I first saw a Loring SmartRoast a few years ago at Terroir coffee. I just visited another local roaster with a new Loring. It is a fascinating hybrid drum roaster.
There are several features that make the Loring unique. First the drum is fixed with revolving paddles that agitate the beans. The heat application is not the typical burner under the drum. The concentrated burner is in a recycling system that also acts like an afterburner. Heat is gas generated and pipes through the roaster and is then cleaned through the burner and recycled again. A mostly closed system with low oxygen and high efficiency and low pollution potential. Unlike a typical drum roaster where new air is brought through the system and then cleaned through an afterburner and exhausted. Without the significant amount of new air being brought in, the effects of seasonal temps. and humidity are greatly reduced.
The roasts are nearly 100% low oxygen convection. Little radiant application from the typical heated drum. Even bean to bean conduction is very limited.
Temp. change is quick without the normal heated drum mass.
The control system is very impressive with automated repeatability.
The resulting roasts are very even with an extremely clean bean surface. With roasts into second crack you don't see the typical surface sheen of caramelized sugars and oils from conduction. You just get the typical spotting's of oils with time.
The Loring has similarities with my hybrid homebuilt and some of the other hybrid huge commercial roasters like those produced by Probat
These new roaster designs do gently produce a cleaner looking roast. Whether it is a better cup in all situations is debatable.
I hope to get more chances to hang out with the Loring and maybe do some cupping comparisons in the near future.

The following is all second hand info (except the COE tasting), but I thought you might be interested.

During a recent trip to Japan, I had the pleasure of speaking with a prior Japanese barista champion. We discussed the Loring roaster her company had recently switched to. I'm paraphrasing obviously, but she stated that a few customers noticed a change in the coffee when they switched and complained that it had lost some of its "smokiness" or some related descriptor. She explained that the Loring roaster allowed them to produce a very clean roast that allowed the coffee flavor attributes to really shine. Her company is one of the premier roasters in Japan, so you would think they were doing a pretty good job with the previous roaster. BTW, I had the 2010 #1 Nicaragua COE while I was at the roastery/cafe and it was simply amazing.

Michael