Selected Stories from past editions of ElectronicRetailer.com
We are just back from the largest Consumer Electronics Show ever! by Tom Taylor with Rita Conlin, Tom Camery, and David Conlin 1/2004
Nearly 130, 000 people crammed into Las Vegas during the second week of January, and about half of them tried to leave by air on Sunday,,, can you imagine a 5 hour wait to get checked in and through security at the airport. Except for that and the Las Vegas Hilton gouging people $20 to park, things went smoothly. The CES provided almost 200 busses to move people around and it worked VERY well. Most of the major players were there and were spending heavily on the show. Samsung wrapped the Marriott Hotel with a cloth sign that was about 20 stories high and went across the front. LG (Zenith) had their name on planters around the outside of the show with their flags in them. BENQ, who ever they are, had their signs on every other cab in town. Virtually every major CE firm was represented. Quite a few firms from Mainland China were there with large booths. Many of them made product for the major sellers. I always find some of the smaller players to have interesting products. Here are a few that caught my eye.
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Cablevision demonstrated their new Voom satellite service with 39 high definition channels. Presently they are using MPEG2 technology but plan to switch to MPEG4. The pictures looked very good. The service is broadcast from their satellite at 61.5 degrees orbital location making the which is low in the sky from the Western U.S..
Fujifilm allowed attendees to print pictures from their new "Printpix" machines. These machines are designed to be placed in retail stores where customers can print pictures from their digital cameras by inserting their memory cards into a slot and choosing the pictures to print. Cost of the machine is from $3000 to $6000 depending on the machine chosen. The cost of the paper to print a 4 by 6 inch picture is about 21 cents a shot. The quality of the pictures printed on thermal paper was excellent, and unlike other thermal paper products, Fuji insists the prints won't fade. http://home.fujifilm.com
Last year we got to take a spin in Mercedes Benz cars, this year we were only able to take a spin on a "Rad 2 Go" Segway look alike. Actually the Rad had two small wheels instead of gyro stabilization. IT runs off of rechargeable batteries and is quick and very maneuverable. The unidentified publisher found it to be amazingly fun to "drive". Retail price is about $1500 with a good markup for the seller. Contact is http://www.rad2go.com.
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So Many Exhibits, So Little Juice. By Rita Conlin
Early every January the adventure begins. Myself,
along with a mere 180,000 others make a pilgrimage to Every personal device So Many Exhibits, So Little Juice. By Rita Conlin
Early every January the adventure begins. Myself,
along with a mere 180,000 others make a pilgrimage to Every personal device that you could think of is featured here. And I mean everything . The size and scale ranged from an entire NextGen demonstration house (www.ishow.com) to the latest in small LED remote control lights used for creative automobile lighting (www.tireflys.com).In order to visit all 2,300 exhibitors you would have the daunting task of stopping at 575 exhibits per day. An endeavor I am sure, to have fallen short of. Nonetheless, my self imposed title of ‘Joe Consumer’ compelled me to find the ‘new and improved’ versions or models of the products that I just cannot live without; or at least are on my ‘gotta have someday’ list. Phones :The more my phone can do , and the more things I can download to it the better. Sony Ericsson (www.sonyericsson.com) asks the question “Can a phone have Mojo?” . They’ve answered that question with a couple of interesting new models that have just that; Mojo.Take for example their model Z1010 it’s a clamshell style GSM camera phone with changeable color faceplates and 2 built in cameras. An outside camera for taking pictures and recording video and an inside video camera that lets you see and hear one another during your call. With an optional Bluetooth Handsfree device (HBH-200) you can keep the phone in your briefcase or purse and still make phone calls wirelessly via Bluetooth radio link. No more umbilical cords connected to your phone! If a PDA style phone is more you, their models P800 and P802 look more like a PDA phone than a PDA with phone capabilities. Both have a large color touchscreen with stylus, a built in camera, instant Internet access button, GPRS, WAP, e-mail and triple band GSM. It also has polyphonic ringtones and a picture phone book so that you can now call your boss by a simple ‘poke’ to his nose. Sierra (www.voq.com) wireless displayed their Voq (pronounced voke) Professional Phone that operates based on the Windows Mobile 2003 software. Also a PDA phone, the bottom half flips open to reveal a complete QWERTY keyboard, a feature PDA users will find liberating.Cameras Philips Key010 and 007 are small wearable digital cameras that take up to 300 pictures at 2 mega pixels. Impressive given their size and weight. Wear it around your neck or on your key chain; it’s really that small. Mobile TV We’ve all seen those big white domes on the top of fancy motorhomes and buses belonging to rock and movie stars. If you looked inside one of those domes you’d find a mobile satellite tracker that enables you to watch satellite TV as you’re rolling down the road. As much as most families would like to have that abilitly in their own vehicles, attaching one of those domes to the top of your SUV or Mini-Van would definitely diminish your rods’ ‘cool’ factor. Enter
KVH Industries and their TracVision A5 (www.kvh.com/tracvision)
. It’s a low profile
satellite TV tracker that attaches to the roof of your automobile
enabling live TV to be viewed through your cars video system as you
travel throughout the
Many
more products shown at CES fall into my ‘gotta have someday’
category than those on my short list of newer, cooler versions of
devices I currently use. My
luck would have it that the exhibits I missed were those destined for
my ‘gotta have someday’ list.
