If I had to pick a single obvious trend at this year's CEDIA Expo, it would be 2.35:1 anamorphic projection using an add-on anamorphic lens. At least five lens manufacturers were showing product, and all but a few projector manufacturers were featuring some sort of 2.35:1 anamorphic projection. (The fact that our October 1008 issue, distributed at the show, featured an article on this type of setup was a happy coincidence).

One of those manufacturers was Schneider. Shown here is its anamprphic lens in place over the projector's standard lens. Schneider anamorphic lenses start at $6700, including motorization. Schneider makes both the standard sled-type lens retraction mechanism and a unique swing arrangement, shown here and in the following blog.

I also learned at the show that Schneider has purchased ISCO, another German lens manufacturer. ISCO made the lens featured in that Home Theater article. The plot thickens.

Shown here is the Schneider anamorphic lens in its open position

Sony's new XBR8 series uses LED backlighting with local dimming. Shown here was a demo setup in which you can see a single cluster (of the many--number not specified which will be positioned behind the panel) of red, green, and blue backlights. The interesting feature here is the presence of two green LEDs. That's not so puzzling when you realize that in our HD color TV system the luminance signal is encoded with more green information than red and blue put together.

All the models in the Utopia line have segmented cabinets that can be adjusted to position the drivers in a semi-circular array, for equal distance to the listener. More on this below. I'm still trying to figure out how they might do this for a center-channel speaker (none was shown)--or indeed if it would make much difference with multiple listeners spread across a wide horizontal seating area. But it does make sense (though in complex, expensive way) in the vertical.

This crank, located in the rear of the third generation Focal Grande Utopia (above) is provided to rotate the separate driver cabinets to the correct angular displacement, dependent on the listening distance.

Now You Don't. This fold out home theater seat, for that overflow movie night crowd, Salamander Designs' Jump Seat Ottoman is a footrest by day and a chair by night. $1000 and up, depending on finish.

I couldn't find the keyboard.

For that safari-themed home theater come these tasteful acoustic panels from Auralex. Available in a wide variety of other floura and fauna prints.

On a little more tasteful note were a variety of acooustic absorbers, diffusers, and bass traps from MSR.

Integra has upgraded its DTC-9.8 pre-pro to the DHC-9.9 ($2000). The latter now includes Imaging Science Foundation's Certified Calibration Controls (ISFccc), which here provide separate high and low adjustments for red, green, and blue--for each input. The DHC-9.9 also adds THX Loudness Plus, Audyssey Dynamic Eq, and Audyssey Dynamic Volume. In case you were wondering, however, the DTC-9.8 cannot be upgraded to DHC-9.9 specs. All of these features will also be included in Integra's top two receivers, the DTR-8.9 and the DTR-9.9.

Remote control behemoth manufacturer Universal Remote Control is now offering control dimmers, lamp dimmers, and switches that work with a large number the company’s universal remote controls. The dimmers and such are made by lighting behemoth manufacturer Lutron specifically for URC. The system is ideal for single rooms (like home theaters) or small homes, and I’ve never seen a system in which it was so easy to program various lighting control scenes. It literally takes minutes and you’re done. Dimming switches are around $150 each, but there’s nothing extra that’s needed to make the remote controls work with the switches.

Aton’s HDR44 can take four HD (up to 1080p) or SD sources along with their associated audio signals (plus pass IR commands) and distribute them to up to four zones using dual Cat 5 cables. If that’s not enough for you, you can add a second HD router and expand the distribution up to eight zones; although four sources is still the limit. The $1,899 HDR44 Kit includes one HD Video Router, 4 surface-mount receivers, and a system remote control. Additional routers are $1,299.

At CES 2008, THX began talking about Media Director, a program that would get hardware and software to talk to one another via metadata, automatically running movies with the right audio and video parameters. THX is now assembling a database of 1000 popular movie titles, codenamed Aardvark, to assemble the metadata needed for each piece of content. And it's now using the HDMI Infoframe Analyzer, shown here, to test audio and video devices to ensure that they shake hands and exchange metadata with one another, sort of like digital beings swapping business cards in a bar.

Does LG's new BD-300 Blu-ray player do DTS-HD? Early product information had been vague on this point, with references to Dolby TrueHD but none to its DTS counterpart. Well, there is a DTS-HD logo on the player, so it must decode DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio. Without downconverting them to DTS Core, I hope.

B&W has added three models to its CM range of speakers: The CM9 ($1500 each) is now the largest of the two CM floor-standers, the CM5 ($750 each) now the largest of the two stand-mounters, and the CMC-2 three-way center channel ($1000). More on the intriguing center channel design below.

Here's the new B&W CM series center channel, the CMC-2. The big change here is the use of a vertically positioned midrange and tweeter, which is nearly always the best way to configure a center speaker, if you must use a horizontal design--and most of us do. The midrange here is also a new and exciting design; it's a smaller version of the surround-free (FST) midrange driver that's featured in many B&W models, including the new CM9 (above).

One was too big. One was too small. And the other one was just right.

Green is in this year at CEDIA (as it is everywhere), although I didn’t see anyone promoting converting a Toyota Prius into an install van.