Claim OwnershipInside CI Tech Talk - News, Reviews and Interviews
Subscribed: 0Played: 0
Subscribe
© 2026 Inside CI Tech Talk - News, Reviews and Interviews
Description
The Inside CI podcast is dedicated to the custom installation (CI) industry, offering an insider’s perspective on the technologies, trends, and personalities driving the world of smart homes and professional AV.
Through relaxed, in-depth conversations, the show connects listeners with industry experts, manufacturers, and installers to explore everything from cutting-edge home cinema and automation systems to business insights and real-world project experiences. Rather than surface-level news, the focus is on authentic discussions—unpacking challenges, innovations, and the thinking behind the products and projects shaping the market.
Each episode gives listeners a chance to hear directly from the people at the heart of the industry, making it valuable for professionals, enthusiasts, and anyone curious about how modern connected homes come together.
Whether you’re an installer, a tech brand, or simply passionate about high-end AV and smart living. The Inside CI Podcast delivers practical insight, industry knowledge, and genuine stories from inside the world of custom integration.
Are you a CI Insider?
Get involved hello@insideci.com
50 Episodes
Reverse
Send us Fan Mail A surprising amount of perfectly usable AV equipment gets tossed every year, not because it’s broken, but because the industry moves fast. At the CEDIA Tech of Business Summit, we sit down with Ian Morrish to talk about two ways the AV world can reduce waste and accelerate impact: Together for Cinema and GivingBack.tech. Ian shares what it looks like when our day-to-day tools become something bigger. Together for Cinema works with manufacturers, distributors, integrators, an...
Send us Fan Mail Your outdoor speakers worked fine last year, so why do they suddenly fail the minute the sun comes out? We get honest about the unglamorous side of custom installation: springtime service calls, weather exposure, amps that finally die after years in an outbuilding, and the kind of “you cannot make this up” issues that show up in garden audio systems. If you are planning backyard entertainment for summer or the World Cup, you will hear what actually matters for reliability, br...
Send us Fan Mail A studio build is fun, but the bigger idea is even better: we’re creating a place where the AV industry can actually talk like humans. We start with a quick walk-through of Studio One at our East Sussex head office, which will become part of a two-studio setup designed for unboxings, first looks, interviews, and reviews. It’s not finished yet, and we’re honest about that, but the direction is clear: make better, more useful content for systems integrators and AV professionals...
Send us Fan Mail Sign up for our weekly newsletter - https://linkly.link/2gPF0 You can tell a lot about an AV company by what they choose to demo and what they choose to hide. We’re back at CAVD Distribution in Marlow to see what’s changed since last time, and the answer is clear: they’ve rebuilt the showroom around systems that look and behave like real homes, not fantasy installs. Jamie and Mel walk us through how they think about momentum in a tough market, why “people buy from people” sti...
Send us Fan Mail Sign up for our weekly newsletter - https://linkly.link/2gPF0 A home cinema can be the most exciting room in the house, or the most frustrating, and the difference often comes down to choices that nobody sees: the right speaker approach, the right support, and a system that matches how you actually use your home. We’re back at CAVD Distribution in Marlow with Jamie and Mel to hear what they’ve changed since last year, how they rebuilt parts of the showroom, and what they thin...
Send us Fan Mail Sign up for our weekly newsletter - https://linkly.link/2gPF0 A home cinema business announcement turns into a full tour of what’s changing across UK AV. I’m sharing the news that I’m joining InsideCI as owner director, working alongside founder David Slater, with Steve May continuing to steer the editorial direction. If you rely on InsideCI for weekly trade news, reviews, and real installer perspective, the goal is simple: keep what works, add more video, more factory and sh...
Send us Fan Mail Sign up for our weekly newsletter - https://linkly.link/2gPF0 A lot of home cinema builds fail for one boring reason: they start with a shopping list instead of a design. From Meridian HQ in Huntingdon, we sit down with Barry to get into what actually makes a system feel cinematic, and why the “made in Britain, built-to-order” mindset still matters when you’re spending real money on audio. We go deep on Meridian’s DSP loudspeakers, where digital signal processing is not a bu...
Send us Fan Mail Sony is partnering with TCL for Bravia manufacturing. Panasonic is handing European TV production to Skyworth. Barco is moving to acquire Focal and Naim. If those headlines made you stop scrolling, you’re not alone, and we wanted to talk through what they could actually mean for premium home cinema, custom installation, and the screens and sound systems we put in real homes. We’re recording in a new remote format, so you get more frequent “what we’re seeing right now” ...
Send us Fan Mail AudioControl just drew a bold new map for high-end home theater, and we walk through what it means for anyone building serious cinema rooms or installing them for clients. I’m Ron, and I’m breaking down the company’s Hyperion series, a new lineup that blends decades of audio engineering with modern video handling and networked audio thinking. The headline is clear: Hyperion is designed as an ecosystem that aims to deliver accurate, immersive sound while making complex install...
