[BC] CES

[Barry Mishkind]

After two days of crawling the floor, looking for broadcast related 
items, especially IBOC receivers....  some of you may have wondered 
what I found.

OK .. the winner in who's got the biggest screen this year appears to 
be Samsung with a 102" Plasma display.

$150,000; anyone ready to install one of these?

The picture is stunning, even at this magnification .. .although I 
think we are reaching the edge of useful size for a 1080 picture.  If 
you are not about five or six yards away, the loss of "sharpness" can 
be noticed.

There are 1.5 million sq ft of displays.

Do you think the manufacturers and distributors are worried about the 
end of analog broadcasting?

Let me put it this way: There are hundreds (or thousands) of 
televisions, mp3 players, Ipod clones/add-ons/, radios, even my 
favorite item so far - which I will tell you more about later - and I 
found very few people who concerned themselves with the 2009 date for 
the end of analog TV. Many feel it will be extended.

Now, I know there are some really enthusiastic manufacturers on the 
floor. And, there is an "HD" radio in the Kenwood booth (Mike was out 
on some "off site meeting" each time I stopped by). But my focus was 
more table radios than car radios. Sure, car radios may well be the 
driving force from the sales point of view ... perhaps even 
listeners.  However, it is seems true that offices and homes will 
need to have receivers for any sort of TSL to set in.  And, I still 
saw more AM/FM/XM or AM/FM/Sirius radios. Yes, there is a pipeline 
issue.  And I got to a few folks who are getting close to shipping.

The word at the Ibiquity booth was that all 7000 Boston Acoustics 
radios are out, and they are now awaiting a new shipment.

I'm headed back to the show now ... so I'll share some more later.

barry








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Barry Mishkind     -       Tucson, AZ    -   520-296-3797