Audio News for November 18, 2014

by | Nov 18, 2014 | Audio News

Home Automation Market Attracts Many New Firms – U.S. unit sales in the home automation area are prediced to gro by 20% in 2015 to 24.9 million units and a continued 20% growth rate during the following two years. Units include smart plugs and outlets, smart power strips, smart light bulbs and switches, smart thermostats and door locks, smart smoke and CO detectors, networked cameras, water-leak detectors, etc. But only 10% of U.S. households have at least one smart-home device now, and 62% of broadband-connected households in the U.S. are unfamiliar with smart-home products. However, 20% intend to buy one or more smart-home devices in the next year. The addition of home-automation products at Walmart, Target and Best Buy should increase awareness. Brand awareness is also low, with the top two companies – AT&T and ADT – named by only 6% to 7% of surveyed respondents.

Digital Home Systems Joins HTSA – The Home Technology Specialists of America has welcomed Digital Home Systems as its newest member. The firm was founded in 1999 and provides customized digital platforms for home theater, whole-home audio, security, surveillance and home-automation needs, as well as computer, networking and communication solutions. Other HTSA vendors are Samsung, Sony, Sharp, Integra, Kaleidescape and many others.

Sony Explores Sale of Operations Center – Sony has its operations center at Park Ridge, NJ up for sale, as part of reassessing its real estate holdings all over the world, since their financial pressures continue to mount. They officially moved their North American electronics division to San Diego in 2004, but maintained space at the Park Ridge campus, using only part of its office building there.

More UHD Video Options for Samsung UHD TV Owners – Video-on-demand streaming service M-GO has partnered with Samsung to bring a library of UHD content to Samsung’s so-called “4K” UHD TVs. It will be one of the first UHD TVOD services launched in the U.S. It is a joint venture between Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation, and joins Netflix, Amazon and others to bring 3840 x 2160 (somewhat compressed) video content to consumers’ living rooms in time for the holiday selling season. The service will be featured on an exclusively Samsung UHD TV lineup including both curved and flat-screen LED LCD TVs of screen sizes up to 110 inches. Note that the content will not necessarily be all produced originally in UHD. Some will be “…pre-processed from licensed content partner source files and optimized for image clarity, detail and texture…”

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