Oh well, next year, before
I run out of juice and time, I’m renting a Segway. |
 
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Above: Rita Conlin uses her Phone Camera to snap a picture. Camera Phones were all the rage at the CES. Tom Camery Checks out the TrackVision SUV. The antenna is located in the luggage rack on top of the SUV.
Another year comes to a close as the Satellite TV industry takes on cable with a blizzard of new Products as well as hard hitting advertising. by Thomas Taylor December 2003
New receivers include new PVR (they record) models from both DirecTV and Dish Network. Dish Network has a blizzard of new products and promotions guaranteed to dazzle the customer and thoroughly confuse and bewilder the dealer. There are new two tuner receivers that can be back fed to second tv sets. There are two new high definition receivers, one even having the ability to record high definition tv. In some markets there is a new larger Super Dish antenna that picks up signals from medium powered Ku satellites as well as high powered DBS birds. If you live in Atlanta you your local stations from the standard 500 20 inch dish, but if you live in Columbus, Ohio you will need a Super dish. Dish seems to be determined to have 100 local cities on the air by New Years Day 04. DirecTV seems to have been able to keep more of their locals on their core DBS location. Zoom has been launched by cable interests, offering a few high definition and standard definition stations from a satellite with limited transponders stuck somewhere over the East Coast. At over $700 a system, Zoom, which only some Sears Stores sell, is yet to make an impact on the satellite market. Dish Network promises to heat up the High Definition market with systems for $1399 and that includes the TV set.
Advertising; lets just say that it is hard hitting, entertaining and funny. DirecTV has celebrities read letters from customers saying that cable lies, satellite pictures are not worse, they are MUCH better then cable. Dish Network blast cable with their "Don't feed the Pig" ad. Cable says has their "only on cable" ads. Dish reminds viewers that only on cable can you get cable rates that go up five times faster then inflation. The Christmas market had turned into a major battle for TV viewers.
Speaking of New Satellite Receivers, the MPEG2 Free to Air receivers now "find the signal" automatically.
If you have read previous articles in this publication, you know that there is a little know type of satellite receiver on the market that picks up "free" television. No, it doesn't steal programming but it does pick up hundreds of stations that are there for the taking. There are dozens of international channels including programming from Libya, Serbia, Thailand, Bosnia, south Asia, and the list goes on and on. Many religious stations use this means of transmission ranging from the Adventists, to Muslim TV, to the bicycle riding Dr euGene Scott and his University Network. There is even some network television up and many news feeds if you know where to look. When the U.S.A. adapted Digicipher as their standard, the rest of the world went MPEG2, DVB. The big advantage is that a programmer can fit ten or more stations into the band width of one analog station drastically cutting costs.
Programming Problem Solved
In the past the problem with these receivers has been that rather then just turn them on and dial for channels, the user had to manually enter both frequency and symbol rate and scan for a station. Each group of stations on one frequency would typically have a different symbol rate which is something like baud with a computer. Now there has been a major break through in satellite receivers. There are now receivers that will actually search for both frequency and symbol rate. This is not just running through a list of possible combinations, these receivers actually do a blind search, they find the signal, and they work. It takes about 5 minutes to search a satellite, but, unlike earlier attempts, due to new tuners, much faster processors, and new software these receivers actually work. The latest receivers that we have tested carry such names as Coship and Satworks. We took a new Satworks ST 3688 receiver and found over 100 video and audio stations on Telstar 5 ku alone. These receivers are a hobbyists dream , and a big help to downlinkers who know what bird the signal is on, but, may not have all of the parameters. For further information on MPEG2fta receivers and the new blind search receivers, check out http://www.mpeg2fta.com
Thomas Camery also contributed to this article
Satellite Broadcast and Communications Association loses their President. Sept 5, 2003 Tom Taylor
Today Andy Wright, announced his resignation as President of the SBCA, the satellite industry trade organization effective Sept. 30th. Mr. Wright had been an popular leader of the organization as well as an effective lobbyist for the satellite industry. As of today the SBCA still plans to have their retailer rally in Washington D.C. 9/23-25. Gone are the giant twice a year trade shows in Nashville, and Vegas which at one time were actually larger then some of the cable shows. This years rally will probably be quite small. Our reporters have been in touch with a number of retailers who are veterans of many SBCA "Conventions" since the first years of the organization. One Indiana dealer said that "..it is sad to see the SBCA fall apart, and all the good people depart." The last two or three years has seen the departure of virtually all of the veterans from the early golden days of satellite, from the management of the SBCA. Gone are Chuck Hewett, Margaret Parone , Andy Paul, James Ashurst, as well as at least half a dozen other people. This may be more a result of the changing industry rather then the fault of the organization. Gone are the giant trade shows with dozens of hardware, and programming suppliers. The industry is down to basically two platforms, Dish and DirecTV, and programming and hardware decisions are now largely out of the hands of the dealers and in the hands of DirecTV and Dish Network.
