All right, I admit that it took me a while, but between work, family, training, and my book project, I've got a lot going on every day.
Denver, Colorado is a fantastic city. If you haven’t been, you really must visit. Lots to see, lots to do, great restaurants and bars, and a really hip, funky downtown core. But you’re not here for a travelogue, you want to know about what I saw on the trade show floor at CEDIA Expo. So here’s some key takeaways that I can reveal that don't give away any of our firm's strategic plans:
- The new Panasonic PT-AX100 LCD projector looks fantastic. It’s especially remarkable for a projector that retails for under $4000.
- I underwent training on the Kaleidescape music and video server system. If you don’t know what Kaleidescape can do for your home entertainment system, check out their site, and you will be blown away.
- Totem Acoustic has a fantastic new architectural built-in speaker, the Inner Spirit™ . The demonstration Totem owner Vince Bruzzese gave me was tremendous. The loudspeaker delivers the same order of performance as their famous Model 1 monitor, only from an in-wall speaker. Outstanding.
- Regarding the whole Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD fracas, my professional opinion is this: it is way too early to declare a winner. Over the course of the week, I sat through endless demonstrations of both formats. Honestly, Pioneer put on the only impressive Blu-ray demo. Demonstrations by Sony and others didn’t look qualitatively better than what we’re already getting from 720p or 1080i broadcast or even *gasp* 480p standard DVD. The HD-DVD demonstration put on by the consortium was mostly breathtaking, but some of the movie trailers were ho-hum. The problem is that because both formats are so new, the engineers doing the film transfers aren’t necessarily virtuosos with their equipment. We saw the same thing with the dawn of DVD way back when: some early releases looked great, others looked awful, mostly because the people in the transfer studio hadn’t dialed in to DVD’s potential. I expect the quality of releases in both formats to improve dramatically over the next six months. However, whether or not consumers take notice and actually start buying either remains to be seen.
- One of the high points of CEDIA for me was sitting through a demo of a $100K home cinema system. The primary vendor had selected a Samsung BP-D1000 Blu-ray player to showcase the system’s projector and surround processing. The Samsung crapped out five times during the demo, going to a black screen for 3-5 seconds each time while the soundtrack continued playing. That further reinforced my anti-Samsung bias that I’ve gained from bitter experience.
- Vertical Integration Group is a software company with applications that provide automation solutions for luxury condominium high rises. Their stuff is impressive as hell, and worth looking at if you are working with a developer doing condos in the one million dollar and up market.
- Chief offers the most comprehensive selection of projector and flat-panel tv mounting solutions that I saw at Expo, including not only brackets but motorized lifts. Great stuff.
- Velodyne's SubContractor™ Series Subwoofers provide multiple solutions for in-wall, in-floor, and built-into-cabinetry subwoofers. It's nice to see a built-in sub that will deliver massive kaboom without shaking the crap out of your drywall.
It's been a long week, and the notes in my PDA aren't nearly as complete as they seemed while on the show floor. When more observations come to me, I will post them here.
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