(July 29, 2019) StormAudio is the keeper of cool. Not only does the company have one of the best names in the business, it also has a fleet of drool-worthy amps and processors that carry enough presence to power nearly any home theater setup to dizzying heights.
Recently, StormAudio revealed a new trick up its sleeve: a modernized HDMI card designed to bring current and past models up to speed with current cutting-edge AV demands. Developed solely in-house, Storm says this “HDMI 7+2 eARC” card will be publicly revealed at CEDIA 2019 as part of a system featuring products from Seymour-Screen Excellence, Alcons Audio, and M&K.
As the name indicates, the new card offers seven HDMI inputs (and two outputs) standing as gateways to upgraded video performance, including full 4K 18Gbps bandwidth and compatibility with both Dolby Vision and HDR10 High Dynamic Range standards. And while the card isn’t technically HDMI 2.1 capable, it does offer eARC audio performance which allows for audio return channel activity involving immersive sound codecs.
StormAudio says the HDMI 7+2 eARC card is the result of collaborative engineering involving its France-based product development team and an undisclosed circuit board manufacturer. This development arrangement gave the company full control over card's performance capabilities, including streamlined switching times and compatibility with all HDMI sources.
According to Gary Blouse (StormAudio’s US Sales Manager): “Manufacturers are often at the mercy of vendors, having to accept ‘off-the-shelf’ HDMI cards that deliver less than optimal results. Given the newest formats and associated demanding performance specs, this simply would not do. Since coming to market in 2016, top designers and acousticians have identified StormAudio as having something truly special to offer with key attributes being sound, ease-of-programming and upgrade capability, evidenced by our processors and amps being featured in the 2019 CEDIA Home Technology Professional Awards competition, which recognizes the best custom-installation projects completed this past year. With this new card, our processors continue the innovation and rise to the top as the most performance-rich whilst easiest to deploy and upgrade.”
The HDMI 7+2 eARC card will be integrated into new production StormAudio models while also being offered as an upgrade for previously manufactured 4U StormAudio processors.
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