Following an introductory presentation from Meridian CEO, John Buchanan, the group visited the Meridian Product Evolution Collection, which showcases the company’s first ever loudspeaker, the M1, and the extraordinary-looking M10 loudspeakers. Des Ford, Technical Marketing Manager, then led a tour around the factory to see first-hand how the team assembles all its products. This reinforced the message that, rather than following much of the UK industry in outsourcing this element of manufacturing, Meridian continues to invest strongly in PCB assembly, inspection and test capabilities, all in-house.

Director of Sales, Barry Sheldrick, led the demonstrations in the media room and theatre. The group commented: ‘both AV installations were capable of producing impressive levels of bass. The “smaller” in-wall installation being particularly impressive in its ability to render low frequencies at high SPL with just three ten-inch drive units.

The demos didn’t stop there, with Barry also introducing the group to Meridan’s all-new DSP9 loudspeakers, the flagship DSP8000 XE and Meridian’s patented HPA (High Power Array) technology, which allows three loudspeakers to be used as a single sound source.

The group split at this point, with some continuing the DSP8000 XE listening session, whilst others opted to visit Meridian’s Automotive Lab. Here, Meridian is not only exploring the use of its high-end active loudspeaker technology for in-vehicle use, but also investigating the use of “haptics” – in which low-frequency components of the audio signal (typically 40-500Hz) are extracted, processed and fed to actuators which impart vibrations to the listener’s seat.

The day concluded with Steve and other members of the Meridian Engineering team presenting some of their recent research work. Chris Cotton, Graduate Research Engineer, opened this session with an interesting approach to room-correction equalisation (Meridian RE-Q Technology). Chris then presented his work into methods for quantifying apparent source width. Finally, Ethan Stanhope, Research Engineer, discussed in greater detail the haptics work that had been demonstrated earlier that day.

Mike Turner, 2023 Chair of UK AES Section Committee commented:

“Thank you very much for your time and hospitality during the AES visit to Meridian. I know I speak for all the attendees in saying that it was a fascinating, informative and most enjoyable day, with many impressive products, facilities, people and technologies on display. Really nice to see a UK-based facility investing in the future of our national electronics industry.”