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Friday, January 10, 2014
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By Julie Jacobson

There’s only one day left of CES 2014 and it’s not too late to impart of few etiquette notes.

1. Coughing into your elbow or upper sleeve is the appropriate behavior … unless you’re wearing your spouse’s coat.

2. Don’t text and walk in the showfloor aisles.

3. If two of you are walking abreast on a skinny sidewalk, revert to single file if someone is coming the opposite direction.

4. Exhibitors, don’t huddle in a circle talking to your colleagues and friends when someone is at the booth clearly needing attention.

5. Don’t try to sell your PR service or your magazine ads to an exhibitor when real attendees are waiting in line to talk about real things.

6.
Don’t order coffee and dessert after a long meal when everyone else wants to go home.

7. Don’t be all like: How many steps did you walk today?

8. Take yourself and all of your friends crowding the convention center sidewalk and smoke your cigarettes in the Silver Lot. Or Gold. It’s gross and makes people sick.

9. Don’t go up to complete strangers and ask them for one of their French fries (guilty).

10. Don’t even pretend to be interested in a booth just to get some good candies and stuff. Just take it

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 01/10 at 08:54 AM
Blogs, Events, CES, (1) Comments, Permalink


Wednesday, January 08, 2014
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The Intel keynote at CES 2014 filled up quickly. (Photo via CEA)


By Chuck Schneider

If this is your first time at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), by now you’ve become all too familiar with my Top 9 CES Small Talk Cliches.

There’s a lot to take in, but hopefully you don’t get too overwhelmed roaming the show floor for a couple days.

Here’s a few nuggets of advice for CES virgins.

1. Don’t Get Overly Impressed with Everything You See Remember, these folks are paying lots of booth rent and expense money to sell you. Be discerning.

2. Mind your Conversation Don’t try to impress your more seasoned companions by chatting about skin effect on wire. They don’t care. Speaking of talk. Loose lips sink ships.  Always look around if you’re about to speak of someone or something at all controversial. This is especially true in elevators, food lines, restaurant booths and bars.  Come to think of it, unless it’s absolutely essential, shut up and wait until you are alone with your comrades.

3. Ignore the Booth BabesYou don’t have to take every piece of literature handed out by booth babes. Nor must you wear every badge, button and banner, lest you look like a Shriner. If it ends up costing beaucoup bucks to get your lit and bling home via common carrier, you’ve not only wasted money but also contributed to an already overflowing landfill. How very environmentally incorrect.

4. Don’t Party Too Hard If you’re invited to the Crazy Horse III, politely decline. It’s no different than anything you can see in your hometown and you are better off putting dollar tokens in a slot machine than…

Posted by Chuck Schneider on 01/08 at 08:33 AM
Blogs, Events, CES, (1) Comments, Permalink


Monday, January 06, 2014
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Make sure to pick up a pair of headphones while at CES to avoid these small talk cliches.


By Chuck Schneider

Because Thanksgiving 2013 was so late in the November, there was less time to prepare for Christmas. It was exacerbated by the fact Hanukkah coincided with Turkey Day, instead of it usual December partner in materialism.

Just ask the folks at FedEx and UPS.

Now, with the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) taking place this week, there is also less time to prepare for CES this year. Can you handle it?

I know people who look forward to CES more than Christmas. I call them “Show Junkies.” They show up year after year, earlier than they have to. They span every segment of the business - shop owner, independent rep, factory management, even store employees who use their vacation time to attend a show. And they arrive at first bell and leave only when the PA announcement tells them they must.

I don’t get it.

Those who have worked closely with me over the years know the little secret I’m about to reveal: I’ve never been a big fan of any trade show. After over 50 CES’s, a dozen or so CEDIA’s with some NAMM’s and SEMA’s thrown in for good measure, I hope to never have to attend one ever again. Now that I’m sort of retired, maybe I won’t have to.

I certainly understand why they exist. The original purpose was to put the merchant and vendor together to hash out product mix, pricing and promotions for the coming year. Now, it seems very little actual order-writing ever takes place. Of course, there’s the opportunity to see all the new stuff, spot new trends and such. But a lot of that can…

Posted by Chuck Schneider on 01/06 at 02:52 PM
Blogs, Events, CES, (2) Comments, Permalink


Thursday, December 26, 2013
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Now Party Animals from Cobra dance to audio books. Everybody together: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”


By Julie Jacobson

Press people have a lot of fun this time of year just, as we swap tales of funny press releases, inflated claims, strange products and other oddities on the eve of CES.

CES 2014 will have all of the above.

First, everyone professes to have the biggest and best devices, the likes of which we’ve apparently never seen before.

Westinghouse Digital’s LED interactive whiteboard, for example, is “one of the most novel products at CES,” the press release claims. “You probably haven’t seen anything like this before.”

And if you’re ever caught in a brawl with a bear, iPhone in tow, Ballistic is a “designer of the most sophisticated and highly-engineered smart phone and tablet cases to withstand life’s most mutilating moments.”