All at the SBCA is not on a downhill track. Dave Pedigo, Director of Education, at the SBCA has been quite successful in their DBS installation training and certification program. The program is known as the "National Standards and Testing Program. Retailer membership has remained strong due in large part to the certification program.
If the truth were known, the SBCA was probably another rung up the ladder for Andy, a skilled professional with the potential of becoming a million dollar a year man. Mr. Wright can certainly find more lucrative opportunities elsewhere in our nations capital. Andy may be leaving at the right time as it now looks like Rupert will take over DirecTV, an event that Mr. Wright may find more pleasant from viewing from the outside.
The board of directors of the SBCA, a group made up by representatives of Dish Network, and DirecTV and a few of their suppliers will meet and choose a successor for Mr. Wright. In order to succeed the SBCA will have to reinvent itself becoming more relevant to the changing satellite industry.
As an industry, satellite has now passed 20 million subscribers and shows no sign of slowing.
Urgent; Another fraudulent email makes its way around the internet.
Aug 16,2003 by Tom Taylor.
Once again Scam artists are sending out emails asking for account information. This time they are sending out an email that appears to be from Citibank. Logos, addresses and this time, unlike the Best Buy email below, it all seems to be on the up and up. The email states, "Dear Citibank customer, We are letting you know that as a Citibank checking account holder, must become acquainted with our new Terms & Conditions and agree to it." The email goes on to ask the customer to "Click here to access our Terms & Conditions page and not allow your Citibank checking account suspension" . It then goes to a page that does not have a Citibank URL and asks for the customer's account information. If these are the same crooks that pulled the Best Buy scam, below, at least their English is getting better. A quick call to Citibank verified that the message was a fraud and was out of China. Welcome to the new world of Internet fraud.
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Place a 13 inch TV on top of a DishNet
receiver and it turns to toast. Allowing a cat to sleep in a warm
receiver will fill it with hair and cause similar problems.
Picture courtesy of Mainstreet Communications And the customer expects a replacement under warrantee? |
Security, problems and opportunities for the electronics industry
Credit Card Scam Involves Best Buy
by Tom Taylor, editor and publisher
It is summer and the credit card crooks are hard at work. We recently received a message stating "Dear customer, Recently we have received an order made by using your personal credit card information. The order was made online at our official Best Buy website on ------. Our Fraud Department has some suspicions regarding this order and we need you to visit a special Fraud Department page at our web store where you can confirm or decline this transaction by providing us with the correct information. This e-mail address has been taken from National Credit Bureau". The e-mail lists purchases of $775 to be sent to a New York City address. The e-mail requests that a link be clicked on which takes you to a web site that is an exact copy of the Best Buy web site. Contacts and everything appear to be legitimate. Phone numbers and all correct. It then instructs the customer to accept or decline the charge. When "decline" is clicked on one is transferred to another page where your physical address, daytime phone number and zip code are asked for. At his point the URL at the top of the page ceases to be Best Buy and is linked to some fraud page. Click on it and your personal information is sent to who knows where. It could even be going to the Orient. Check the last sentence of the quote, it is missing the word the". Outlook Express indicated that the message was from a "Foreign Sender". The information requested is also the information that the latest credit card machines ask for to verify cards when the customer is not present.
Just before we clicked on the send button we called Best Buy, after verifying their phone number by independently going to their web site and sure enough it was a scam. A Best Buy representative said that they were aware of the fraud and was even able to provide us with the "Order Number" that was used. They said that they were working on the case.
Best Buy has not been the only victim of such fraud. Pay Pal arm of Ebay was also hit with a similar scam.
It makes us wonder how often we have been one click away from economic disaster . It is now time to go and delete another hundred pieces of spam we have received this afternoon.
Security Remains a problem for the Consumer Electronics Industry
Last years Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was punctuated by increased security, from checks at the door to numerous exhibitors showing all kinds of new hardware. The January 2004 show promises even more security as this is a growing segment of the consumer electronics market. Exhibitors from the largest firms down to small satellite equipment distributors such as Astrotel seem to have reinvented themselves into security equipment vendors. In a time of slowing electronic equipment sales, security is saving both equipment vendors and dealers
UPS faces Uniform Threat
by Rita Conlin
UPS has warned shippers about people showing up and trying to collect packages for UPS shipment. It seems that a number of UPS uniforms were sold on Internet auction sites. This is a special problem for people in the electronics industry due to the high value and ease of selling stolen product. Shippers are warned to be careful, look for the big brown truck, we haven't seen any of them sold on EBay, yet
Satellite Hackers Creating Unexpected Danger
By Tom Taylor
If seems that hackers have become so sloppy in the way that they steal programming that their devices can actually set off air crash detection equipment devices. According to the Edmonton Sun, pirated ExpressVu receivers are suspected of transmitting signals that are at the same frequency as the Emergency Location Transmitters that are activated in an airplane crash.
