DVD CCA, 1; Kaleidescape and Innovation, 0
By John Sciacca
by John Sciacca“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” —Apple’s “Think Different” ...
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17 Superlatives from CES
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaWell, the fat lady has sung, the curtains have been closed and CES 2012 is officially a few days in the bag. After several days of decompressing and detoxing – there is a LOT of drinking in Vegas – and reflecting, I thought I would share my list of Best, Worst, Coolest, and other superlatives from this year’s biggest party in all of electronics.Best Demo – The Unforgettable Home Theater ExperiencePresented jointly by Digital Projection, Kaleidescape, CinemaTech, Stewart Filmscreen, ADA, Totem Acoustics and D-Box Seating, this demo combined not only amazing audio and video but ...
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CES 2012 Day 4: Pathos, Sony, MK Sound, and More
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaFor my final day at 2012’s CES I returned to the Venetian to hit the numerous exhibitors – and entire massive Ballroom/convention areas – that I’d missed on my first visit. You remember, the one that was like, I don’t know, 6 years ago. Wait? It was only 3 days ago? CES and Vegas have a way of messing with your mind like that. Oh, well. Let’s press on…Floors 29 and 30 of the Venetian Towers Suites probably housed 150 or more audio-centric companies, so I headed up to 30 and decided to work my way down. Each floor has a central hub with three spokes that branch off so I ...
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CES 2012 Day 3: Sony Crystal, Dish, 'Shocking' ioSafe Video and More
By John Sciacca
by John Sciacca My third day in Vegas began with a visit to what, in my mind, will always be known as the Las Vegas Hilton (apparently it changed names/ownership a couple of weeks ago, and now it is the uber-generically named, The Las Vegas Hotel) to see projector manufacturer, BenQ. They were demonstrating the new GP2, a $549 LED model that is made for portable viewing and presentation. The little-larger-than-palm-sized device will blast out 200 lumens and has a port for direct docking of an iPod/Phone and comes with the breakout cabling needed to connect an iPad. (It also features a USB ...
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CES 2012 Day 2: The Video Giants of Central Hall and More
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaMy second day (third if you count media day) at International CES 2012 started with a breakfast meeting with a company that was new to me, HiFiMan. Founded by Dr. Fang Bian, this company’s goal seems to be all about bringing high-resolution audio listening to the portable world. And for people for whom “MP3” is a four-letter word, the new HM-601 Slim player will be a breath of fresh and open, high-resolution air. The player uses a Burr Brown PCM1704u decoding chip that allows it to handle decoding high-res FLAC files (at least up to 96/24), as well as Ogg, WAV, AAC, WMV, and ...
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CES 2012 Day 1: Venetian Audio Exhibits Part 1
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaCES is definitely about time management; there is more than you could see in a month, let alone four days. With that in mind, I decided to spend my first official CES 2012 show day at the Venetian, which houses many – if not all – of the audio exhibitors as the show.McIntoshI kicked off my morning with a press breakfast at McIntosh’s suite in the Venetian Towers. McIntosh was showing a new “home theater stack” at a much lower price point, almost 50 percent of previous priced systems. In the line was a new 7 x 200-watt amplifier for $6,000 that features more home ...
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CES 2012 Media Day: LG, Sharp and Sony
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaThe January 8 morning press sessions at International CES 2012 here in Las Vegas included events from LG and Sharp while the day concluded with Sony’s event at its booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center. All three manufacturers touted larger screen sizes, higher resolutions, lots of internet connectivity, and new tech advances.LGAs members of the press entered LG’s event, they were handed a pair of LG’s latest CINEMA 3D glasses, which feature a very lightweight, passive design comfortable enough for extended wearing. (And, obviously, inexpensive enough that a pair could be ...
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CES 2012: Unveiled
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaThe annual International Consumer Electronics Show kicked off on Sunday night with CES Unveiled, offering attendees a chance for a pre-show peek at some of the items that will likely be making headlines before the show officially opens. Also on hand were some of the product debuts from the Innovations Design and Engineering Award Honorees. Prior to the event even starting, it was clear that this year’s show was going to be well attended at least by press standards. Standing in a line that at times reminded me of infinity – the line grew so rapidly that you could walk and walk ...
