European Custom Installer

ABB shows off a selection of smart home products at IFA 2019-- including the ABB-free@home Alarm-Stick and certified integration with Sonos using the ABB i-bus-- together with the open API platform allowing integration with 3rd party apps and solutions.

According to the company, the ABB-free@home platform sees almost 5 million components installed worldwide. The home automation system provides over 60 functions, and allows installers to integrate up to 150 devices per system. Both wired and wireless connectivity are available, and the new API allows expansion through 3rd party systems. A Geofencing function activates predefined scenarios when the homeowner enters or leaves a specific area, such as switching off all devices when all residents leave the building.

Grundig uses IFA 2019 to announce the Fire TV Edition-- a series of TVs including the first OLED TV with built-in Amazon Fire TV capability, available with or without far-field microphones allowing for voice control.

Based on "last generation" LG OLED panels with wide colour gamut and support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision, the Grundig OLED Fire TV Editions come in 55- and 65-inch sizes. Both feature a 10-speaker system able to output Dolby Atmos sound, while the Fire TV allows users to view both broadcast TV and content from a wide range of streaming services, including Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, ARD, ZDF, ProSieben, waipu.tv and more. The TVs also handle audio streaming from the likes of Amazon Music, Spotify and TuneIn.

The long-running rumours turn out to be true as Sonos announces the Move at IFA 2019-- a first portable, battery-powered speaker from the company featuring both wifi and Bluetooth connectivity.

Around 25cm tall and weighing 3kg, the Move promises to be tough enough to handle nearly everything the great outdoors can throw in its direction. The plastic casing is IP65-rated against water and dust, and features a built-in handle. Inside are two Class-D amplifiers pushing a single tweeter and a mid-woofer driver, with TruePlay tuning automatically tweaking the sound to adapt to the environment.

IFA 2019 sees Roku bring its self-titled TV operating system to Europe, starting with the UK as Hisense announces the Q4 2019 launch of TV models sets running on the software.

The Hisense Roku TV for the European market is a 65-inch model featuring 4K UHD resolution and HDR capability combined with the easy-to-use Roku OS complete with "thousands" of streaming channels. Roku TVs strip down the menus of smart TVs with a simple home screen showcasing all available content, including live programming, streaming movies or music, in one place. Control takes place using either simple TV remote or Roku mobile app.

McIntosh announces the MA352-- a second integrated amplifier from the company featuring a hybrid design bringing together both vacuum tube and solid-state audio design principles.

The all-analog design has a vacuum tube preamplifier section powered by a pair of 12AX7A and a pair of 12AT7 vacuum tubes. The output stage is a direct coupled solid-state amplifier outputting 200W per channel into 8-ohm speakers or 320W per channel into 4-ohm speakers, making double the output of the previous McIntosh integrated amplifier, the MA252. Dual scale blue Watt speakers give an accurate power output readout for both speaker impedances.