This publication has learned that it is not a hacked cards but rather the elaborate electronics including emulation boards that hang out the front or the receiver that are causing the problem. It seems that some hackers have copied directions off of the Internet and built the devices. Not only do these unshielded, ungrounded devices steal programming, for a while, but they are so poorly built that the put out a strong signal which is magnified through harmonics right up into the 121 MHZ frequency where the ELT frequency is and are detected by satellites as phantom crashed airplanes. Now some hackers have a whole list of new violations of law that they can be charged with. Eh, in the long run hacking does not pay, not even in Canada.
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by Thomas Taylor Publisher
2004 Show is less then 7 months away, here is what happened at the 03 show; Winter Consumer Electronics Show 2003 was a resounding success, Where did all the people come from!!!!
| Consumer Electronics Show | January 2003 |
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Las Vegas
Convention Center, framed by new monorail system to open this year, hosts
the largest Consumer Electronics show ever
|
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Someone forgot to tell the consumer electronics industry that there is a world wide recession on. In a time when many trade shows are on the decline, with the formerly largest of all, Comdex, facing bankruptcy the Winter CES filled the newly expanded Las Vegas Convention Center with over 116,000 attendees and more stuff on the floor then ever before. Speaking of "stuff" there was the usual television sets ranging from small green "bug eye" sets to enough plasma screens to cover one side of the Washington Monument. Standard projection HDTV sets were all of a sudden "old hat". Even Dish Network had a 36 inch tube type HDTV built by their English subsidiary . Dish's CEO had a very simple message which went something like; if the industry won't build an affordable HDTV we will.
The show was so large, covering some 1.5 million square feet, that no one could possibly see the entire show. There were so many cars and trucks parked in exhibits in the North Hall that one wondered if they had arrived at the Detroit auto show. There were so many Hummers that it almost seemed that GM must have made a special production run just for the show. BMW minis were every where. There were cars that have not appeared yet on the floors of the nations auto dealers. There was the new lower priced SUV from Honda that was kind of neat with its gear shift sticking out of the dash board. There was a new similar offering from Toyota with a front seat that was so narrow with solid bar edges that is very uncomfortable for anyone but the slimmest driver. Infinity had a new sedan SUV crossover that looked very interesting. Mercedes Benz brought about three dozen cars, most of which were used in their tech drive road course where attendees could drive cars around a course in a large parking lot.
| The Zenn, one of the several tiny electric cars offered for sale by exhibitors at the WCES | 
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Sony, Philips answer Internet Music file swapping
In a time when the motion picture, and record industries scream about music files being swapped on the Internet and call for new laws, new copy protection, and even the right to enter computers to try to fight what they believe to be illegal listening to music, one group has taken a much more positive and constructive approach to the situation.
Realizing that most music that is "Swapped" across the Internet is of low quality, Sony, and Philips, the inventors of the Compact Disk, have teamed up with a number of "Record labels" to launch a new ultra high quality CD that the are calling Super Audio CD or SACD. Members of the press were treated to a demonstration of some of the offerings available. These included many remastered hits from the past including such names as Police, Sting, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and the list goes on.
SACD is yet another new form of music. Place a SACD into the CD player in your new rental car, as we did. and nothing will happen. We were later told that SACD's that are compatible with old fashioned 2003 CD players are also available. At least someone in the recording industry is trying to win sales by offering added value through enhanced quality to music listeners.
Broadband via satellite, in search of a winning Business Plan.
First it was high speed Internet return with phone connect from such DirecPC, and later Isat (see below), and now Amigo. Then came two way broadband from Starband and Hughes DirecWay. But,,,, to date the clear winners have been cable modem and to a lesser extent DSL. With Starband in Bankruptcy and Hughes for sale, and neither turning a profit, satellite broadband is in need of a business plan that will work. This publication's publisher as well as its writers sought out industry experts in the field of Satellite Broadband at the WCES. Interviewed were experts from the N.R.T.C., Pegasus, MotoSat, Hughes, and even EchoStar. Together, the industry experts agreed that the business plan with the best potential to show a profit would use a Ka band platform.