Send us Fan Mail A great home cinema is not a shopping list. It’s a chain of decisions, from the room and the wiring plan to calibration and long-term support, and one weak link can ruin the magic. From Rayleigh, Essex, we walk through Monitor Audio’s brand-new Experience Centre and ask a simple question: how do you make high-performance sound repeatable for real homes, not just show demos? We’re joined by Michael Johnson to unpack why this 6,000-square-foot facility exists, how the lounge, ...
Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered why some systems make you forget specs and just feel? We sit with Steinway Lyngdorf UK’s Charlie and Simon to unpack the craft behind statement audio: the brand partnership with Steinway that lends instant cultural weight, the all‑in‑house engineering that keeps signal paths pure, and the calibration smarts that let a system sound like itself in any room. From Essex hi‑fi rivalries and car‑culture origins to a world‑class showroom, their journey explains a sales...
Send us Fan Mail What turns a room with a big screen into a place where stories breathe and families gather? We take a clear-eyed look at what “home cinema” really means today, separating design-led experiences from out-of-the-box shortcuts and explaining how to get immersive results without wasting budget. We start with the blueprint: seat-to-screen distance, viewing angles, and speaker locations. Those decisions shape everything—from soundstage precision to the punch of bass and the clarit...
Send us Fan Mail A global TV shake-up rarely feels this clear: Panasonic is partnering with Shenzhen Skyworth Display Technology to gain manufacturing scale while guarding the crown jewels—AV processing, quality assurance, and premium performance. We break down what shifts, what stays the same, and why this move reframes competition without diluting Panasonic’s high-end identity. We walk through the core structure of the partnership, the regional rollout strategy, and how responsibilities ar...
Send us Fan Mail Bright rooms, big screens, and bold colour—our latest Tech Talk breaks down Optoma’s UHZ78LV, a triple‑laser projector aimed at people who want theatre scale without turning off the lights. We dig into what 5,000 lumens actually delivers in a living room, how RGB laser light helps sustain saturation and contrast, and why wide colour coverage up to 96% BT.2020 and 98% DCI‑P3 matters for modern HDR movies and streaming. We walk through premium format support—Dolby Vision, HDR1...
Send us Fan Mail Ceiling audio that installs faster, covers more space, and welcomes everyone—this conversation with Amit at ISE 2026 puts a spotlight on practical innovation. We walk through an 8-inch Bluetooth and Auracast ceiling speaker with a built-in 60 W RMS amp that can broadcast a master signal up to 100 meters, creating a mesh of receivers across the room. That broadcast advantage isn’t just about effortless background music; Auracast allows compatible hearing aids and earbuds to tu...
Send us Fan Mail What if your home cinema could shift from quiet, pin‑drop dialogue to a dance‑floor moment where vocals float overhead and drums punch from the walls? We sit down with Nick from L-Acoustics at ISE to unpack how polished showroom magic becomes everyday reality, and why usability—not specs alone—wins hearts in the residential space. We start with the pain point everyone knows: clients love a curated demo, but they need to understand how to live with it. Nick walks us through n...
Send us Fan Mail Crowded floor, brighter screens, and a surprising focus on simplicity—that’s what stood out as we walked the Sony stand with Adam Dover. We unpack how the new Bravia BZ Key Series and a thoughtfully positioned Crystal LED range push professional display quality while cutting setup time and reducing waste, all without losing sight of what clients actually see on the wall. We start with the big leap: XR processing arrives in Sony’s pro lineup, bringing AI-driven, frame-by-fram...
Send us Fan Mail What if the best-sounding speakers are the ones you never see? We head to the Amina stand with Matt to explore the Sapphire range of invisible speakers and the stealthy ALF 100 sub, which can disappear into plaster or sit quietly behind wood panelling. It’s a masterclass in design-first audio: slim panels that vanish into the surface, wide dispersion that fills the room evenly, and a finish so clean you’ll wonder where the sound is coming from. We dig into practical details ...
Send us Fan Mail Want a cleaner, smarter path to reference home cinema? We sit down with David to unpack the European debut of the Altitude CI and why a license-based, Dante-ready processor can save time, money, and headaches without compromising sound. Instead of locking projects into fixed channel counts, the CI scales in twos—start at eight channels and expand as rooms and ambitions grow. With analogue, AES, and Dante options up to 32 channels—and a Dante hardware variant supporting up to ...
Send us Fan Mail Big systems don’t have to mean big headaches. From the floor at ISE 2026, we sit down with Stephen Rhead to reveal how AMP Multi rethinks distributed audio for custom installers, bringing true flexibility, cleaner racks, and smarter control to projects that span from a single living room to sprawling multi‑zone estates. If you’ve ever juggled legacy ZP stacks or wrestled with fixed channel maps, this conversation shows a better way. We dig into the heart of AMP Multi: assign...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States