new The Premiere 9 (shown above alongside its new The Premiere 8 little bro) is the successor to The Premiere LSP9T, an ultra short throw projector that we rank as the best option for sound in our best 4K projector guide.
While I didn’t get to hear Samsung’s new top ultra short throw projector in action at CEDIA Expo, I did get to see it beaming images in the JBL booth along with that company’s new Stage2 series Dolby Atmos speakers and MA series AV receiver. The Premiere 9 put out an impressively bright picture with rich colors – something you’d expect from a triple RGB laser 4K projector with a specified 3,450 ISO lumens brightness.
TechRadar has a The Premiere 9 review underway, and – spoiler alert – both the sound and picture quality are top-notch. At $5,999 / £5,999 (around AU$9,000), it’s not the cheapest ultra short throw projector option, but its performance and living room-friendly looks, as well as its great Tizen smart TV platform for streaming, should make it a worthy successor to the LSP9T.
Kaleidescape Strato V Movie Player
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Systems from Video player/server manufacturer Kaleidescape can be found everywhere at CEDIA Expo in demos from companies ranging from LG and JVC to JBL and Sony. Previously, Kaleidescape systems were a pricey playback option compared to streaming with an Apple TV 4K or playing discs on the best 4K Blu-ray players. Still, the company launched its new, more affordable Strato V Movie Player ($3,995, around £3,100 / AU$5,900) just in time for CEDIA Expo.
What’s different about the new Strato V is that it’s a standalone player with enough onboard storage to hold 10 movies in 4K downloaded from the Kaleidescape Movie Store. Kaleidescape movie downloads feature lossless audio soundtracks similar to Blu-ray disc, and the Strato V introduces Dolby Vision HDR support – a feature that was previously unavailable.
When I spoke with the company at CEDIA Expo, they were excited about the potential for the new Strato V to bring more customers into the family who may have previously balked at a Kaleidescape system’s high price. That means more Kaleidescape fans, such as film director Barry Sonnenfeld, who was signing copies of his book, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker, in the company’s booth during my visit.
Klipsch Flexus Core 300 soundbar
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Klipsch’s Flexus Core 300 is the world’s first Dolby Atmos /DTS:X soundbar with built-in Dirac Live room correction. What’s important about Dirac Live is that it works to improve not just the bass performance that’s most affected by room modes in a listening space (see our Home Theater Week feature, How room correction upgrades your home theater sound, for more info) but the full range of sound, resulting in cleaner bass and clearer dialogue.
Klipsch’s launch of the Flexus Core 300 ($999) was one of the highlights of CEDIA Expo 2024. The 5.1.2-channel soundbar sounded fantastic in a 7.1.4-channel demo along with the company’s Flexus SURR 200 surround speakers, a new model with up-firing drivers, and SUB 200 subwoofer (total system price: $1,800).
The Core 300 soundbar comes with a limited-bandwidth version of Dirac Live, requiring an optional upgrade to get the full-bandwidth version. Unlike the company’s Flexus Core 200 soundbar, the new model supports Wi-Fi, Chromecast, and Airplay streaming. It also has an HDMI 2.1 input with 4K 120Hz support for gaming.
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al.griffin@futurenet.com (Al Griffin)