As always, we’ll have a battle of the big screens. Already we’ve seen Samsung and LG jockeying for leadership in the TV category with both of them claiming, as LG says, the “world’s first 105-inch Curved Ultra HD TV.”

LG changed its name years ago from Lucky Goldstar. Here are a few other CES 2014 exhibitors that might consider doing the same: Frogs Tung, Hanwang Technology and Ohmibod.

Ohmibod, a maker of unmentionables, is just about as clever as OkiDoKeys, a maker of electronic door locks.

At Eureka Park in the Venetian, don’t confuse Skybell, maker of a Wi-Fi-enabled doorbell/camera system with MyBell, which makes “the world’s first customizable bicycle bell.”

That takes us to the category of unusual products, under which MyBell falls.

“Think ring tones – for your bike,” the company claims on its Website. “Just imagine being able to alert anyone around you with a…

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 12/26 at 09:26 AM
News, Blogs, Product News, Events, CES, (2) Comments, Permalink


Monday, December 23, 2013
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LIFX raises $1.3 million in one week, but still no smart bulbs after 14 months.


By Julie Jacobson

Note: see update below from LIFX on shipping status. Also, I should have noted crowdsourcing as we know it. There is certainly a good future for crowdsourcing but it will have to change. ...

The email from the PR agency read: “One of the most successful campaigns in Kickstarter history, LIFX raised $1.3 million in less than a week and is now graduating from an initial idea to a leader in the connected home industry.”

And did I want to set up an appointment with the company at CES 2014?

So I emailed to find out what new features LIFX was adding to its smart bulb, given that the market for the once-novel category is now pretty much saturated (and, I have maintained, silly to begin with).

The response: “They will be showcasing the LIFX bulbs and new apps. The bulbs have been written about but haven’t shipped to the public just yet. New functionality is continuing to roll out via free app update.”

Here was my reply: “Thanks, ######. This is troubling. Now there are two dozen smart bulb makers. LIFX has $1.3m from “customers” and one year later still isn’t shipping? Sorry, trying to think of a positive angle here.”

No response to that.

Crowdsourcing is going to implode if this keeps happening. Currently on Kickstarter, pretty much anyone can rake in all the cash they want and never ship a product.

I’m not saying LIFX is a bunch of liars and thieves—building products always takes longer and requires more money than expected—but how long can this scheme go on before the whole crowdfunding thing…

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 12/23 at 09:31 AM
News, Blogs, Home Automation and Control, Control Systems, Lighting, Events, CES, (14) Comments, Permalink


Friday, December 20, 2013
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A customer checks out the sony high resolution audio gear at a dealer event.


By Julie Jacobson

I recently attended a Sony-sponsored open house at Dynamic Sound Systems in Carlsbad, Calif. A few dozen consumers showed up for demonstrations of high-performance audio including “High Resolution Audio,” the Consumer Electronics Association buzzword for digital music that is better than CD quality.

DSS is primarily a high-performance audio and video company so its clients for the most part are already music lovers.

Talking to them, it turns out the objection to HRA is not necessarily price or even the a lack of knowledge about download services from HDTracks. In fact, most of the guys (yup, all guys) I talked to were quite familiar with that service.

“Sure, I would pay $13 for a download,” said one customer, Bill Carman from Oceanside. Its “the idea of losing an entire collection because of a computer glitch” that scares him.

As it turns out, the objection seems to be that consumers think it’s too difficult to put all of the pieces together – the content, the players, the speakers, the network ….

In the past, the objection to digital music has been the quality, says DSS’s Joe Silva, who led the demonstrations.

“The narrative has always been that it’s compressed,” he says. “Now it’s actually a good time. The only gripe is they [customers] don’t want to learn how to do it.”

The sentiment was echoed by SSD principal Mark Anderson who says, “Most people aren’t interested in operating components. It’s the fear of the computer.”

Sony recently introduced eight new HRA products, including two players that take most of the guesswork out of downloading, managing and playing good content. The Sony…

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 12/20 at 09:58 AM
News, Blogs, Audio, Events, CES, (0) Comments, Permalink


Tuesday, December 17, 2013
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By Chuck Schneider

It’s easy to scapegoat.  For years smaller retailers and the custom integrators from whom they evolved have been blaming the “big guys” for a lot of the issues that plague the industry, most notably pricing, bad information and overblown expectations. With Circuit City now far out of the picture, Best Buy (with their Magnolia and Geek Squad incarnations) was a convenient target for scorn. Recently, it appears that ADT has joined Best Buy as a top-tier villain.

But are the blue shirts from either company actually worthy of all this scorn? Both of them are merely carrying out a business plan that each feels is a natural progression from where they began. And both have likely been around a lot longer than most of you. Besides, you should be more nimble, not to mention smarter, than either of them so you can not only compete but prevail by using their shortcomings to your advantage.

There are rougher and even more insidious entities that lurk in the shadows of your road to success, and some even have the audacity to call themselves your partners.

