Home Cinema Insight | Genesis Technologies Home Cinema Solutions
Experience Matters
Neil Davidson , MD of Genesis Technologies UK , explains how he has used his comprehensive cinema knowledge to create a brand portfolio that ensures dealers can deliver the finest home cinema experience to their clients .
“ Genesis Technologies UK has always focused on delivering solutions ”, explains Neil , “ We want our dealers to always remember that the client is investing in an overall entertainment experience in their home cinema . “ In our industry it is all too easy to forget that , for the client , this experience is about a lot more than just the technical components .”
Neil believes that the emphasis in selling cinemas has become skewed : “ Six years ago there were few guidelines as to what a cinema should be , dealers made a judgement call . Then CEDIA introduced Home Cinema Design standards documents and the Home Cinema Design Specialist certification . I worked extensively on those documents and taught all of the original Home Cinema Design Specialist classes . At the time , this was a total game changer as for the first time we could say a cinema was technically either ‘ right ’ or ‘ wrong ’.
“ However , having standards had an unintentional impact . Manufacturers , especially of speakers , were quick to recognise the sales advantage of a solution that met the technical specification – in speakers the peak SPL is common . These numbers don ’ t tell you much about the product though . For example , we can make sure the cinema is outputting 120db , but does the cinema actually ‘ sound ’ good ? This has created a worrying trend that focuses only on product specs instead of creating experiences that make each customer happy ”
Neil adds : “ It ’ s easy to forget what we are creating here are ‘ home ’ cinemas . Just as in every other room in the home ; form and function naturally must have equal importance . Getting the right wall finish is normally just as important to the client as it is to get the AV correct . One of the biggest challenges for our industry is that no brand has become synonymous with a great total home cinema experience , although groups like IMAX and ICE Cinema are trying to change that .”
Creating The Experience
Neil has spent several years creating a portfolio of brands and in some cases created new concepts to offer what he feels are the best choices for creating genuinely bespoke cinema experiences .
Neil explains : “ It is critical that our dealers understand that on the technical side , we have that covered . My experience and the brands we are working with mean that each time we create a cinema ; it will perform to all the technical specs needed . Critically however , we work with brands that deliver performance beyond the raw numbers to create an experience that will surpass what the customer is expecting .”
For speakers , Genesis Technologies UK offers the complete line of MSE Audio brands and in particular the Phase Technology line of speakers .
Neil explains the choice : “ For performance cinema we always focused on using controlled directivity speakers to closely focus the sound on the listening position . However , the introduction of immersive sound formats , such as Dolby Atmos , flipped this requirement on its head . Genesis Technologies UK installed the first immersive home cinema demonstration room in Europe and we have been wrestling with the technical challenges these introduce ever since . My conclusion is that these systems need wide horizontal AND vertical dispersion for the best results and horn loaded speakers and line sources are simply not designed for this .
“ We revaluated what the best approach was and it was clear that we needed to update our portfolio to match our requirements . It became obvious that in fact dome speakers would be the best match to our requirements and so we turned to Phase Technology . Amazingly , PhaseTech is the company that invented the soft-dome tweeter over 50 years ago and they have continued to pioneer the technology with the high-power soft domes used on many
22 | September 2016