rAVe Home Volume 2, Issue 2

Welcome to the 2005 rAVe Radical Product of the Year Awards, which honors the products to watch in 2005.

How do we determine a winner? Simple. We award manufacturers for the products WE feel will ultimately have a huge impact on our market – products that may very well change a market structure or category. For example, one of our awards this year went to Crestron’s Isys I/O touch panels. We saw these as groundbreaking as they are the first touchpanels to integrate an industry standard operating system (Windows) with an industry standard communications protocol (the wireless networking technology known as WiFi). And, we KNOW that the other control system manufacturers will emulate this market trend – in fact it’s already started with Universal Electronics’ new Nevo remote control.

So, these award winners represent not only the best technological innovations of the year in their market category, but are also destined to set a trend for the future of the entire AV market.

Digital Media Servers: We saw them introduced in 2004, but in 2005, they will still be for early adopters while standards and leaders emerge. But once they do, look out – the pent-up demand will be huge. Microsoft, HP, Sony, Kaleidescape – you name it -- will all be spending fortunes on advertising so that, by the time you’re ready to recommend a system, your buyers will likely be ready. Expect that to happen in late 2005/early 2006.

You can also thank three companies for this: TiVo, since they’ve been priming the market for digital media recording for years now; Napster, since consumers became accustomed to downloading and storing songs; and Apple for making it cool to download and store music, store the songs both on computers and on handheld devices, and attach accessories to improve on the sound and functionality.

In 2005, these servers will offer massive storage AND recording server product category capable of archiving and playing ALL media content – everything from PC stuff, MACs, video, MPEG2, MPEG4, wired content, wireless content, sound and even data. And serve it up whenever you want and wherever you want.

DVI and HDMI: The DVI connector’s been here for four years. It’s just that most people haven’t connected to it yet. But as the trend of consumer technologies steering (and driving) professional AV technologies continues, 2005 will be the year you finally use that digital connector at home and at work. As you know, connecting digitally yields a better quality, more stable image. In 2005, your customers will know that, too, and the HDMI connector will become an industry-wide standard by January 2007 – unless the FCC changes their mind and decides to delay it a bit more.

Apple Style: In the days when AV teen geeks went down to the basement and put together radios from scratch, they couldn’t care less how the equipment looked. Two factors are changing that, and fast.

First, Apple has become renowned for its Apple Computer’s signature buy-in from millions of new users (present company included). Whereas before, we were stuck with a host of look-alike projectors, monitors and especially rack-mountable glue products, style will now be a selling point (and lack of style can be a detriment). Apple set the bar with how the products look and consumers are taking note. Expectations are higher.

Second, the new HomeAV products are products that are visible throughout the home. Given equal specs and pricing, the stylish boxes will outsell, period.

Plays Well With Others, Really: Manufacturers selling HomeAV systems based on proprietary technology better be really big names, better be ready to constantly introduce new peripherals, new ways to boost performance and offer everything offered by all those inter-compatible products. In other words, proprietary systems won’t work in the long run, so they won’t sell in the short term. At least, they shouldn’t.

Consumers want an open system that can be expanded, that can handle new types of peripherals as they come out from new manufacturers, and can handle any format now and down the road. They don’t want, as has happened to PC users, to buy a system today only to replace it two years from now because it’s easier and cheaper than upgrading the current model. Eh hem, note to Microsoft: make OS releases available over the home network.

802.11G Adoption: In 2005, the addition of 802.11g wireless networking to a host of products will allow for adoption of networked systems. Until October of 2004, the only wireless networkable products available were 802.11b (11 Mbps) and too slow for video. But, with Wireless-G, you can add MPEG video support via a wireless network. Unlike the ProAV market, HomeAV will adopt this fast – out of need to get rid of all those wires, and because with wireless routers, they’re already accustomed to using wireless laptops at home. Or at least, they can see how quickly these can be up and running.

Growth Again: 2004 brought us out of the recession and 2005 will be an explosive year for HomeAV industry growth. Yes, the trends for 2005 represent a lot of change. But for the smart integrators, double-digit growth is more than possible. Those digital content servers aren’t going to install themselves. Consumers aren’t going to want to shell out thousands of dollars on systems without expert advice (you).

The commodity projector doesn’t have to be something you lament. Dare I say that at these prices, you can easily afford to use it as a loss leader to get new business and referrals.