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10 Reasons Why I'm Not Betting on AppleTV
By John Sciacca
by John Sciacca Immediately prior to my leaving for CES, I figured it was a good time for a bit of speculation. And nowhere is speculation in the tech world more popular than with Apple (who doesn’t even bother attending CES by the way).Apple is notoriously one of the most tight-lipped companies around. In fact, the CIA would do well to sit though a two-day “How to keep your mouth shut-the-hell-up!” symposium at the Cupertino headquarters. It can be the eve of MacWorld, immediately prior to launch, and Apple will say nothing about any new products that may or may not be in the works. (You ...
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4k from the Lens to the Living Room
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaSome of the biggest news out of CEDIA EXPO this past September was talk of higher resolution – 4K – projectors; namely the new model from Sony and the four offerings from JVC. Whether you like the idea of 4K or not, the truth is that we do not get a say in the matter. Just as with 3D, 4K shall be coming whether you want it to or not.While you can argue that there is no real UPSIDE to moving to 4K for most people, I also can’t discern any DOWNSIDE to it either. It’s not like a sharper, higher resolution image is likely to case anyone any viewing discomfort. And to look at this ...
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Seven Customer Red Flags
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaWhen a custom install job totally falls apart, and you end up dealing with some nightmare client scenario, chances are that you could probably look back and realize that there were red flags lurking. The key is to be able to identify these warnings so you can spot and identity potential problem clients BEFORE you begin the work and then find yourself married to them for years.Here are seven tell-tale warnings that I’ve noticed over the years in this biz:1. They totally complain about the old installer. I’ll be honest, I used to just chalk this up into the general category of, ...
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How Not to Apply For a Job
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaThe job market is tough right now; I totally get that. If you’ve got a job, you’re probably pretty thrilled about it, and are doing what you can to hold on to it; no matter how dark and dusty that coal mine you work in happens to be. And if you don’t have a job, you’re probably pretty highly motivated to go out there and get one. Or, join a local Occupy protest. You know, whatever you think is the best choice for you. My little company is one of the many that is NOT looking to hire right now, but that doesn’t stop people from contacting us about employment and we general take ...
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Black Friday's Video Race to Extinction
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaBlack Friday – the annual shopping rite of passage where stores drop pricing on certain items to ridiculously low, way-below-cost levels in the hopes that you’ll come in and they can entice you to buy something -- *anything* -- else that they can actually make a buck on – is just days away as I write this.At some point, Black Friday became pretty much an electronics gladiatorial event, where stores try to one-up one another with the craziest, most-likely-to-get-you-to-stand-in-line-for-a-midnight-opening deal. And this means that the ad fliers and circulars are rolling in on a ...
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Will New Technology Kill Anamorphic Lenses?
By John Sciacca
by John SciaccaFor many home theater aficionados—including 26 of the 29 projects up for the 2011 CEDIA Electronic Lifestyles awards — the height of awesometopia is a media room with an anamorphic-lens-equipped front-projection system. As I happen to have such a system, I thought I would first explain why they are so slathered in awesome, and then explain why I think this bit of technology might be headed towards extinction.Now, I realize that the concept of how an anamorphic lens system functions has been covered many, MANY times out there. But for the benefit of anyone who wants a ...
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Surround Sound to Help the Hard of Hearing
By John Sciacca
by John Sciacca I love watching movies. Dramas, action, suspense, sci-fi, comedies, animated, romantic, foreign...really, pretty much anything. And I truly believe that nothing improves the movie-watching experience like having a home theater system. I made a big upgrade to my personal system a few years ago, and I still love and enjoy it every time we turn it on. We use our front-projection system (Marantz projector with Panamorph anamorphic lens and Draper dual-aspect/masking motorized screen) about two to three times per week watching Blu-rays that we rent from Netflix. And while I ...
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