Cinema Partners-- the alliance bringing together dARTS Digital Theatre, Ineva Designs and DT Screens-- shows off a home theatre experience featuring best-in-class products at ISE 2018.

The demo room features a Dolby Atmos 9.2.6 setup running on precision-calibrated dARTS speakers and a DT Screens Frontier Fixed Frame projector screen with an AT Ref image surface. Audio comes through a 16-channel StormAudio ISP 3D.16 ELITE preamp/processor, while a Barco Orion projector provides the required images.

The dARTS Theatre system claims to be the most precise cinema speaker system around. It combines speaker drivers tuned to 0.5dB of one another with an intelligent amp providing up to 105dB SPL anywhere in the listening area. A custom version of Audyssey MultEQ software calibrates the speakers, resulting in sound matching a "precision-tuned movie theatre."

dARTS Theatre is part of the Cinema Parters experience at ISE 2018, bringing a home theatre experience "unlike any other" in the shape of a Dolby Atmos 9.2.6 setup.

Formed by dARTS, Ineva Designs and DT Screens, Cinema Partners will use precision-calibrated dARTS speakers, the DT Screens Frontier Fixed Frame projector screen with AT Ref image surface and high-end Ineva Designs seating, together with a StormAudio 3D.16 ELITE preamp/processor and a Barco projector.

“This experience is unlike any other because of the precise sound dARTS brings to a home theater,” says. “When combined with the stunning quality of DT Screens’ projection devices and the luxurious comfort of Ineva Designs, the Cinema Partners solutions bring a new level to the home theater experience.”

Oppo announces a firmware update for the UDP-205-- one adding MQA support to the flagship universal 4K disc player, allowing users to play music files encoded using the format via the Music app.

Post-update, the player can identify and decode files encoded with MQA, allowing owners to benefit from the full resolution of the studio-quality sound the format provides. Oppo plans to add further to the functionality, with MQA-CD compatibility and MQA decoding for the USB DAC and coaxial/optical inputs.

The UDP-205 carries a pair of ES9038PRO DACs, as well as a dedicated RCA/XLR output for stereo, coaxial and an optical digital audio output. Meanwhile the HDMI audio output port features a clock reduction circuit and a USB DAC.

The Marantz home cinema line-up gets a pair of additions-- the SR7012 network AV receiver and the AV7704, a multi-channel AV preamplifier/processor successor to the current AV7703.

The SR7012 is a 9.2-channel network AVR with 11.2 channel processing capability. It includes a 192kHz/32-bit digital to analog converter block with a clock jitter reducer for more precise and high-quality sound, while each channel provides 125W of power to drive a full 5.1.4 home cinema setup without need for additional external amplifiers.

Another addition is integration with the Amazon Home Entertainment skill, enabling voice commands through the Amazon smart assistant. Commands include power on/off, track skip and volume, among others. Meanwhile built-in HEOS technology allows users to enjoy music anywhere in the home through HEOS app, and wireless connectivity via Bluetooth and AirPlay allow streaming from any compatible device.

The leaked HomePod firmware remains treasure trove of potential future Apple device features-- the latest being developer Guilhereme Rambo's discovery of a reference to a 4K HDR display mode.

The HomePod lacks a display, and the only Apple devices with native 4K capability are the latest iMac models, suggesting the disovery pertains to the Apple TV. In addition, Rambo discovered strings kCADisplayModeDolby and kCADisplayModeHDR10, suggesting a future Apple TV might even include support for the Dolby Vision and HDR10 colour formats.

Lending further credibility to such rumours is the fact Apple is listing select movies as 4K and HDR in the iTunes purchase history. This was discovered by MacRumors forum member Tomas Jackson, who shared a screenshot of his purchase history of the 2016 film Passengers. It lists as "Movie (4K, HDR)." However, as it currently stands the film can only be played in 720p and 1080p resolution, with no HDR.

Meridian announces the 271 digital theatre controller-- a means to allow installers to integrate any analogue or digital AV processor on the market with Meridian DSP (Digital Signal Processing) loudspeakers.

The 271 incorporates Meridian High Resolution (MHR) technology, and supports 16 channels of analogoue audio on any combination of single-ended or balanced input connections (RCA or 2 x 8 channel DB25 connectors). It offers 16 + 4 digital audio outputs on SpeakerLine connections/unbalanced RCA connectors for easy integration of Meridian DSP speakers with passive loudspeakers.

Meanwhile balanced digital input options support 16 channels of digital audio fed from processors from manufacturers including Trinnov, Datasat and Storm Audio (x2 RJ45 and x1 DB25). The 271 can also be integrated into an existing system with an IP controlled setup and configuration platform, as well as control modules for a number of 3rd party systems.