Finally, the Gen-X Factor: (or is it Gen-Y by now?). Gen X is likely to have as much input as anyone else in the household. Why? They are deemed by their parents to be more tech-savvy than anyone else in the house. They’re used to buying from Dell and Gateway and regularly buy over the Internet and phone as this trend started in college campuses! They use technology for entertainment already. They represent a whole new education and outreach challenge. (I bet Dell knows that!!). So, we aren’t marketing to the same people any longer, or shouldn’t be.

Think about that as they don’t look at stuff, buy stuff or use stuff the same way we’re all used to doing it.

Best New Product (Industry-Wide)

Kaleidescape’s Digital Media Storage and Delivery System. The Kaleidescape System transforms how you enjoy your home theater, giving you instant and easy access to your growing movie collection from anywhere in the home. It eliminates the need to deal with stacks of DVDs, while also giving you new and powerful ways to select, start, and scan individual movies onscreen. Kaleidescape is designed to complement your existing home theater system, delivering a rich and unparalleled theatrical experience. You'll find the Kaleidescape System to be a simple, powerful, and entertaining way to get the most from your movie library and home theater.

Best New Control System Product

Crestron’s Isys I/O Touchpanels: The Isys I/O panels are the first touchpanels to integrate an industry standard operating system (Windows) with an industry standard communications protocol (the wireless networking technology known as WiFi). So, control your home and everything in it while also browsing the internet at the same time using a touchpanel and NO PC required!

Best New Flat-Screen Product

Sharp’s 1920 x 1080 native resolution Aquos 16:9 HD LCD panels. This series is bright, beautiful and ground-breaking. Look, real HD isn’t 1280 x 720 or even 1080i. It’s 1080p. It’s just a matter of time before 1080p becomes THE HD standard – heck Europe is already saying they’ll skip right over the three HD standards the USA’s adopted and take on 1080p. This line is already 1080p compatible!

The PSB CustomSound designs settle the long standing conflict between sound and design.

Finally, custom installation specialists can employ Platinum performance in-room, in-wall or in-cabinet.

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Best New Rear-Screen Product

Hands-down, the InFocus MD10 series of 40”, 50” and 61” rear-screen DLP projection products. At less than 8” thick, these things are sleek, sharp and perfect for virtually every rear-screen application.

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Best New Screen

Da-Lite’s Acoustical Imager screen technology. Integrated with built-in Dolby Digital (5.1) sound via JBL speakers embedded into the frame of the screen, the Acoustical Imager will bring on a host of emulators. I am confident that Stewart and Draper are already scrambling to match this system-in-a-box approach to screen design.

Best New Analog HD Signal Processing Product

: TVOne’s C2-4100 Scaler/Seamless Switcher. With the capability to convert ANY input analog video signal to ANY output analog signal, the C2-4100 Scaler gives a Home Theater a powerful analog scaler that can covert component video, YUV, YPbPr, YCbCr or RGBHV signals from resolutions like 480p and 720p to analog HD signals like 1080i or even 1080p. It’s not capable of DVI or HDMI conversion, but for the current analog HD standards, it’s an awesome universal scaler that will significantly improve signal quality.

Best New Digital Signal Processing Product

Silicon Optix’s OptiScale is the ultimate home theater scaler out there right now. Although it’s not currently HDCP compliant, it will eventually be – it has to be. But, for now, this is the ultimate HD Home Theater digital scaler. With the capability to scale video, s-video, component video and even DVI and RGB 480p and 720p signals up to 1080i or 1080p, the outputs include both analog RGB and DVI signals, the OptiScale corrects for all that video noise you see on both cable and DVD signals as well as satellite HD channel anomalies.

*Best New Home AV Product (Tie*!)

NAD’s T 773 is heir to many generations of award winning NAD designs. It’s currently the ultimate in Home Theater AV receivers and may very well be the best one ever built. Of course it has all the basics every AV receiver has like 7 channels of audio, Dolby Digital EX , DTS, DTS ES and DTS-NEO audio processing, but with 6 AV inputs (including 3 component video), analog and digital audio inputs and outputs – all full-tape loops, a 2nd zone output one IR input and two IR outputs and a fully-functional RS232 port, the T773 may not only be the best AV receiver but also the best looking one as well.

Niles Intellipad Solo IR tops off one of the best whole house audio distribution systems in the industry. But, the Solo IR keypad is the ultimate simple to use and program IR keypad on the market offering fully functional control from every audio and video source routed via the Intellipad system.

Best New Company

Kaleidescape again gets the nod here. This company is destined to be a huge success or a target for a merger from a large industry player like an Extron or a Crestron – someone who may want to quickly enter the digital media storage category with a technological market leading product.

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