May 31, 2005 | Volume 2, Issue 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News Thank you to our sponsors of this issue: |
Introduction Editorial CEDIA News 2005 Dealer and Installer of the Year Feature Article
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Click above for more information
Introduction In the news this issue, Archos announced a 100-gigabyte model of the company’s digital media player. Even more impressive, you can use it to schedule TV recordings in advance – it automatically changes the channel just like TiVo does. This is awesome. Enjoy! — Gary Kayye, CTS
LCDs on Amazon? By Gary Kayye, CTS While everyone else is trying to hide the fact that Amazon and Costco are some of their largest retailers (i.e. Sony), virtually unknown Kreisen is plastering it all over the press… Yesterday, this came across my InBox (this is exactly as it appeared in my e-mail): "Striving to improve the visual experience in living rooms and conference rooms everywhere, Kreisen ( http://www.kreisen.com ), the manufacturers of quality affordable high definition television displays, today announced that its line of high definition (HD) LCD televisions is available immediately at Costco Wholesale Corporation ( http://www.costco.com ) and Amazon.com ( http://www.amazon.com ). Costco will showcase Kreisen’s flagship 40-inch and 37-inch models. The entire line of 17- to 40-inch displays is available to consumers online at Amazon.com." Is this a good thing to do PR on? At first, I thought not. But, the more I think about it, maybe it is. While everyone else is trying to hide the fact that Amazon and Costco are some of their largest retailers (i.e. Sony), virtually unknown Kreisen is plastering it all over the press. Good PR move, I think. But, is this good for the market? Gateway, now virtually non-existent in the Plasma market (and sinking in the PC market as of late) sold tons of cheap Plasmas to thousands of consumers a month. Then they disappeared. Remember GE's line of consumer TVs? Westinghouse? Believe it or not, they're back… Now, Dell is one of the fastest resellers of large LCD panels. Yep, in less than a year they've jumped 9 spots. This sort of competition, while it might look bad from the surface, is actually good in the core. It will force the ProAV and HomeAV market to focus on services and less on profits from product sales – something that's a dying art anyway. So, more power to you, Kreisen. But, buyer beware. I've been asking for a review unit from them for months and haven't seen anything. But, I've got a plan for that now. I'll pop on over to my local 7-11 down the street, have a Slurpee and have a look at their LCDs. CEDIA News The CEDIA Dealer of the Year Award will be given to the residential electronic system professional member of CEDIA who represents the best of CEDIA. You don’t have to have the biggest company to win. You just need to be one of the best that CEDIA has to offer. Entrants for the award are judged on eight criteria which include, company structure, professionalism, profitability, growth, recognition in the industry, service in the industry, service in the community and overall success. A panel of three judges who are each engaged in business, but not in the custom installation industry will judge all entries. The deadline for Dealer of the Year is Friday, June 3, 2005. The Dealer of the Year and Installer of the Year awards will be announced at the 2005 CEDIA Awards Banquet, Saturday, September 10, 2005. For guideline information and to register visit http://www.cedia.org/awards All questions should be directed towards Jamie Antcliff at jantcliff@cedia.org 2005 Installer of the Year The Installer of the Year award also known as “In the Trenches Award” annually recognizes a CEDIA installer who is the example of the person in the field who leaves a lasting impression on the consumer. The Past Presidents Council will review all entries and determine the winner. The deadline for Installer of the Year is Friday, June 3, 2005. The Dealer of the Year and Installer of the Year awards will be announced at the 2005 CEDIA Awards Banquet, Saturday, September 10, 2005. For guideline information and to register visit http://www.cedia.org/awards All questions should be directed towards Jamie Antcliff at jantcliff@cedia.org News Industry News 1. InFocus RearPro Technology Gets Import/Export Green Light From China A joint venture between South Mountain Technologies and China’s TCL Corporation received approval from the Chinese authorities for importing and exporting rear projection TV engines. The engines are based on the InFocus technology. SMT, as an OEM, will manufacturer and sell projection products to InFocus and TCL as well as other brand marketers in China and other nations. For more information, go to http://www.infocus.com/company/pressroom.asp?site_lang=1&site_region=1&id=1166
Projection 2. JVC Announces D-ILA Projector with HDCP JVC’s new DLA-HX2E projector is based on D-ILA technology, and is specified at 1500:1 contrast ratio using three 16:9 D-ILA chips for WXGA-plus (1400 x 768) resolution. The projector features DVI-D plug-and-play with built-in HDCP decoder. JVC now has five models of its D-ILA front projectors but this looks like the first JVC projector for the home to offer native 16:9. Pricing is to be announced. For more information, go to http://www.jvcproeurope.com/uk/pub/item/index_html?item=DLA-HX2E
3. Screen Goo Acrylic Paint Turns Walls Into Projection Screens
Screen Goo from Goo Systems lets home owners paint an acrylic finish onto a wall to make the wall suitable for projection. The home owner or systems integrator simply paints Screen Goo onto any smooth, paintable surface Screen Goo is available in nine variations for front projection, including a new digital grey coat. Goo Systems offers a product calculator to help buyers decide which to get – http://www.goosystems.com/index.php?cont=which Assuming it works as advertised, this is a great solution for small rooms. Screens will always provide the best solution but if users are on a budget, this is a great starter product. For more information, go to http://www.goosystems.com/index.php?cont=screen Displays 4. New Display Technologies Closer to Market Two technologies that have been in development for the last few years are finally getting closer to coming to market. Both OLED (organic light-emitting diode) and Carbon Nanotube (CNT) are now in prototype demonstrations.