The Rack System Era

A few of you are just about old enough to remember a particularly ugly era in the history of Consumer Electronics, a time that many contend (including me) started audio components on their death spiral that continues today.  It started sometime around 1975 and was pretty much over by the late 1980s.  This was the era of the “rack system.”

It was innocent enough at the jump, as most evil intended entities are.  Separate audio components were hot items in the mid 1970s.  Specialty…

Posted by Chuck Schneider on 12/17 at 10:38 AM
Blogs, Business Resources, (13) Comments, Permalink


Monday, December 09, 2013
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By CE Pro Editors

by Jon Sienkiewicz, Director of Corporate Communications, URC

Forgive us for using the industry’s most popular newsletter as a bully pulpit, but we’re selfish. URC employees drive thousands of miles every year in the course of doing their job. They drive thousands more for personal travel. We love every one of them, and we want every mile they travel to be safe.

We all know it’s wrong to drive while distracted, but many people do it anyway. Either they think they’re better than everyone else and won’t cause an accident, or they’re just plain irresponsibly stupid, it’s hard to say. The fact is that sending or receiving a text message takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent—at 55 mph—of driving the length of an entire football field, blind.

EMPLOYER LIABILITY
“Statistics aside, if the employer does not operate in one of those states that have banned the practice, does that mean there is no liability? Not at all. Whether a driver is negligent in his or her driving is a question of fact to be determined in court, regardless of whether it’s legally permissible or not.

Ironically, the rapid enactment of these laws actually makes the situation worse for employers. Not only is it easier to prove negligence in those states, these laws banning texting while driving make it much easier for plaintif fs to claim – and get – punitive damages. The violation of such laws goes to show reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm, greatly increasing the chances that punitive damages will be awarded.” - Read entry

Posted by CE Pro Editors on 12/09 at 12:02 PM
Blogs, (1) Comments, Permalink


Friday, December 06, 2013
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Sony’s 4K Ultra HD displays were awfully lonely at CEDIA 2013. Where were the other major brands?


By Jason Knott

This is an open letter to all manufacturers of Ultra HD/4K flat panel displays: Please do not forget the custom electronics installation channel as you roll out this new high-end, super-dynamic technology. Don’t repeat the same mistake you made with the 3D roll-out just a few years ago.

You must know by now that integrators are the primary servicers for well-heeled, affluent customers and videophile first-adopters. No other channel is more able to sell $15,000 flat panel TVs than this one. Do you really believe that online websites, warehouse clubs and major retailers like Wal-Mart will be able to attract the right clientele for these very expensive displays?

Integrators are by far the best in-the-field salespeople to explain the nuances of 4K and properly demo Ultra HD TVs. As such, integrators are absolutely the ideal channel to be the first to carry and resell Ultra HD/4K TVs.

But at the CEDIA Expo this past fall in Denver, where were you? Other than JVC and Sony (which is now re-igniting its CIS program for the custom channel), the only presence for Ultra HD flat panel TVs was sprinkled among a few distributors. The Ultra HD/4K TVs were there but got the same amount of fanfare (or less) than the new Internet radio products, furniture, seating, etc., in distributors’ booths. Oh yeah, and the biggest distributor in the channel didn’t even exhibit at the show.

Didn’t you learn your lesson with the disastrous debacle that was 3D? Let’s remember what happened just a few short years ago. 3D was all the rage. Led by the release of James Cameron’s blockbuster hit movie “Avatar,” flat panel…

Posted by Jason Knott on 12/06 at 08:48 AM
News, Blogs, Displays, TVs, Events, CEDIA, (10) Comments, Permalink


Wednesday, December 04, 2013
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SmartCharge smart LED bulbs available on Kickstarter for $35 each or four for $100.


By Julie Jacobson

You know all of those “smart” LED bulbs like Philips Hue with their wireless technology and apps for controlling brightness and color?

Not a fan.

But this Kickstarter project called SmartCharge is a different kind of smart. The bulb, which screws into a standard light socket, packs a lithium ion battery for four hours of “on” time in the event of a power outage. And it can tell the difference between an outage and an “off” command.

Here’s how the company describes the technology:

It works like a normal light bulb even during power outages. With proprietary patent pending Grid & Switch Sensor technology, the SmartCharge Bulb senses a power outage, recognizes the ON/OFF position of your light switch and allows control of the light even with no utility/grid power. …

The heart of the SmartCharge Bulb is our patent pending Grid & Switch Sensor technology. It is capable of distinguishing between a loss of power due to opening of the line switch and a loss of power resulting from a grid failure when the line switch is either open or close. …

It works like a normal light bulb even during power outages. With proprietary patent pending Grid & Switch Sensor technology, the SmartCharge Bulb senses a power outage, recognizes the ON/OFF position of your light switch and allows control of the light even with no utility/grid power.

The current version of the SmartCharge enables a single switch to control a single bulb. Two- and three-way switches work, but can only control one of the lights on the circuit.

Bulbs are available for preorder on Read entry

Posted by Julie Jacobson on 12/04 at 11:19 AM
News, Blogs, Home Automation and Control, Lighting, (2) Comments, Permalink



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