Ka. band at 19 gig is "10 times more efficient" as one expert put it. Right now it costs the Ku 12 gig platform p roviders almost as much money as they charge for their service for the use of the satellite according to Charlie Ergen. . Starband and Hughes have lowered this figure somewhat through improvements in hardware and software. The N.R.T.C. and EchoSTar aw well as Intelsat and others have investments in Wild Blue, a company who plans to complete and launch their service in perhaps a year. EchoStar has their Ka band bird EchoStar IX under construction and may launch within a year. EchoStar IX will go to an orbital slot that the F.C.C. took away from from EchoStar until they demonstrated that they had a Satellite under construction. Pegasus also holds Ka. band orbital locations but may be a bit further from launch then others. SES Americom is also planning to launch their own Ka Band satellite. As of now it looks like we have a half dozen or more firms and partners looking to launch satellites with perhaps Wild Blue being the only player to commit to launching an broadband. Pegasus and EchoStar may also be looking to launch video services. If Pegasus ever severs it ties with DirecTV, Ka might be an alternative. As for EchoStar,,, we asked several of their engineers what was planned for EchoStar IX and they would NOT say what service they may offer. Charlie has sealed their lips. Is Charlie looking for a business plan that has a chance of turning a profit.
There are some rather severe downsides to Ka. Band Satellite. Ka Band operates in the 19 Ghz band, a frequency that is highly attenuated by even light rain. To make it through rain a dish of at least one meter in size will have to be used. Royal Lamb of MotoSat, a company that makes equipment that allows use of DirecWay for mobile users, reached over and grabbed on of his antennas showing that it had a tiny bit of movement remarking that such movement would not be possible for Ka band reception. He also said that installation using procedures used for DBS Ku band would not work. Using a meter and turning the dish would not be accurate enough to find the satellite. New much more sophisticated installation would have to be developed.
Dish Storm from Motosat is a resounding success in the mobile two way Internet field via Ku band satellite' but according to it's CEO Royal Lamb will have to be redesigned to much tighter tolerances for Ka band service.
Amigo Launches Spanish Language Service
AmigoTV.net was seen at the CES looking for dealers to help promote and install their Spanish language programming being offered via computer. The customer has a satellite dish installed and watches over 20 channels of programming on their computer. Programming is presently available from Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Spain, Honduras, and Venezuela plus additional Cinema and varied programming. The customer must purchase satellite hardware and have a computer. Programming costs the customer $30 a month.
Dishnetwork wins Best of Show
EchoStar wont the "Best of Show" award for their new 921 Dishnetwork receiver. The new 921 Personal Video Recorder, PVR, receiver is a high definition receiver with a giant 250 gigabite hard drive capable of recording up to 40 hours of high definition, or 250 hours of standard definition programming. Dish also showed a new 322 standard receiver and 522 standard definition PVR, both with two tuners capable of feeding two televisions with different programming. Dish even showed a new simple remote control. To top it off, Echo's CEO showed a prototype 36 inch tube type high definition television set developed by their British subsidiary. His said that if some else didn't bring out a lower priced HDTV he would. Oh,, just one more thing,, don't call your Dish dealer because not any of these products are available yet, net even the remote control, none of it is available. Dish said the remote control would be available soon, the rest, who knows.
EchoStar
Proposed HDTV
By Publisher with Rita and David Conlin and Tom Camery contributing
New Life for an Old Idea
Another Internet via satellite service has rolled out from the folks at Skyvision. Like DirecPC, it is a one way downlink service with telephone return . . Skyvision has linked up with SES Americom, I Satplatform and B2C2 to offer the service. Initially Skyvision announced that they would allow retailers to sell the service and receive commissions, but to date Skyvision has not returned requests from ER.com with information on their retailer program. The customer has 2 purchase plans. For $44.95 a month the customer gets a full blown ISP service and for $29.95 a month the customer can use his own ISP for mail , or a free service like Hotmail. Hardware, which runs $99 for an internal PCI card or $149 for an external Model connected via USB cable. Hardware is free with a 1 year commitment.
We were able speak with a CBand net customer and he said that he really liked the service. He previously had Cable Modem and said that Cable was unsatisfactory because his modems kept failing. This we find unusual as most cable modem users have good luck with their service
For further information keep an eye on the web site http://www.cband.net
SBCA Vegas 2002 Satellite Industry has annual show in Las Vegas
The Show, Times are changing.
Gone are the giant shows of 10 years ago at Nashville's Opryland mega hotel. No longer do we see 5000 plus attendees as we did in the 80s. The exhibit space was the smallest in memory, occupying only a fraction of the area of the dish farm of shows 10 years ago.. Don't call this years show a failure, it was not. Given the fact that most exhibitors from years past have either left the industry or are showing in much smaller booths, the SBCA has far less potential exhibitors to work with. To meet this challenge the SBCA has changed the show. Training is now a main emphasis. There were three, soon to be four levels of small dish training and certification. To date the SBCA has certified over 10,000 installers. Add to this training for installation of Satellite Radio in cars, telephone and home wiring, and even C-Band and MPEG2fta installation. Yes, much of the "Show" has moved off of the floor into the classroom.
The Show, How big was it????