OLED, which appears to be a bit closer to retail distribution, is now being shown by both Samsung and Seiko Epson, in 40-inch prototypes. Seiko Epson believes they can bring this to market by 2007. Samsung touts OLED as having a wider viewing angle, thing size (it’s a sheet), maximum brightness of 600 nits, black and white contrast ratio of 5000:1 and fast video response. The company expects TV designers to make OLED TVs with as little as 3cm thickness. For more on the Samsung OLED, go to http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20050519_0000123644 For a review of the Seiko Epson prototype, go to http://www.epson.co.jp/e/newsroom/tech_news/tnl040826.htm While it’s only in a 5-inch color, working prototype so far, the Carbon Nanotube product from Motorola represents a technology that many have been watching for a while. Nano Emissive Display technology is a scalable method of “growing” CNTs directly on glass, then emitting electrons to get the images. This technology is expected to be power-efficient, with high brightness, good uniformity, good color purity and good response times, as well as affordable pricing. CNTs have been 15 years in the making. Motorola’s method for growing the CTN on the glass, at the molecular level, differs from other companies working in nanotechnology displays in that others are working on paste or printing approaches. For more on Motorola’s prototype, go to http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail/0,,5484_5474_23,00.html
5. Peerless Introduces Mount Line for 10” – 60” Flat Screens Peerless Industries introduced the SmartMount family of mounts to be used by professional installers for mounting flat screens from 10” to 60”. The series, a significant addition for the company, includes nine universal and dedicated models of flat and tilting mounts. Peerless says the mounts are designed for either commercial use or high-end residential entertainment. The SmartMount line includes flat and tilting mount styles, with up to 12” of side-to-side adjustment. The larger screen mounts offer mounting to studs up to 24” apart. The universal flat mounts feature a thin (1.45” deep) wall plate to keep the screen close to the wall. The universal tilt mounts use a self-balancing design for tool-less tilt adjustment. They range in price from $35 – $250. For more information, go to http://www.peerlessindustries.com/smartpr.cfm 6. New Chief Flat-Panel Mount Keeps TV Three Inches From Wall The new PDR Dual Arm Wall Mount can hold any TV ranging from 42 to 65 inches, up to 200 pounds. The PDR is 37 inches wide and retracts to less than three inches from the wall. It can also be recessed into the wall for flush mounting. It also offers post-installation height adjustment, which is a handy feature. In addition, it allows nine inches of lateral shift. The PDR also extends more than 37 inches and pivots 90 degrees right or left of center. It comes with the company’s CableTrac integrated cable management for hiding and maintaining cables as well as the G-Force gravity centered tilt design for tool-less tilting (tilt is up to five degrees up and 15 degrees down). For more information, go to http://www.chiefmfg.com/product_display.asp?typ=ps&id=223 7. Pepper Introduces Multifunction, Wireless Control and Media Device Pepper Computer is selling its new Pepper Pad, a portable wireless unit that gives consumers Internet access, access to digital media, and control over other in-home devices. Pepper in its news announcement claims to be the first, but the company is a full year and a half behind Crestron’s Isys i/O TPMC-10 WiFi touchpanel — http://www.crestron.com/products/show_products.asp?type=residential&cat=1015&subcat=1091&id=1257 – and the Crestron unit even has an embedded PC with Office apps viewers. That said, the Pepper Pad looks like perhaps a scaled down version of the Crestron product with some basic functionality but not nearly as much. Still, it might be a decent starter product. It has web browsing, AOL instant messaging, email and image and music storage. It offers TV and stereo remote control (the Crestron product lets you control pretty much anything in the house). The Pepper Pad has an 8.4-inch display and a 20-gigabyte hard drive. It is priced at $799. For more information, go to http://www.pepper.com/
Players 8. Archos Does it Again Archos, a company that has been on a non-stop campaign to top its own portable entertainment products over the past year, introduced a killer product in the AV 700. If folks have been waiting for the definitive portable player, this one might get them off the fence.
