HABITECH

MAKE IT REAL

StormAudio will deliver the quintessence of what is possible in high-end home cinema

The doyen of jaw-dropping immersive ambience, StormAudio fits perfectly at the high-end of Habitech’s home cinema offering says product manager Stewart Day.

You wouldn’t bring a peashooter to a gun fight, so why would you contemplate using anything other than StormAudio to get the immersive best from your home cinema design. Uniquely, StormAudio can give you state-of-the-art 32 channel processing with up to 20 PEQs per channel for the leading immersive formats, as well as the entire Dirac repertoire - auto and manual, HDMI 2.1 support, the most versatile zonal bass management capabilities, modular upgradability, audiophile sound quality, multiple third-party automation control options and enough power to achieve reference levels in the largest spaces - all with radically intuitive web-based set-up and control from PC, iOS and Android apps. Long and short, StormAudio hands you the power to boss the space with unrivalled ease and in the shortest time possible. Mission accomplished!

OUTSIDE THE BOX, INSIDE THE SPACE

If you didn’t know, the brand has played a trailblazing role in the evolution of immersive audio. Long before Auro Technologies and Dolby had revolutionised the experience of sound in commercial theatres, StormAudio’s founders were developing the first immersive AV receiver, dubbed ‘Auriga’. And when Auro Technologies acquired StormAudio, those formative skills were focussed on shaping the future of objectmapped formats in the home. In other words, StormAudio can claim to have influenced the course of immersive audio thinking – far more than any rival. Building on this knowhow, its DSP wizards have created a processing platform that wrings every last drop of immersive essence from today’s object-based formats to deliver the most astonishing audio experiences with peerless versatility and convenience.

What’s more, huge investment in R&D allows the company to offer new technologies such as its StormXT channel expander or flexible bass management, and gifts it with the ability to quickly incorporate evolutionary tech enhancements. Simply put, StormAudio has rewritten the rulebook on immersive performance and configuration, and futureproofed the capability.

POWERFUL MODULARITY

Take a look at the flagship ISP Elite processors from the back and you’ll appreciate the scope of this key StormAudio advantage. In stark contrast with any competitor, StormAudio can offer 32ch XLR connectors on a back panel, or 32ch AES/EBU outputs, or AES67/Dante with 32ch inputs and outputs. No other rival offers 32 outputs of AES/EBU (with the +32 Digital AES/EBU module): competitors are limited to 16, forcing a mix of digital and analogue outputs in larger configurations. And the provision for 7 in / 2 out HDMI with HDCP 2.2, 18 Gbps, 4k UHD on all ports, supporting HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision (with HDMI 2.1 upgrade coming early this year), completes an unrivalled range of options. Buy what you need. Upgrade when necessary. Protect your investment.

PEERLESS RELIABILITY

Unlike its main rival, which runs its complete firmware stack on a PC Intel based platform, cramming control, decoding and postprocessing processes into a single software system sharing the same resources, StormAudio’s processors use multiple DSP chips, each dedicated to individual tasks. Decoding of Dolby Atmos up to 13.1.10, DTS:X Pro 13.1.10 and Auro-3D 7.1.6 is performed by a TI DSP; calibration uses Analog Devices DSPs; post-processing/up-mixing is through further Analog Devices DSPs, and the proprietary OS runs on an ARM processor. This means that an issue within a single process cannot freeze the system, and boot times are rapid: 25 seconds at first boot and 8 seconds from standby, compared with over a minute on the rival system, which has no fast boot option.

MULTIPLE ZONES

Through a leap of design logic, each output can be used either for a cinema speaker, as an active crossover element (up to 4 way), or to feed another zone. In fact, StormAudio is the only brand that allows you the freedom to allocate the available outputs to multiple cinemas and 2ch rooms. For instance, with a 24ch processor you can set up a 7.2.4 home cinema with 3-way active crossovers for the LCR speakers (using 3 outputs for each speaker) and use the remaining 5 outputs to manage 2 stereo zones and 1 mono zone - plus 1 stereo zone with the Zone 2 output. Each of these zones can be uber-calibrated to the finest degree manually or by using Dirac Live.

THE FULL DIRAC

Dirac Live’s unrivalled power and simplicity make it the obvious choice for automatic room calibration on StormAudio’s ISP Elite MK2 and Core 16 processors. For relative beginners, a simple button press delivers great results. But there’s more. The ‘Dirac Live Bass Control add-on’ functionality on both platforms uses sophisticated machine learning to analyse the behaviour of any speaker type, automatically smoothing bass reproduction in the crossover region and offering flexibility in the placement of any number of subs to optimise system response in-room. In 2020, StormAudio was the first to implement the add-on feature and is still the only manufacturer to support it for 32 speakers.

TWEAKERS’ PARADISE

Moreover, experienced tweakers will have access to unprecedented post-processing power from a range of manual settings and target curves. These include StormAudio’s Expert Bass Management of up to six bass zones with selectable bass routing, or ‘Sub-Theatre’ design, which allows installed cinema speakers to play a dual role in stereo systems sharing the same space. Create presets combining content, speakers used and calibration, and recall them at a touch via StormAudio’s iOS and Android apps, or through compatible home automation systems (Control4, Crestron, Savant, RTI, ELAN).