Preliminary head count has retailers at 1970, not including those that got in with exhibitor passes, and over 1300 exhibitors, which is about the same ratio as a high class cruise ship. Dealer attendance seemed to be held down given the comparatively outrageous price of admission attendees had to pay to walk onto the floor of the exhibit hall. The CES is still free for the dealer. The show floor seemed to be well populated with dealers on the first day but by last day most of those populating the floor seemed to be non dealer "Industry Professionals" waiting for the show to end. Floor attendance was definitely down due to dealers attending classes. The author of this piece was even observed on the last day filling a bag with HBO cookies to feed the C-Band installation class he was helping teach. Attendees definitely found things to do off the floor by the last day. Three days of the trade show may be too long.
Many exhibitors downsized this year, perhaps in response to the very high cost of booth space. Numerous venders said that it cost them more to show at the SBCA then it did at the giant Consumer Electronics Show.
Absent from this years show was Starband and Pegasus, the later in protest of the SBCA's backing of the DirecTV Echo merger. The NRTC did choose to attend the show and participate in SBCA training activities. On the bright side there were some 26 new exhibitors this year. They included several distributors from the left coast that made up of Eastern distributors that did not make the trip. There were even included a couple of Canadian distributors showing.. One distributor was even showing his latest emulator board, a device that the proprietor of the booth claimed he knew nothing about
The Party Report
Gone are the grand parties that attendees enjoyed in Nashville. No more Charlie Daniels, Lee Ann Rimes, Vince Gill, and Little Texas. HBO did have a party at the "Beach", a well known watering hole across the street from the Convention Center. Unlike previous years when the food was gone in 15 min., there was plenty to eat and even places to sit. A dj played music and attendees seemed to enjoy the evening. Showtime had their cyber cafe' where one could sip on a cup of Joe and check their e-mail or chargebacks. This is a big improvement over Showtime parties of years ago featuring Hot Dogs and squirt guns filled with beer.
No News, No Newsmakers, Nothing to report, Not a press event.
With only two press conferences scheduled, DirecTV , and Sirius, the press stayed away from the show. A check of the Press Room as well as the show floor revealed an absence of most of the reporters that covered the show in the past. About the only new hardware that had not been seen before was a MPEG2-fta PVR from PanSat and a couple of new receivers from Dish that will not be on the market until next year. Oh yes, don't forget the emulator board, or is that new? Even the Keynote session featuring a panel of "who remembers " seemed to offer attendees an hour of sheer boredom punctuated by brief moments of dozing off..
Charlie Sighting,, (Don't even say "Charlie Shagged the show")
Painfully absent from the show was Charlie Ergen. There were those that though that the character in a red velvet suite and a bad wig doing an Austin Powers routine might be Charlie in disguise, but closer examination revealed him to be some actor just out shagging the attendees. Austin was part of the festivities at the dealer breakfast, a Starz sponsored event that was greatly enjoyed and considered a high point in the show. The absence of Charlie Ergen definitely hurt the show, especially in the area of attendance of by the press.
Charlie was rumored to be some place on the other side of the world on vacation and unable to attend the show. Given that the merger is in the final stages of negotiation, and Charlie has said about all he can say to the public, his absence may have been a very wise move. Charlie had little to gain by attending, and could risk a great deal by making an unfortunate remark, or getting into an argument with a dealer hyped up on too many HBO cookies in front of the world press. At this point Chairman Ergen's actions and remarks must be well crafted. Charlie has made his points, the merger is his to loose.
Given the sad shape of trade shows, the SBCA looks pretty good
Cable shows, model railroad shows, computer shows, they are all down, in some cases way down in attendance. Comdex, once the king of the Vegas shows, was way down in attendance this year and has had to merge with another show. This leaves the Consumer Electronics Show as the BIG show in Vegas. Those following amateur radio shows know that all shows are down and many of them have been cancelled or cut back.
What is the convention industry doing to adjust for this??? They are building. more capacity. In Vegas many hotels have new or recently opened facilities. The Mandalay Bay Hotel has a new convention facility under construction that approaches two million square feet in size. The Las Vegas Convention Center opened their new addition this year. This is not just in Vegas. Cincinnati is one of many cities planning or building new facilities yet facility prices are up and attendance is down,,, Why?? Will the convention industry suffer the same fate from overcapacity as the tech industry?
Certainly the events of 911 and the downturn in the economy are factors. There is another factor that few is often overlooked, the Internet. No longer do potential attendees need to travel to a far off city to see the latest product, converse with fellow dealers, or even buy or sell product, this can be done from a computer. A quick trip http://www.dishretailer.com or http://www.mpeg2fta.com are sites for industry professionals to begin.
Given this mixed state in the trade show industry, The SBCA should be commended for doing as well as they did in Vegas.1+++i think
Las Vegas Monorail
Any report on Las Vegas would be incomplete without mentioning the new monorail system.. Construction is underway with rails being poured beginning with a giant loop at Sahara Blvd. running past the Las Vegas Hilton, the Convention Center, then down Paradise Rd. and finally taking a turn toward Las Vegas Blvd. and the south part of the Strip. When finished, the system will be a continuous loop running from the airport to the downtown Freemont St. area. Note the concrete monorail in the picture above.