First, it has a whopping 100 gigabytes, and records video directly onto the hard drive. That’s enough for holding 250 movies. Second, users can use it to schedule recordings in advance OR while they’re away, a lot like TiVo does. The integrated AV 700 Scheduler controls the tuner inside the VCR, cable box or satellite receiver to automatically change channels to record what has been scheduled. Or you can just record from any of those as well as from a DVD player. Third, users can watch the movies or TV shows on the 7-inch display OR on a TV or other displays. That means you can transport your entire movie collection over to a friend’s house.
Recording is done via the new ARCHOS TV Docking Pod. Users connect the AV 700 to the pad and the pad connects directly to the source. The AV 700 encodes in and plays back MPEG-4 videos with MP3 stereo sound. Users can also record from a camcorder, or transfer and view other types of files, using USB to connect to any mass storage device, digital cameras, card readers, USB keys and portable hard drives for transferring from device to device.
Last but not least, the 100-GB model sells for only $799.95. There is also a 40-GB version of the AV 700 which retails for $599.95.
For more information, go to http://www.archos.com/products/prw_500717.html
9. Video Without Boundaries Shipping Flyboy The Flyboy from Video Without Boundaries is a Linux-based portable media player that lets users store up to 40 hours of video or 370 of music. It has a 3.5-inch LCD screen and built-in speakers. Users can connect the Flyboy to the company’s MediaREADY 4000, MediaREADY 5000 or to a PC to retrieve files.
The MediaREADY Flyboy can also be used as a digital voice recorder and data storage center.
Flyboy retails for $349.
For more information, go to http://www.vwbinc.com/press/050905pr.html 10. New Bluetooth Device From Belkin Allows Wireless Playback From iPod to Home Theaters TuneStage from Belkin Corporation allows users to use their iPods like a remote control to wirelessly play the songs from the iPod on the home theater system. TuneStage uses Bluetooth technology – a transmitter is connected to the iPod and a receiver is hooked up to the home theater. The company says TuneStage can transmit up to 33 feet away, even where walls are present, and fits all sizes of iPod devices with a dock connector.
TuneStage, to be available in July, will retail for $179.99. The product isn’t yet on the Belkin website, but you can check back later at http://www.belkin.com/index.asp
Click above for more information
Feature Article By
A cell phone, PDA, digital camera, digital video recorder, iPod, computer and/or portable media storage and DVD player. That’s not an unusual assortment for today’s travelers to lug around. But we’re starting to see some convergence. Cameras (mostly crappy cameras, but cameras nonetheless) embedded in cell phones. Phones embedded in PDAs, such as the Blackberry. PDAs and internet embedded in phones, such as the Sidekick II. Even camcorders come in phones now.
My biggest complaint about managing so many devices, other than the bulk of carrying them all, is keeping track of the darned power cords. There isn’t a hotel in existence that has enough available power outlets to keep them all charged. And power cords for devices I don’t use often just get lost around my home and I end up hunting for them during those last panicky moments before heading to the airport.
What the industry needs is a meeting among Crestron, Archos, and Motorola. Crestron has the best wireless touchpanel media center for Internet and email and files, as well as home control. The embedded PC takes care of many computer functions and can often replace the laptop, PDA and portable media. It can also play digital media files. Archos makes the best portable media players that can actually schedule and record off the cable box or satellite broadcast. Motorola makes darned good phones.
An alliance of these three for creating the definitive portable, wireless personal media device would be an absolute killer product. There would be no competition – none. If it’s priced right, there’s not a manufacturer around that could sell anything with fewer features.
Offer it with different screen sizes, with its own stylish shoulder strap bag, with compact headphones (Bluetooth even!) and easy connection to wireless hotspots, let me upload from my iPod, and it’s game over.
This device will be a reality at some point, no doubt. I hope sooner than later. But I want it made by companies I already know are the best at what they do.
Set up the meeting. I’ll even buy lunch.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright 2005 – Kayye Consulting – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact us at Kayye Consulting, Inc. Gary Kayye's rAVe contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |