I don’t think Apple could have ever forseen all the applications that the  iTouch would be used for when they first conceived this product.  So many AV manufacturers have written iPhone/iTouch Apps for their products that  almost anything AV can or will be controllable with this device.  And now that Apple has just lowered the price of the entry level iTouch to $199, it suddenly makes for a pretty inexpensive touch screen.  Leave it to the creative geniuses at Sonance to come up with an in-wall dock for it.  Price has not been set, but check out the concept prototype below.  It has the potential for 4 hard buttons around the outside.  Right now, one is dedicated to “Home” function and the others could possibly be customized.  Since the unit is perfectly square, it can be rotated 90 degrees to make a landscape orientation if desired.  The bezel attaches with magnets.

iTouch in-wall dock concept from Sonance

As you might expect in a tight economy, there were not a lot of quality freebies at the show this year.  In fact, it was pathetic!  I was pleasantly surprised when I grabbed a nondescript, small white box at the Draper Booth and discovered a keychain thumb drive inside.  Sweeeet!  I casually came by later and snagged another one.  No indication of the memory size on the outside.  That evening when I got back to the room I plugged it into my laptop and with great anticipation right clicked the drive and selected properties. 60 KB… What a waste of a circuit board.  Completely full of Draper lit and links of course.

CEDIA Swag

I did get a couple of keychain bottle openers, a nerf football from AMX, and a little fold up Frisbee from Omni Mount.  Actually, on the last day was able to score a pretty nice 25’ locking tape measure from Phase Technology and partners.  APC had a decent metal water bottle with carabineer, and ADI had a pretty nice deck of cards. Other than that, it was your typical pens, mints and rubber bracelets.  Come on Vendors!  We deserve better than that.  I’m giving you until next year to think up something useful.

There were a few new or novel technologies being shown at CEDIA Expo this year that are worth a mention.

• Wireless HD Transmission: Sony and LG have the techology built into TVs.  This allows you to send 1080p video from an equipment rack to a flat panel TV that has been mounted over a fireplace for example, without any cables between the two.  You just need power at the TV location.  Gefen has a transmitter and receiver combo that claims 30 meter range.  Most of these products have a more limited range.  Of course, how they actually perform in real world scenarios is yet to be determined, but this technology has the potential to open up flat panel install possibilites for lots of folks.
• Digital HD Distribution Over Coax: Another new product that will make installers lives easier and make HD distribution throughout the house easier is the ZvBox 150 from ZeeVee.  It is essentially Digital Modulation.  It can take a component or VGA video signal and modulate it onto any one of 135 digital TV channels.  You could hook up a Blu-Ray player, HD DVR, or a computer to it and send that signal to any TV in the house over the existing coax infrastructure.
• HDMI Cable Fixes:  As the HDMI cable has proliferated as one of the preferred methods of HD video and audio transmission, it has not come without it’s challenges.  And I am not talking about handshake issues, picture quality, cable distance limitations or delayed switching. Two basic mechanical properties have plagued installers and consumers alike.  The first is that the cables are loose fitting, and easily fall out or come loose enough to lose signal.  The second is that the connector is long and rigid, making it difficult to fit behind a flat panel TV or be crammed into a shallow equipment cabinet when it is connected to the  back of an AV Receiver.  Several Manufacturers have come up with solutions to these delemas.  Accell has designed a locking HDMI cable which cleverly releases when you pull back on the connector casting.  They avoided a push button release mechanism since HDMI cables are often crammed close together on the back of a receiver, making the button inaccessable.  Planet Waves also introduced a plastic sheath that can be fitted over their HDMI cable and uses a screw to lock the cable into place.  Many, but not all HDMI devices have this screw hole above the connector.  Planet Waves also showed 3 Right angle HDMI dongles for up, down and sideways install scenarios.  These will help keep flat screens flat.  Several other manufacturers, including Monster Cable, showed swiveling HDMI dongles.

While these are not earthshaking developments, they are clever solutions to some of AV’s nagging issues.  Thanks to all the clever minds that are helping to make our lives easier.

• CinemaScope for the Home: Lastly, I saw a trend in Anamorphic projector display starting to gain some momentum.  This allows projectors to show full 2.35:1 Cinemascope images, which takes advantage of all the pixels on a projectors chip to create a wider and higher resolution image.  Products that are helping to make this a reality are Anamorphic add on lenses from manufacturers like Panamorph and multi-masking screens from Stewart Filmscreen and Da-Lite.  More projectors also have the Anamorphic scaling mode built in to allow the add on lenses to work.  These technologies can still be quite expensive, but have been steadily coming down in price. For now, they are still a high end option, but the trend is encouraging.

Now this is my kinda place.  100 Beers on tap!  It has been a long time since I was carded, so I was surprised when the bartender asked to see my ID.  I guess in the Downtown area, they are required to card everyone.  I sampled the Dogfish Head Indian Brown.  Fantastic as I expected it would be.  It was nice to see Rogue Ales made the cut.  They were the sole Oregon offering.  I ordered Taco’s.  Much to my dissapointment, they were Taco Bell type tacos, except more expensive. Argghh. Well at least I had something good to wash them down with.

100 Taps of Beer on the wall, 100 Taps of Beer, you pull one down....