For the third annual Home Theater Cruise, a very prestigious group of 400 Home Theater professionals and enthusiasts from around the world enjoyed a wonderful week at sea in the Caribbean while attending an intense series of high level conferences by industry specialists. Mixing business and pleasure, the group also had the opportunity to see local sites as well as a spectacular live Concert on board by "The Alan Parsons Project" .
Below are just a couple of photos to whet your appetite among the more than 100 in our Special Report coverage like the one we did for the previous edition. You will also be able to enjoy full coverage in the upcoming issue of WideScreen Review.
Animated by Home Theatre specialists, the extensive conference agenda, as you will see in detail below, focused on the new technologies and gave everybody an excellent opportunity to exchange their views, opinions and know how.
Between conferences, the cruise offered the participants wonderful occasions to "unwind" and to discover several magnificent locations : ( Orlando , Jamaica , Haiti , Cozumel …).
And after the sun set on the horizon, the long days' work gave place to evenings filled with special events sponsored by the major partners (DTS, Runco , D-Box , Stewart…). THE event in this years' event was the live concert by "The Alan Parsons Project" .
As we were there again this year, we can only just confirm what a couple of the participants have said about this year's event :
"Absolutely the best "Bang for the Buck!" The Home Theater Cruise combines knowledge, experience, fun and great insights in all the related technologies!"
"It is rare to have so many industry movers and shakers all in one place at one time...and what a wonderful place it is!"
To be one of the very "Happy Few" next year, reservations for 2005 should already be on all of our agendas !
Click here to connect to the Official Website of the Home Theater Cruise .
Click here to see all of the pictures of our extensive Special Report on the Home Theater Cruise 2004 .
HOME THEATER CRUISE 2004 CONFERENCES& MAJOR EVENTS:
-Everything you need to know about Home Theater
Gary Reber (Widescreen Review)-How to choose a display
Joe Kane ( Joe Kane Productions), Pat Bradley (Video Calibration Consultant), William Bleha (JVC), Ray Soneira (Displaymate), Ross Young (Display Search)-Optimizing display calibration
Joe Kane ( Joe Kane Productions)-Screen types and performance
Don Stewart (Stewart FilmScreen)-Surround Music tracks : All about music tracks
Mike Sokol (Fits & Starts)-The Making of Lord of the rings DVD sountracks
Brant Biles (MiCasa Multimedia)-Surround Music Demos
Franck Filipetti (Ear Wacks Ldt) Michael Bishop (Telarc International) Alan Parsons (The Alan Parsons Project) Gary Mraz (Studio Voodoo)-Scene it DVD : Quiz session on films by David Bott (AVS Forum)
-Home Theater Acoustics
Gary Lemay (Home Acoustic Alliance ), Denis Erskine (Design Cinema Privee), Norman Varney (A/V Room Service)-Setting a new surround sound Standard
Brant Biles (MiCasa Multimedia), Robert Margouleff (Mi Casa Multimedia), Franck Filipetti (Ear Wacks Ldt), Michael Bishop (Telarc International), Mike Sokol (Fits & Starts), Gary Mraz (Studio Voodoo), Rick Dean (THX)-Battle of the formats : HD DVD & Blu-ray (BD)
Amir Majidimerhr (Microsoft), Joe Kane ( Joe Kane Productions), Ben Carr (Walt Disney Pictures & TV), Richard Doherty (Panasonic / Blue Ray), Takashi Kubota (Toshiba / HD DVD)-Final Q&A Session
-Alan Parsons Project Live Concert : The Top of the Trip ! THE Concert sponsored Runco, D-Box & DTS
-Local excursions :
Cozumel, Mexico Labadee, Haiti Ocho Rios, Jamaica Orlando Florida Thank You Party & Auction in favour of the ELF Foundation :$51,300 was raised thanks to the generosity of the numerous sponsors :
Runco International, VX-1000d DLP projector with ISF calibration by Pat Bradley D-Box, Odyssey+ weekend trip to the world-famous 2005 Montreal Jazz Festival Yamaha, DPX-1100 projector Stewart Filmscreen, Monster Cable, Automatic Voltage Stabilizer AVS 2000 Faroudja, Denon, Epson, Samsung, TV Authority Anchor's Away. Cabin / stateroom on the 2005 Home Theater Cruise
Rob Robinson 's quip, “ I'm not happy with $45,000 ” resulted in a personal donation of a D-Box product pushing the total to over $51,000.