And to avoid silent speaker scenarios and quizzical looks from your customer, the ‘StormXT’ algorithm on the ISP Elite MK2 (optional on the Core 16) uses all the speakers available - regardless of Codec – preserving smooth audio transitions and spatial resolution in the process. While the main competitor offers a 3D remapping function to correct at a microphone capture position, the StormXT ambience expander extracts the diffused sound of adjacent speakers and sends a sensible ambience signal to all silent channels for a richer sense of immersion at every seat in the room.

EASIEST SET-UP AND CONTROL

Accessible from any web browser, the industry’s most intuitive and comprehensive set-up wizard is available through StormAudio’s configuration UI. It’s built with such impeccable logic that anyone familiar with AV UIs will find it a doddle to master. The wizard guides you step-by-step through initial set-up, speaker configuration, Dirac calibration and control configuration in as little as two hours. After that, the process of subjective fine tuning will take longer, but with so many parameters available to optimise, the outcome is bound to be glorious.

POWER PARTNERS

Especially so when driven by StormAudio’s partnering power units. The 16 channel PA.16 MK2, and 8 channel PA.8 each pack 3kW with high SNR and low THD into 3U spaces, and can be monitored through the StormAudio UI, providing system information such as temperature status and cooling control, enabling remote diagnosis, and simplifying your life. What’s more, the PA.8 can be bridged to 800W/4ch to deliver a flexible range of power permutations for any system, from a small 7.1 design to a large 13.X.10 cinema.

MAKE IT REAL

And if the above isn’t enough reason to partner with StormAudio, consider the fabled support available from our dedicated teams - we can even connect remotely to the processors to see what’s what! Clearly, StormAudio is the perfect complement to high-end installs of Wisdom Audio speakers in any configuration. For a smaller 7.2.4 installation, it will supply superior sound quality, reliability and ease of setup while offering peerless upgradability. For the largest spaces StormAudio will deliver the quintessence of what is possible in high-end home cinema, providing unlimited settings, active crossovers, personalised response curves and expert bass management. With all this firepower, and with the combined forces of StormAudio and Habitech as back up, you’re sure to hit every target on the path to audio nirvana.

Please contact the Habitech team for a demonstration.

‘Sub-Theatre’ tool assigns a dual role to installed speakers StormAudio offers up to 32ch output supported by the widest range of dynamic power options

Expert Bass Management allows for multi-zone bass routing

With peerless modularity you can buy what you need and upgrade when necessary to protect your investment

Habitech habitech.co.uk

DESIGNED WITH PUBS IN MIND

MHUB S is whole-venue TV and sound with clockwork automations and app control as HDANYWHERE explains.

In the period between 2010 and 2020, the UK saw a decline of pubs with businesses failing on average by 15% (Source: House of Commons Library, Pub Statistics 21st May 2021). Covid aside, there are other factors at play here - with the price of an average pint costing £5 these days, the requirement to make a pub, bar or venue stand out has never been more important. Arguably, one relatively easy way to enhance any venue is an upgrade of the AV on offer. Gone are the days when a TV hanging off the wall with cables dangling underneath, crappy pictures easily; spec’ing any venue is only two SKUs, installation is no different to installing any other MHUB system and control (already used by tens of thousands of MHUB owners) can be taught in a single demonstration to even the most old-school of pub landlords/ladies.

The best part is that if you specify MHUB S in your next pub or commercial project and use our standard control you’re likely to come out the most competitive too with savings approaching almost 50% compared with video over IP installations of the same size.

The clubhouse at Malvern Town FC is using MHUB S and MHUB AUDIO for video + audio distribution

and (even worse!) sound would have met the bar, ahem, pardon the pun! The millennials and generation x’ers who frequent these establishments require more in every regard: better selection of drinks, better ambience, great vibes and importantly, better AV.

MHUB S AS A SERIOUS CONTENDER

HDANYWHERE can’t improve the vibes or the beer but one thing we can definitely do is improve the AV and we can do this relatively

HDANYWHERE ARE UNMATCHED

HDANYWHERE has an enviable track record of reliable installations in entertainment and hospitality venues around the globe, uses tried and tested technologies, have truly unique products like MHUB S that are the easiest to install and maintain and are the only brand that offers the value of a distribution and a genuinely capable and field-proven control system, all for the price of just the distribution system.

The responsive Support team is available to help spec and support projects to assist you in ensuring correct product selection, minimum installation time and overall peace of mind, before, during and after installation.

Get a quote for your system today: HDANYWHERE.COM/mhub-s

Easy operation from uControl, free with every MHUB

HDANYWHERE is our go-to brand for installs like pubs and bars. From one system I get control over video and audio. It’s a no-brainer really.

Greg Starkins - Apex AV - The Prince London