Audio News for November 22, 2011

LCD Display Shipments Rise 13% – More attractive prices for the upcoming holiday season are a result for consumers due to price declines for core panels due to sluggish consumer demand. LCD TV shipments worldwide were about 1% better than had been forecast. Retails prices for 32” fell to $300, and $500 for 40-42”. The transition to LED backlights continues, and account for 48% of total LCD shipments. Higher frame-rate models of 120Hz or more represent about 22% of LCD shipments. 3D grew to about 11% of LCD TVs. The slower growth of the two advanced features is indicative of conservative consumer spending and reluctance to pay significant premiums. Plasma TV shipments have shown increasing softness, and within plasma 720p models account for about ⅔ of unit shipments. 3D rose to about 27% of plasma TV shipments in Q3.
Classical News – Leonard Slatkin has extended his contract with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He is also music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon and principal guest conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. After last year’s strike, the Detroit Symphony has had an up-tick in ticket sales of 40% along with increased contributions.  The Bolshoi theater in Moscow has been stunningly renovated and its first opera has produced considerable controversy. Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila has bewitched slave girls in a bordello doing a Charlie Chaplin imitation and a grand finale on roller skates. A later scene includes fleeting nudity. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang has invited pianists worldwide to download his free score for his four-minute work Wed, to perform and record it and upload it to YouTube to be judged by an international panel of judges. The winner will get a free trip to New York City, an honorarium, and the opportunity to perform the piece.
Global Loudspeakers Market to $4.5 Billion by 2017 – According to a new report by Global Industry Analysts by 2017 the market for speakers is expected to total 18.1 million units. The continued popularity of audio and video entertainment, and increasing household penetration has led to a rising trend for at-home entertainment. Big boxy speakers have been replaced in many areas by sleek and relatively compact in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and unobtrusive, visually-appealing designs which fit gracefully into modern homes and offices. Additionally, speakers with added amplification are making their appearance in the marketplace to meet consumers’ demands for more power and sound. The world economic recession has impacted the loudspeaker market. Shifting consumer focus towards value for money bargains and preferences for low cost brands resulted in exerting pressure on dollar sales, and brought down the profit margins. But the market is already showing improvement signs with preferences towards spending on in-home entertainment instead of spending on out-of-home entertainment. The number of hours spent watching TV, home movies, and playing video games has risen drastically over the past year or two, and along with it the average household expenditures on AV equipment have risen. The propensity to spend more on at-home luxuries such as a home theater system comes as no surprise. PC multimedia speakers are in high demand with the increasing popularity of PCs as extended home stereo system, and the expansion of the computer gaming industry also enhances the opportunities for marketing multimedia speakers. Leading players in the industry—which has many hundreds of manufacturers—are Altec Lansing, Audiovox, Bose, Boston Acoustics, B&W, Cambridge Sound Works, Creative Labs, Directed Electronics, Harman International, KLH, Klipsch, SpeakerCraft, Sonance, Velodyne and Yamaha, among others.  Global Industry Analysts is one of the world’s largest and most reputed market research firms.