CEDIA Day 2: Small Companies, Big Products

D-Box’s action packed recliner gave many wild rides at CEDIA.

Why there's much love for CEDIA and the smaller manufacturers who are stealing headlines.

CEDIA is fast becoming the trade show of choice from the harried booth technician to the pressured CEO. And what does that mean to the CE, PC, home networking and custom installing consumer, pro-sumer or professional? A happy and rested manufacturer, buyer, retailer or journalist is likely to make a better deal; field product queries with patience and have time to think out the vicissitudes of technology retailing.

“I think we can examine new products, get into the real nitty gritty of what we need for our customers and have the time and peace to negotiate in a better fashion from this show as opposed to others,” said Jimmy Garson, CEO of Data Vision, the New York City based retailer. “At CES, It’s getting too crowded to appreciate the presentations and while we bring our customers concerns to that show, we don’t always come away with answers or solutions,” Garson added.

And the manufacturers are having a great time, too.

“This show comes just at the right time for us to launch and market our holiday TVs and new XDE players,” said Maria Repole, a Vice President at Toshiba. “The venue is relaxed, we get our messages across for all our new products…which also means the Pro Installers have time to ramp up and consumers can get all the information they need before making a holiday purchase.”

A visitor from a rival technology show, who wished not to be identified agrees. “This was more installation and less innovation for years and now the public and private sector can get a lot of information as the home, installation, the technology innovation and networking seems to have merged here.”

And for those retailers and installers and manufacturers readying their offerings, this first official day of CEDIA delivered new and better products for consumers.

The longest (but fast moving) lines at the show was for the latest Iteration of the award winning D-Box. D-Box, which had been previously been a leading provider of motion technology for the entertainment industry, demonstrated an upgraded version of its Home Theater System and custom installer model, which more than wowed the crowds. It literally bumped, and throttled and sank and rose this reporter by using a recliner equipped with the $4,000 system. The system, featuring the company’s patented D-BOX MOTION CODE™ technology, now has a system specifically designed for the commercial theater market and should be commercially available within the next 12-18 months.

The model that I used is an upgraded home version with advanced motion simulation and it seemingly acts like a thrill ride experience. There’s also a version designed for gamers which looks like a hot rod and immerses the rider into the video game itself. All the D-Box systems work with many DVD, Blu-ray disk and possibly soon many on-demand titles from cable companies.

On the low key side, a company called QVS out of Las Vegas demonstrated HDMI, VGA extenders that enable you to transmit video, data or music over longer distances than even Monster cable delivers. QVS Operations Manager Robert Incognito was not hiding anything (his real name) also showed off HDMI, component and VGA switching boxes for consumers and pro installers, whose audio video equipment may lack extra inputs and outputs. The extenders ranged from $129 and the switch boxes from $69.

Cables To Go, an arch rival in this niche but growing market, now offers one of the widest pro and consumer add-on cables in the market. They offer over 125 different kinds of cable, splitter and connector solutions for home theater especially in the transfer of DVI-to HDTV and HDMI extenders.

The fastest growing segment of this industry…not including the traditional CE and home networking products at the show, is the design and install your-self segment where firms like Flatwire and Black and Decker, offered up a slew of products for consumers and pro installers.

Black and Decker, which last year demonstrated some terrific audio-video tool sets that make custom installation easier and safer for consumers, installers alike, advanced into new electronic motorized locks featuring interoperability with leading home security and automation companies and for the first time with several home audio-video entertainment systems. Price and availability will be announced soon.

Flatwire, which shares booth space with a number of installation products, had made further advances in their almost invisible audio-video and lighting, accessories and now offers a component system which is virtually seamless on your wall or floor.

And Microsoft, still trying to crack this market, gave media, installers and everyone who wanted to listen, a training seminar on the basics of using Windows Media Center on their upcoming new Windows Home server. A surprising aspect of this not so new technology, is that in the face of having lost several home server partners like HP and the never signed Panasonic, the Redmond based company’s 2009 version of this technology that ties and delivers all your home media content to any room in the house, is actually much improved and more reliable than their entry at last year’s show. Perhaps some of the audio-video makers will come back to this technology.

TiVo, never a darling of this market because of its low capacity DVRs, but still arguably the easiest of the home networking products available, may have shored up its custom install entry by showing off a 150 hour HD model dubbed TiVo HD XL. This model now comes with THX certification, a backlit remote and a HDMI cable. Thus unit will still cost around $400 and requires a monthly or yearly subscription, but consumers and installers who trade up from their Series I or II models, can continue their previous subscriptions. Reportedly there will be a huge holiday promotion cutting some subscription packages and also offering several free months of service.

While still in its infancy in the U.S., Internet radio, a niche market with a huge popularity in Europe and Asia and a steady base of four or five under $125 portable devices, has finally attracted the high audio segment, with Denon and Sony battling it out in the over $2,000 A/V receiver arena…and Sonos and Logitech’s Squeezebox systems running below $500.

And while several other audio component firms showed off prototypes, the TV makers with their almost useless Internet based TVs have still eschewed the Internet Radio technology, despite the fact that it might be the most requested new entertainment content consumer have been asking for.