Well it’s time for the annual CEDIA Expo and once again it’s being held here in Denver.  I actually had a chance to get on the show floor a little early this year to help a couple of manufacturers setup their booths. In doing that I was able to get a sneak preview of a couple of interesting technologies and products that are coming out.  I’ll definitely be reporting on everything of interest over the next couple of days, in the meantime here is a quick preview on a couple of technologies I’ll be looking at and what we might expect.

Blu-ray – still the topic of major discussion even though HD-DVD is out of the picture.   McIntosh has announced it’s new player (due later this year) and several other manufactures have 2nd or even 3rd generation players announced for the show.   I suspect we’ll see a bunch of inexpensive players by Christmas and probably some expensive, high-performance models too.

OLED and SED – these are new display technologies that will change the flat panel industry from thin to very, very thin. This will be an interesting market segment to follow.

Projection – now that the initial wave(s) of 1080p players have reached the market we’re going to see a bunch of high-end projectors hit the market.  So far, the buzz is about Meridian, Wolf, Christie, JVC and, of course, 8250’s personal favorite,  projectiondesign with their new avielo product line.

Whole house distribution – a lot of new products are recently out or coming out which do various forms of HDMI distribution throughout the house as well as some innovative audio products as well

Media servers – another growing market segment is media serving. Obviously 8250 Theaterworks is interesting in Sooloos and their new product offerings as well as Kaleidescape.

If anyone out there is interested in any other technologies, manufacturers or products, let me know and I’ll be sure to check it out and report back.

projectiondesign recently change the name of it’s home cinema projector family from “Action” to “avielo”. The new family name coincides with the release of several new projectors in the home theater line. Five models will be available and all include the superior image performance which projectiondesign is known for. At InfoComm 2008, projectiondesign had a stunning booth with all models on display.

avielo projectiondesign models:

-Prisma: 720p
-Spectra: 1080p
-Radiance: 1080p, high light output
-Optix: 1080p, dual lamp configuration
-Helios: 1080p, 3-chip (shown)

Currently the Spectra and Optix are being offered.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information on the release of the remaining three models.