CE Pro July 2021 - 51

SPONSORED CONTENT
3 Big Questions for WyreStorm Addressing
Developments in HDMI 2.1, eARC, WFH Solutions
James Meredith of WyreStorm discusses upcoming changes related to the deployment of
HDMI 2.1, eARC and Work From Home solutions.
T
he pandemic certainly exacerbated
growth in both the
multiroom AV and home office
markets, and WyreStorm is one
company well positioned to
offer solutions for integrators.
Integration Controls, founded
by Jeff and Jamie Briesemeister,
has always focused on
bringing design-friendly home
automation to its clients.
James Meredith, Sales Manager
at WyreStorm, says the markets are changing rapidly and integrators
need to stay abreast of the latest developments. Meredith
spoke with CE Pro's sister publication Commercial Integrator editorial
director Jonathan Blackwood and answered three big questions
about the market.
CE Pro: What is happening with HDMI 2.1?
James Meredith: We're still right at the beginning of the HDMI2.1
journey. WyreStorm knows that our customers are going to need
means to distribute that signal more than the 3 to 5 meters that you
could possibly get over a copper cables. So we had ready for the launch
of the new Playstation and XBox our active optical cables for HDMI
2.1 and that enable people to send up to 15 meters. With the HDMI
2.1 signal, you're dealing with a huge amount of data. It's up to 48
gigabits per second of data that we're sending down those cables. We're
looking into more technologies and we're waiting for the silicon to
come out so that we can support it over Category cable.
We've got really big plans for elements of HDMI 2.1 within
other products as well, perhaps not every single feature of HDMI
2.1 yet, but as those technologies become available we will always
be right at the forefront.
CE Pro: In the same vein, everyone's been talking about
ARC. What is WyreStorm doing with ARC and eARC?
Meredith: We've supported ARC on a matrix for a long time. This
year more than ever is the importance of eARC, the enhanced Audio
Return Channel. A lot of our matrix products are HDbaseT extenders.
Our active fiber cables that I just mentioned have supported
ARC for a long time and we've seen a lot of people using those.
This year, more than ever, almost every screen has got smart features
where people are watching content streamed with Dolby Atmos sound,
and they want to be able to get that back so their AV receivers in the
cupboard. We've got the ability to do that on our new HDMI 2.1 fiber
cables, but the product I'm really excited about and that we've had in
development for quite a long time
now is the eARC extender set.
This is going to be a
100-meter over Category cable
extender set, which is going to
give people the ability to finally
get completely uncompressed
audio content back to the AV
receiver over Category cable. I
think it's going to be one of one
of the very first products on the
market to do that. We've been
able to do that by utilizing some of the technology that we developed
along with the SDVOE in our AV-over-IP products. So it's
going to be a really great hybrid of the technologies that comes at
a price point well below what people have traditionally thought of
for SDVOE products.
CE Pro: The last thing I wanted to ask you about was home
offices. They've really evolved in the past year and likely
will continue evolve as a lot of offices move to hybrid models.
Where does WyreStorm fit into the Home Office?
Meredith: This time last year we were just starting to have integrators
begin talking to us about AV systems for home offices. Previously, we
had one or two inquiries per year, but it certainly wasn't a common
experience to have integrators saying I'm doing a Home Office project
and I need to have multiple displays in the office or I need to have a
high-quality, unified communications system for the Home Office.
WyreStorm launched a range of switches and a year ago for people
who need to get multiple sources to multiple displays in the Home
Office. We also have our unified communications and video conferencing
kit product which includes a very high quality camera and
microphone system.
But we see more potential for home office growth, so we're going to
launch a range of products called WyreStorm Office that will include
unified communication products -- everything from camera and microphone
systems to individual Bluetooth microphone solutions that will
be very high-quality. They will be rechargeable so they're portable as
well, so people could take them out and about or just use them at home.
We also will launch a range of WyreStorm webcams.
We are expanding our portfolio using the technologies we've
developed for commercial spaces and bringing them to the Home
Office. I think it's a huge growth opportunity for our AV integrators.
It's amazing that from what has been a very difficult experience
for many people during the pandemic, these opportunities appear
for AV integrators.
www.wyrestorm.com
http://www.wyrestorm.com
CE Pro July 2021

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