CEDIA COMMUNICATES
60 SECONDS WITH…
Rayner Sheridan Who are you? Rayner Sheridan, Director of Marketing for Meridian Audio. Where is your company based? Meridian Audio is based in Huntingdon, near Cambridge in the UK, where our manufacturing facility is also situated. In addition, we have sites in New York and Atlanta in the US. How did you get into the industry? I previously worked in the consumer durables and electronics sectors, but my passion for music and film led me into this industry and to Meridian. Which custom installation technology do you consider the most important today and why? There are two. Firstly, the User Interface (UI) – it is absolutely key. There’s no point in having the best technology installed if it’s not intuitive. If it’s not possible to easily understand how to use the system, then the overall experience is poor. Secondly, as music formats and distribution have evolved from CD, to download, and now to streaming and lossless audio, one constant has remained and that’s the importance of the loudspeaker. There’s no point in having a visually impressive installation, stuffed with the latest gadgetry, if the audio experience is only ‘good enough’ or worse. What do you consider your biggest achievement as a CEDIA member? From the very start, we’ve always been at the forefront of innovation and have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in high resolution music and video. Our development of active loudspeakers is well documented, but in addition, we’ve had some other notable achievements, including the launch of the Meridian 565, the world’s first Digital Surround Decoder in 1994. In the mid-2000s, we saw the integration of our MLP technology into Dolby True HD and Blu-ray, and in 2014
we launched our Special Edition range of loudspeakers. What’s the biggest issue for custom installation businesses today and how can they deal with it? We need to recognise that CI, as an industry and as a vocation, is still relatively young and needs to continue on its path of professionalization. We need to look at other professions, such as architecture and design, and see how they’ve grown and developed. A lot of great work has already been undertaken by CEDIA in terms of education and personal development to support this, but we mustn’t be complacent. If you could change one thing in the industry what would it be? A better representation of women. What’s your favourite album? Far too many to mention and it really depends upon my mood. AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and The Who are perennial favourites, but really, anything from techno through to country. Thanks to my daughter, I’m also very familiar with the soundtrack from Frozen. If you weren’t in the custom installation sector, what would you like to be doing and why? That’s a difficult one as I absolutely love my job and can’t imagine doing anything else. It would have to be something to do with music and technology, ideally with a Dodge Viper as a company car. What’s the best product that Meridian has launched into the CI market in the last year? Our DSP320 loudspeaker launched earlier this year. I am still blown away that a loudspeaker of that size (300mm square) is capable of producing such an amazing sound. Individually or as part of a larger system, the performance is stunning and it’s a real testament to the skill of our teams here at Meridian. The fact that these, like all of our
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There’s no point in having the best technology installed if it’s not intuitive
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other products, are designed and manufactured here in the UK makes me incredibly proud. What’s the next focus for Meridian? We are very serious about sound quality, it’s in our DNA, and we have a roadmap to evolve our Sooloos audio platform rapidly in a number of directions over the next 12 months. As well as a number of other product launches planned for the next 12-18 months, the most important focus for Meridian is the continued development of our Design and Specification Service. This dedicated team provides accurate and customised audio visual system designs for our Trade Partners, including two-channel, multi-channel and multi-room system designs for the home or marine environment. www.meridian-audio.com @MeridianAudio