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Volume 7, Issue 14 — July 29, 2010
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Welcome to another issue of rAVe HomeAV Edition! Below we have several stories, including my editorial, on where consumers are getting their content from? Digital downloads and streaming are quickly taking over physical media like DVDs and Blu-ray, even faster than we thought. This is helped along by the ease of which customers can now access their favorite streaming sites, especially Netflix, but also Hulu, VUDU, Amazon Video On Demand, and others. Many hardware manufacturers are embedding access to these sites within TVs, Blu-ray players, even receivers! What do you think of this trend? Is Blu-ray going to be the last physical media that we see? Is it making your life harder or easier as an integrator? Email me at gary@ravepubs.com and let me know what you think. Enjoy the issue! –Gary Kayye, CTS Back to Top
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Streaming Video: I Love It! And, I Hate It!
By Gary Kayye, CTS  Two of the best things to happen to my home theater over the past couple of years are Netflix’s Watch Now feature and Apple’s AppleTV media player.
I love movies. And, I used to love Blockbuster. I’d love heading down the street and picking up a movie, popping it into the old VCR and, voila, I was transported into a galaxy far, far away, onto a boat being chased by a smart shark or in a classroom being taught by Robin Williams, no less. No matter your problems, movies immerse you in the story – even bad ones sometimes (e.g., Grown-Ups).
But, over time, Blockbuster, well, started to suck. They never seemed to have the movies that just came out and, when they did, if I forgot to return them the next day at the exact moment in time they deemed acceptable, I was dinged with a “late fee.” I once had a neighbor when I lived in California in the early 1990s who was a regional manager for Blockbuster and he told me that late fees was where Blockbuster was making all their money (that, and impulse purchases like candy).
Then came Netflix. What freedom! I could rent up to eight movies at a time and return them whenever I wanted. Freakin’ awesome! I throw some popcorn into my machine, crank on the theater and slip in the disc.
Damn it! Scratched again! Geez!
According to my Netflix history, 2008 was my last big year with them – a year I rented over 100 movies – I think 10-20 percent we scratched, however.
Then, I bought an AppleTV. Loved it! No scratched discs, no “loading… loading… loading…” messages from my Blu-ray player and instant movie watching – almost. Of course, I’d have to plan ahead of time, as I am sure you all know, because you’d have to download half of the movie before you started to watch it. But, hey, with Netflix I’d have to plan days in advance. What are a few hours?
But, then, when I’d hang with friends and we’d talk about movies we’d seen lately, I started to realize that those movies weren’t on my AppleTV. In fact, it dawned on me that virtually no Sony studio-owned movies were ever available on my AppleTV.
Ugh! So now I’m heading back to the theater to start watching movies there!!!
Damn it, the ICEE machine isn’t working at my theater now!!!
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CEDIA Members Save at CEDIA EXPO  There has never been a better time to be a CEDIA member. Save hundreds on your CEDIA EXPO 2010 experience just by registering early! Not a CEDIA member? Join now and receive member pricing on all education. CEDIA members can take advantage of unlimited CEDIA University courses at EXPO at one low price when they sign up for the $299 Members Only Education Pass. CEDIA members who register before July 30 get free tradeshow floor access.
CEDIA membership = savings. Take the time now and make the right moves to save hundreds later! Don’t wait – register now at www.cedia.org/expo.
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CEDIA EXPO Delivers Education on Hot Topics  CEDIA knows that HDMI is a huge issue for ESCs. Learn how to handle HDMI with the various offerings available at CEDIA EXPO. HDMI Troubleshooting will help attendees identify and resolve common HDMI/HDCP failures. Click here to learn more about this course.
For even more discussion on HDMI, join us for The HDMI Hot Seat panel. Attendees will learn how to better integrate HDMI into their system installations. Industry leaders will discuss HDMI integration issues, HDMI cables, and IP distribution as a viable alternative. Panelists will include Steve Venutti, president of HDMI Licensing LLC. Click here for more details on this and other CEDIA Technology Council Panels. All CEDIA Technology Council Panels are included in the $299 CEDIA University Members Only Education Pass.
Keep up with the fast pace of sub-system integration and convergence with CEDIA’s new comprehensive IP & Networking curriculum path. Six new or updated classes will provide you with the knowledge you must know about this technology and will also provide you with hands-on learning in the CEDIA University Learning Lab developed for IP & Networking. Most of the courses in the new IP & Networking path can be taken under the $299 CEDIA University Members’ Only Education Pass. Take new education and save! Not a CEDIA Member but want to join and save? Click here.