Just as it seemed like the SBCA had found a place for its summer convention, locating it just before the announced Dish Network Team Summit meetings in Denver, EchoStar moved their dealer meetings to Atlanta. The SBCA then cancelled their Denver convention and has promised to relocate with a much smaller trade show. The SBCA seemed to do very well at the 2003 WCES and should consider making this their main trade show.
Tom Taylor with Rita Conlin, and David Conlin contributing
The Second Year of the new Millennium is about half over and if one takes their eyes off the DirecTV EchoStar merger, the Satellite and Cable industries seem to have more then their share of major problems. Click here for the story
Nearly 3000 Dish Network dealers and professionals gather at Disney World for the Fifth Team Summit.
The mid April weather was great for TS at Disneyworld. This year's summit reflected a confident company. The "trade show" and newly added "Tech Expo" reflected a company that seemed to be on the verge of becoming the industry. There were many new exhibitors that were from the industry that were not part of Dish Network. They included such diverse companies as ProBrand, RCA, and Earthlink. Many new DishNetwork receivers were exhibited at the trade show with technicians on hand to explain their features and installation. There were y training sessions. This was by far the best Team Summit yet.
For further information on the show visit http://www.electronicretailer.com
Blood, Hi Tech Fry Pans, Internet From the Sky, and other Neat Stuff. The WCES for 2002 did it Right! 90 day update This story just keep on going- continuous updates.
911 Airshield wipes out East Coast Satellite Reception
Satellite Executives Square off at Winter Consumer Electronics Show 2002
The proposed merger between Hughes DirecTV and EchoStar again boiled over at the 2002 Winter CES in Las Vegas. The setting was the Sky Forum panel with Echo's Chairman and the proposed Chairman of the new merged company, Charlie Ergen, and his new sidekick, Hughes' Chairman Eddie Hartenstein verses Bob Phillips of the NRTC and Pegasus Chairman Mark Pegan. The panel took questions from a journalist. All of the questions seemed to center around the merger, should it be approved, and is it good for America. Mr. Ergen repeated his contention that this was the right move for America. Charlie, as he prefers to be called, stated several times that Dish and DirecTV both duplicate each others programming and since all the spectrum is used thus precluding carriage of more channels, especially local channels from smaller markets. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pegan answered back saying that through the use of spot beam satellites all local stations could be carried and the merger was not necessary. Mr. Phillips pointed to a study done by an engineer for the FCC stating that this was possible. Mr. Hartenstein, an engineer, stated that the report was bad engineering and that satellites simply didn't work that way.
Then they turned to a limited discussion of microeconomics and market structure. Would a monopoly in the satellite industry hurt Americans and especially rural Americans? Would such a monopoly be of significant importance given competition from cable and other sources? The panel members seemed to agree to disagree. As the conversation dragged on Messer's Phillips and Pegan tried to drive home their points about the merger might increase programming prices and hurt service to rural America where their customers are. Mr. Ergen seemed to almost play with his colleagues by making cute remarks, talking about University of Tennessee, and acting like the merger will go through and there was little anyone could do to stop it.
Unfortunately none of the panel member seemed either willing or able to discuss Antitrust law and how it might apply to a proposed merger. Would one satellite company be a significant monopoly as outlined under the Sherman, Clayton, and subsequent Federal Legislation? How crucial is the satellite industry? Do Americans, especially in rural areas depend on it as their sole source of news or might they do better to listen to their local radio station and read the local paper for the news they need to know? These are important questions that the panel seemed to avoid.
Pegasus and more satellite stories
Al Jazeera, Satellite Offers What May be presently the MOST Influential News Service in the World!!
You won't find this channel on your local cable system in the US or in the West, but you will see their news footage on CNN and many other news outlets. Anyone who has been following the recent events has seen their news footage usually punctuated by a gold onion shaped flame in the right lower corner of the screen. Al Jazeera is a news service from Doca , Qatar, a small Arab state on the southwest corner of the Red Sea. This Arab Language , Western style and dress, service has gained the trust of most of the Arab world with its hard hitting news independent of any state government As Mr. Helal, their chief editor is reported as saying, "...we upset most of the other Arab States". Al Jazeera has upset the United States by reporting that 500,000 Iraqi children have perished since the U.S. placed sanctions on food and medication against Iraq. They drove this point home by quoting Ms. Albright the former Secretary of State as saying "That is the price that has to be paid" when referring to these children. They also tell their listeners how the United States props up governments, many of the monarchies, that are unpopular with their people. Then there is the almost daily reports from Palestine of the never ending suffering of these people. This is why many Arabs and Muslims have become outraged at the United States. I don't need to elaborate on Al Jazeera , other than to say that they are the only news service allowed to report live from Afghanistan!
