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Voice Control: Time to Jump In…or Wait?

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In Wake of CEDIA, Industry Debates How Hot Voice Control Is

Scene showing Alexa voice controlOne of the keynote presentations at CEDIA 2016, was from Amazon – the monster online retailer. Amazon executive Charlie Kindel introduced the custom integration attendees to the Amazon Echo, Tap, and Dot…essentially Internet appliances that all feature their Alexa voice control technology. Then, late in the presentation, Kindel announced the company has developed a way for Alexa to interface with home systems – and even forged integration partnerships with Lutron, Crestron, Control4 and others.

And just like that, CEDIA 2016 became the voice control show… [Read more…] about Voice Control: Time to Jump In…or Wait?

Twist – Simple Smart Home Light Bulb & Speaker

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Photo of TwistProducts designed to address the simple smart home market continue to be introduced at a dizzying pace – most of which will end up in the dust bin of not-so-useful, not-so-innovative app-controllable nonsense in the future. But every once in a while we stumble across items that catch our eye, and Twist is one of those.

What is Twist? If you can screw in a lightbulb, you can have a smarter home lighting and wireless audio solution.

See more on Twist, a smarter smart home solution… [Read more…] about Twist – Simple Smart Home Light Bulb & Speaker

A Tale of Two Japans – Toshiba & Japan Display

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Photo of busy intersection in JapanTwo stories out of Japan caught our attention and, to our thinking, combine to show that Japan’s tech industry is still not yet out of the woods. The first story, by the Japan Times, says that troubled Toshiba’s half-year fiscal results show that their profits have now tripled. The second story, also from the Japan Times, announced that Japan Display will be laying off thousands of employees – almost a third of their workforce.

See more on these two dramatically different stories of a still-troubled Japan… [Read more…] about A Tale of Two Japans – Toshiba & Japan Display

GoPro’s Stock Crashes as It Recalls Karma Drones

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GoPro logoGoPro Inc., the individual sport camera maker who has recently diversified into the drone category, has lately seen their fortunes rise and fall…but mostly fall in the wake of their announcement that it would recall about 2,500 of their recently launched Karma drone. The news sent their stock price into a steep dive of more than 4% of its value.

See more on GoPro’s drone troubles… [Read more…] about GoPro’s Stock Crashes as It Recalls Karma Drones

OLED Universe is Expanding, Chinese Makers Plan Multiple Factories

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Phones with OLED screensIn news coming out of Asia, multiple Chinese panel makers are planning to build large production factories making OLED panels – mostly for the smartphone market. Motivated in part, by Apple’s commitment to the technology, companies like BOE Technologies – China’s largest panel manufacturer – has announced plans to launch an OLED factory capable of producing 10 million smartphone panels per month.

But BOE is not alone, others are hopping on the OLED bus… [Read more…] about OLED Universe is Expanding, Chinese Makers Plan Multiple Factories

With New ‘Skill’ Logitech Offers Voice Control of Your Entire System

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Company Develops Alexa Voice ‘Skill’ Enabling Spoken Control of AV Entertainment System

Logitech logoLogitech announced this week that it has developed an Amazon Alexa skill that will allow users to control their entire AV home entertainment system with simple spoken commands. Voice control has become a hot topic in the industry since CEDIA 2016, when one of the keynote speakers was Charlie Kindel, an Amazon executive working on their voice-enabled products like the Echo and Dot.

See more on Logitech’s move into voice control… [Read more…] about With New ‘Skill’ Logitech Offers Voice Control of Your Entire System

Leviton & Samsung SmartThings Partner on Automation Package

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Leviton logoLeviton announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with Samsung’s SmartThings division to offer a simple home automation starter package that will be made broadly available through distributors and the “professional dealer” market. Designed to be an affordable, whole-house, home automation solution – the package pairs products from SmartThings with Leviton Z-Wave enabled devices at discounted pricing.

See more on this new Leviton-SmartThings smart home market partnership… [Read more…] about Leviton & Samsung SmartThings Partner on Automation Package

Access Networks Offers Access to Live Monitoring

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Access networks logoIn our wrap-up of the top stories from CEDIA 2016, #3 was “Managed Services are Growing.” One such service was OneVision Resources, which will partner with integrators to offer remote system monitoring and customer support. At CEDIA 2016, residential networking provider Access Networks also announced that they will be launching a new Live Monitoring solution.

These services look similar, but there is one very big difference… [Read more…] about Access Networks Offers Access to Live Monitoring

Millson Custom Solutions Goes From Crawl to Jog in Just One Year

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Millson Custom Solutions Celebrates Its First Birthday

CinemaFrame photoMost new start-up companies like Millson Custom Solutions (MCS) choose to develop a new product concept and spend their first year setting up distribution, making sure internal systems operate smoothly as sales begin to happen, and in general scale slowly before they take that next step in expansion. It’s sort of a crawl before you walk – walk before you run strategy.

But not MCS – no sooner did they get their remarkable CinemaFrame launched, then the company rolled out a second product, their RSMS Roller Shade Mounting System and then a third product, the FutureFrame.

How did they pull that off?… [Read more…] about Millson Custom Solutions Goes From Crawl to Jog in Just One Year

CEDIA 2016 – Hot Stuff We Saw

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CEDIA 2016 reportCEDIA 2016, like every trade show, for us is like trying to get a sip of water from a fire hose. There is just so much going on. And since all stories interest us – we have to go into a kind of marketing triage, quickly sorting those stories that we feel are the most compelling.

So, in this post, we want to share with you some of the more interesting things – and people – we saw and chatted with on the show floor.

See some of the notable people and products we saw at CEDIA 2016… [Read more…] about CEDIA 2016 – Hot Stuff We Saw