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CEDIA and HGTVPro Expose Professional ESC Installs to Home Enthusiasts  Beginning August 2, homebuilding professionals and anyone interested in home performance can visit www.hgtvpro.com/cedia to vote for their favorite home theaters, media rooms and integrated homes from CEDIA’s annual Electronic Lifestyles® Awards. Site visitors can tour these three categories of home technology and even drill down into each project for details like additional photos and descriptions about project goals and challenges. Visitors can vote up to 5 times a day for their favorite design in each category. Voting ends September 10 and the winners in each category will be announced at the CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles® Awards Banquet on Saturday, September 25.
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rAVe's Best of InfoComm Awards  This week, we announced our Best of InfoComm awards in our sister publication rAVe ProAV Edition. As many of you integrate some ProAV systems each year as well as play in the digital signage space, we’d thought you’d like to see the awards.
If you’re interested in seeing all the award winning products launched at InfoComm 2010 in June in Vegas, go to: http://www.ravepro.com/issues/2010/07/rpvol8iss14/index.html
And, of course, we’ll be awarding the best of the best at CEDIA as well. So, look out for our rAVe Best of CEDIA Awards in October 2010!
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Connected TVs Shipments Surge, 119 Million in 2014  The TV market enters a new phase, as connected TVs hit mainstream. According to the latest DisplaySearch Quarterly TV Design and Features Report, Internet connectivity has emerged as a key feature in TVs this year.
The report notes 55 percent of TV models available across Japan, North America, Europe, China and India have Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) capability. Overall, this is 45 million connected TV sets, or 19 percent of flat panel TV shipments in 2010. DisplaySearch forecasts the connected segment to reach 119 million units in 2014, accounting for 42 percent of all TVs shipped worldwide.
DisplaySearch research also covers the progress made in the development of energy efficient TVs, as well as enabling technologies such as LED backlights, which are forecast to be in over 80 percent of LCD TVs shipped in 2014.
The report also includes details of key featuring of new 3D models launched by leading set makers. You can read it here: http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/quarterly_tv_design_features_report.asp
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Digital Download Overtakes Blu-ray for First Time  It’s not that Blu-ray isn’t finally racing along… it’s more the danger that digital download is sprinting faster and is threatening to permanently overtake Blu-ray in the future. Digital distribution platforms (streaming video) for home entertainment (including video-on-demand) outpaced Blu-ray discs in US consumer spending during the first half of 2010, passing the $1 billion mark for the first time, according to new figures released by DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group.
Electronic sell-through increased 37 percent year-over-year to $285 million between January and June, as video-on-demand (VOD) rose 19 percent to $865 million, for a combined growth of 23 percent to $1.1 billion. Sales and rentals of Blu-ray discs reached a combined total of $982 million for the six-month period. Blu-ray sell-through increased 84 percent year-over-year to $733 million during the half. Blu-ray disc shipments topped 77 million units in the first half of 2010, nearly double the number for the same period in 2009, according to figures compiled by Swicker & Associates on behalf of the DEG. Household penetration of all Blu-ray compatible devices, including set-top players, PC drives and PlayStation 3 consoles, now reaches 19.4 million U.S. homes. Overall consumer spending for the first half of 2010 in the home entertainment window for pre-recorded entertainment, which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital distribution, reached $8.8 billion, off 3 percent compared to the same period in 2009. Yet consumer transactions for home entertainment products were up 2 percent for the first half of the year, DEG says. Packaged media sell-through, which includes DVD and Blu-ray Disc, declined 7 percent year-over-year during the half. But the rate of decline slowed to 3 percent during the second quarter. Rental spending in USA was down nearly 5 percent to about $3 billion between January and June, says DEG (citing Rentrak Corp.’s Home Video Essentials). The trade group faults Movie Gallery store closures for the decline, noting that kiosk revenues increased 55 percent during the six-month period.
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HDbaseT Alliance New Spec Attacks HDMI  LG, Samsung, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Valens Semiconductor have formally launched the HDbaseT Alliance and Version 1.0 of the HDbaseT specification – yet another standard seeking to replace HDMI. Israeli startup Valens uses a DSP to handle distances of up to 100 meters over Category 5e cables with standard Ethernet connectors.
Unlike some other anti-HDMI alternatives, its technique can also carry up to 100 watts of power to drive a Blu-ray player or even an HDTV. The company claims HDBaseT can handle whole-home distribution of uncompressed HD video, audio, 100BaseT Ethernet, power over cable and control signals. It supports 1080p video as well as stereo 3D and 2Kx4K formats.
The alliance expects products compliant with its new spec to be available in the second half of 2010. The group is still developing a compliance program, logo and details of its licensing program. The alliance expects to launch the licensing program before the end of the year.