How To See Al Jazeera
For most viewers in the world the answer is Satellite Television. Al Jazeera can be seen in the Muslim world from Jakarta to Detroit. Most viewers in the United States pay to watch it on Dish Network. Al Jazeera is part of Dish's Arab package broadcasting from their satellite at 61.5 degrees. Dish dealers in the Detroit area say that they are kept busy installing extra dishes on homes to receive the 61.5 degree satellite.
Much of the rest of the world sees Al Jazeera free from satellites all across the world. These feeds, like CNN, and others broadcast signals in the clear, that is free of charge outside the United States. All the viewer needs is an MPEG2fta satellite receiver. I am told that satellite sales are very good in the Middle East, even countries that frown on television.
There is one way in which those in North America can view Al Jazeera for free. This requires a larger satellite antenna, usually 7 foot and an MPEG2fta receiver that will convert PAL pictures to NTSC, or a PAL standards television. The BEC 6600+ receiver, reviewed on this web site, does just that. The feed to North America is scrambled but at least at the moment the feed going to Australia is in the clear. The feed is on PanAmSat 9 located at 58 degrees longitude. The look angle for those on the West Coast is quite low but is fine for most of the U.S. `
UPDATE!!! The C-Band feed to Australia has now left PAS-9. Like so many of these feeds, they come and go. We have had reports of feeds to some of the news networks in the clear popping up from time to time. No more will be said for fear of loosing those feeds.
For further information on these receivers go to http://www.mpeg2fta.com For specifics on tuning this station check http://www.lyngsat.com
9/11 A WORLD NEWS PERSPECTIVE
We have seen the coverage of 9/11 on "American TV" and I
think we would
agree that is is quite good, but what was the rest of the world? Those
with Dish Network were able to tune their dishes to BBC America and see
coverage the BBC World Television Service. BBC America and their
operator finally let Americans see an extended version of the BEEB
news. The rest of the world sees this news channel including excellent
extended interviews on a continuous basis. Americans only see small
parts of the service, I wonder why? I used to watch the signal off
of
PanAmSat 5 satellite until they scrambled it a year or two ago. The BBC
World Television News is simply the best in the World. Their interviews
are especially good, they ask the right questions and the right
follow-up questions and they never loose the train of thought with a
commercial.
Now for the rest of the World. SIC from Portugal ran
good coverage
drawing on Euronews.
Dubai TV and the Dubai Business News channel did extensive coverage
including much of their own commentary, well done. Syrian TV also
covered the story as straight news. Surpassingly Syrian TV seems to be
rather well done but I am sure can not afford to buy a channel on
DirecTV or Dish. Iraqi tv seemed to be preoccupied with praising Sadam
and his military. I am not sure if they are even live. I did not see
coverage from Viet Nam TV. STV (Turkey ?) ran a colloge of coverage
as
seen on tv in China, Israel, Russia, Palestine, and Cuba, all giving
straight news. One service was even running CNN live.
Palestinian TV showed live feeds from New York but I saw NO signs of
celebration. They did a piece on their local situation showing a
cartoon character of a prison with barbed wire. The doors swung open to
show mothers carrying pictures of their martyred sons. Nowhere did I
see any sign of celebration on the part of anyone, including
Palestinians, of the events of 9/11. Even the Italian Music Video
Channel suspended programming to bring live news from New York and
Washington.
There are probably a dozen or more channels on Telstar 5 that can be
seen with a MPEG2-fta receiver like the BEC, and that is only on
satellite.
MPEG2-free to air Satellite Receivers, the World standard finally reach the USA
Everyone remembers the Big Satellite Dish that gave unsurpassed video quality with dozens of free stations to watch. Today about a million still enjoy their Big dish. Unfortunately, much or the analog programming has gone yet customers want something better then cable. They have turned to such small antenna Direct Broadcast Services as Dish Network, DirecTV and in Canada, Expressview. The problem is that the viewer has to pay for everything they see and the programmer and DBS provider have to agree to offer the service. Choice is limited to those programmers that can buy or can find viewers to buy space on the bird, No news backhauls, no Maharishi floating around on prayer rugs, no free Arab or Asian broadcasts. The list goes on and on. Many broadcasters are finding that they can get on satellite without paying the huge fees that the DBS players charge. One analog channel satellite is just too expensive for most players unless they are selling Sex or Jewelry. MPEG2- fta offers the programmer the ability to compress their signal so that they can get 5 to 10 or more channels in the space of analog channel. A religious broadcaster recently went from one analog program to five digital programs and save the better part of $100,000 a month. The Portuguese channel, RTPi, is now sharing a transponder with the British and Germans. The list goes on and on. MPEG2-fta is new to North America but has been the world standard for a few years. The reason that most people have not heard of this technology is because it does not produce programming revenue thus few have a vested interest in its promotion. We begin our series with a review of how to program one such receiver the BEC 6600+