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I C O S - H C 4

Despite the continually improving quality of audio-video (AV) recordings, the home cinema market is littered with"plug and play" units of mediocre performance. These "AV processors/controllers", overflowing with gadgets and electronic switching circuits, ruin all hope of the satisfactory sound reproduction which is a necessary condition for a full appreciation of the miracle of a cinema in the home. Yet the complete separation of the home cinema system from your existing system is unnecessary. The AV sections should simply be connected in parallel so that the additional circuits do not interfere when the system is used in the audio-only mode; and the AV signals should be handled with the same rigour used for hifi electronics. To further this aim, we have developed a novel controller, connected in parallel to our standard audio systems along with a range of upgradeable electronics adaptable to any required configuration. One particular configuration is aimed at users who want to retain the full quality of their existing system in AV mode: the ICOS HC4 controller specifically designed for selecting AV inputs. A recoding is performed so that the primary hifi system is used as the principal AV component. This is in contrast to the usual approach where the existing system's role is limited to the front lateral channels and the addition of a central loudspeaker is required. In this way all of the mono signal, present both on the "dialogue" (centre) and "music" channels, is extracted and used to drive, in mono, the primary system whose speakers are placed on either side of the screen. Four effects speakers reproduce the (purely lateral) front, back, left and right effects channels. Since 80% of the overall sound is mono, in this way, the home-cinema system fully retains the tonal and dynamic qualities of the primary hifi system, while providing a sound that is perfectly coherent with the image.

In audio mode, the primary system, either an ICOS 3-band or 5-band system, is completely separated from all external switching or processing. In AV mode any one of the 4 AV inputs (one of which can be a 5 or 6-channel coded signal) can be switched through the AV controller/decoder. The dialogue channel is added to the mono part of the music channel and sent, as pure mono signal, to the primary system which requires no readjustment. The major (80%) part of the overall sound is handled by the primary system which therefore reproduces the sound with all the innate quality of timbre and power of a first rate hifi system - hence the superiority of this approach over the standard techniques. The purely stereophonic signals, left and right, are sent to two front effects speakers and the rear, left and right signals are sent to two rear surround speakers. The music signal corresponding to these 4 channels represents only 20% of the overall sound level and therefore requires little power in typical domestic use. On the 3 surround inputs the rear signal is processed and decompressed to adapt it to the system. On the 5 or 6 channel input, the signal from a DVD player or external decoder, is taken "as is". The ICOS HC4 decoder/controller can simultaneously switch 4 S-VHS inputs to one S-VHS output equipped with a high-quality video amplifier. The 4 surround outputs have built-in 15W integrated amplifiers or can be used to drive a more powerful external amplification module if necessary.

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I C O S - 9 0 0 0 A V

The ICOS 900AV is a modular AV decoder/controller which allows the selection of 9 sources to be sent to one or more amplifiers and provides an optimised power supply to all of the video outputs. Four pure audio inputs are available and can be chosen with any sensitivity, response characteristics or connector types: e.g. asymmetric or symmetric, microphone, MM or MC, cinch or RCA. The five AV inputs can be chosen as either surround or multichannel (e.g. externally decoded AC3 or DTS). The operating mode can also be chosen: either the standard 6 audio output channels (with one central and one bass) or the ICOS mode which gives preference to the central message and recodes 4 effects channels. In this latter case, the stereo inputs make direct use of any available surround information without the use of an external decoder. All inputs and outputs are on specialised interchangeable boards with gold plated connectors.

I C O S - 8 0 1 5 A V

A very high quality modular amplifier built around the ICOS "amphifiltre" (combined active amplification and filtration) principle. Each 80Weff, drop-in amplifier module contains a user selectable bandpass filter which can be operated in either an active or passive filtering mode. The casing can house up to 6, actively filtered, amplifier modules of 80Weff each and a special module containing 4 lower power (4x15W) integrated amplifiers for driving the effects speakers. The inputs and outputs are modifiable and available in all standards (symmetric, asymmetric, cinch, sub-D connector inputs and banana plug or Speakon loudspeaker outputs). The ICOS 8015 can be used to amplify up to 10 separate channels, thus making possible a home AV combination of multi-band amplified primary loudspeakers and satellite effects speakers. When particularly high sound levels are required, more powerful effects speakers can be included by adding a second ICOS 8015 unit giving a total of up to 12x80Weff amplification channels.

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I C O S - M E D I A- 3
I C O S - M E D I A- 5

These floorstanding column loudspeakers have been designed specifically with the ICOS AV system in mind, their characteristics being determined, above all else, by the requirements of music reproduction. In the AV configuration, their special shape ensures an excellent centring and vertical imagery of the dialogue signal. The inclusion of additional speakers in the cabinet sides for reproduction of the front side effects and of a large subwoofer unit makes the use of further speakers unnecessary and leads to a truly remarkable home cinema sound system based on only two frontal loudspeakers.