To read about the new HDbaseT, go to: http://www.hdbaset.org/
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Cisco Unveils "Home Energy Management System"  Cisco unveils a new "Home Energy Management System" that includes a 7” touch screen computer — what they say is their “first consumer gadget for the smart grid.” The Cisco Home Energy Controller will allow users to monitor their energy use device-by-device, react to changes in energy prices and automate energy use. For example, if appliances like dishwashers and lighting systems are wireless-enabled and intelligent enough to provide real-time data from a digitally networked power grid, customers could use the interface to set rules like dimming their lights during summer days when air conditioner demands drive up the cost. The initial per-household sum Cisco expects it will charge utilities for its home energy system (utilities will probably subsidize the devices via electric bills) is $900. In a partnership with Duke Energy, Cisco plans to first test the home energy management system in 100 households over the next 15 months before trying wider deployments.
Don’t control systems in the HomeAV market already do this?
To read more about Cisco’s initiative and to watch a video explaining it, go here: http://www.cisco.com/web/consumer/products/hem.html
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Extron Debuts HDMI Switchers  Extron’s started to ship the SW HDMI LC two and four input HDMI switchers with support for HDMI 1.3 (including data rates up to 6.75 Gbps, Deep Color, Lip Sync, and HD lossless audio formats) and HDCP compliance. The switchers support all HDTV rates including 1080p/60 with 12-bit Deep Color, and PC resolutions up to 1920×1200. Front panel LED indicators provide visual confirmation of signal presence and input cable equalization for each input compensates for cables up to 50-feet in length. One unique feature is that the switchers also supply +5 VDC, 250mA on the HDMI output, providing power for peripheral devices such as an Extron HDMI 101 cable equalizer.
The SW HDMI LC switchers are housed in rack-mountable 1U, half rack width metal enclosures and you can see all the specs here: http://www.extron.com/product/product.aspx?id=swhdmilc&s=0
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Philips Pronto's New Interfaces  If you’re into cars, you’ll love Pronto’s new UI (user-interface) design for their touch screen controllers. The new interfaces showcase a completely new look for Pronto controllers, with every last detail redesigned to fit the car theme. Five themes have been created, each modeling after a different brand of sports car, but for those integrators who really want to “rev it up,” the new interface builder includes a full image gallery, which allows integrators to build their own interface using the included buttons and backgrounds. The new interface includes various templates for the most commonly used control activities like multi-room lighting control, as well as HVAC and shade control. Two-way control is also possible for tuners and the HVAC system.
The new user interfaces are currently available for Pronto’s TSU9400, TSU9600 and TSU9800 and are available from the Pronto Professional website: http://www.pronto.philips.com/
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CHRISTIE Shows 4200-Lumen 1080p LCD Projector  The native 1920×1080 LWU420 projector uses a 3LCD-based system that’s capable of projecting 4200 ANSI lumens in a home theater application. Using some of the same technology designed for digital cinema applications, the LWU420 uses a 330-watt NSH lamp (2000-3000 hour life) and is compatible with HDMI 1.3a.
You can see all the specs at: http://www.christiedigital.com/AMEN/Products/ChristieLWU420.htm
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DPI Launches 7500:1 Contrast Ratio 1080p LED Projector  Boasting a 700-ANSI lumen spec, the new dVision 30-1080p LED is a 10,000-hour, DLP-based LED projector from Digital Projection that claims a 7500:1 contrast ratio. It’s native 1920×1080, uses 10-bit color processing, is HDMI 1.3a capable and includes horizontal and vertical lens shift for retrofitting to any install.
To read all the specs, click here.
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For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe HomeAV Edition out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100% opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the high-end HomeAV industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
Don’t like us, then go away — unsubscribe! Just use the link below.
To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter – instead, write directly to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial ideas: Editor-in-Chief Sara Abrons at sara@ravepubs.com
A little about me: I graduated from Journalism School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where I am adjunct faculty). I’ve been in the AV-industry since 1987 where I started with Extron and eventually moved to AMX. So, I guess I am an industry veteran (although I don’t think I am that old). I have been an opinionated columnist for a number of industry publications and in the late 1990s I started the widely read KNews eNewsletter (the first in the AV market) and also created the model for and was co-founder of AV Avenue – which is now known as InfoComm IQ. rAVe Publications has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition.
rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004.
To read more about my background, our team, and what we do, go to https://www.ravepubs.com Back to Top
Copyright 2010 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 210 Old Barn Ln. – Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – 919/969-7501. Email: sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe HomeAV Edition contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |
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