Rebecca Day

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a formal liaison between the groups to create the “smart wireless charging station” category of consumer electronics products. As the first step in the relationship, Bluetooth SIG issued a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) to the A4WP for adoption in its baseline system specification. The unique number assigned to A4WP will enable streamlined communication between an A4WP charging pad and a smartphone over Bluetooth, Geoff Gordon, senior manager of product marketing for Qualcomm and A4WP marketing committee chairman, told us at a Bluetooth demo event in New York Wednesday.

Contrary to a report sent out by Azione Unlimited President Richard Glikes on Tuesday, Via International, which bills itself as the “nation’s largest full-service home technology provider,” has not severed ties with all buying groups, CEO Randy Stearns said in a statement Tuesday. Instead, Via has decided to “consolidate its buying group relationships into a single membership” with the Home Technology Specialists of America under the Via International brand, Stearns said.

Via International didn’t respond Tuesday to a press release sent out by Azione Unlimited buying group President Richard Glikes informing journalists that the newly formed Via consortium of luxury custom electronics integration companies had severed ties with the Azione and Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) buying groups as of Oct. 1. In his “breaking news,” Glikes said all of Via’s purchases and programs with vendors will be “outside of any relations with HTSA or Azione Unlimited.” That would deliver a hit of $15 million to Azione’s buying power and make a $55 million dent in HTSA’s combined dealer sales, said Glikes, former executive director of HTSA, who left to form Azione two years ago after a dispute over a contract renewal. Via CEO Randy Stearns told us last summer that combined revenue for the six Via founding companies would be $72 million-$73 million this year (CED Aug 28 p1).

DENVER -- Nest and Control4’s announcement last week codified what the latter’s dealers had already been doing on their own, Control4 CEO Martin Plaehn told us at CEDIA last week. “Our dealers know how to write drivers” to make products work with the Control4 system, and many had already been writing drivers to make popular Nest thermostats work in customers’ homes, he said. Nest didn’t sanction the integration because the company was still making changes to the product and was concerned the foundation wasn’t yet entirely solid, Plaehn said. Control4 reached out “informally” to Nest a year ago and suggested the two companies work together “because the world’s better when things work together,” he said.

DENVER -- LG launched two more Ultra HD TVs at an off-site event during CEDIA Expo Thursday, bringing its 2013 4K TV lineup to five models. LG, which isn’t exhibiting at the Expo, held a post-show event at the Denver Art Museum to unveil the LG LA9650 series 65- and 55-inch 4K TVs, which bring LG’s starting price for UHD down to $3,499 for the 55-inch model.

DENVER -- Two years after launching the first 4K projector through the custom channel, Sony returned to CEDIA Expo with two new front projectors, including a refresh of the original VPL-VW1000ES that’s been redubbed the VPL-VW1100ES. The $27,999 VPL-VW1100ES has been revamped to support “evolving 4K Ultra HD standards” and “ensure compatibility with 4K/60p content from future broadcast or home video sources,” said Mike Lucas, Sony senior vice president-home entertainment and sound. For another $1,000 consumers can get a bundle including an FMP-X1 4K Ultra HD media player, an Xperia Z tablet that serves as controller and a replacement lamp.

DENVER -- Under a banner reading “Evolving home theater” at a CEDIA Expo news conference Thursday, Bang & Olufsen said it will begin shipping the industry’s first Wireless Speaker and Audio-certified speaker products late next month. B&O and the WiSA Association jointly announced the news, which WiSA Association President Jim Venable called “historic” for an industry that has long sought a high-quality wireless audio solution. Venable said WiSA expects five to 10 companies to demo compatible, certified WiSA-enabled products at CES in January.

DENVER -- The connected device market is at a “transition point,” said Nest Labs CEO Tony Fadell during a Q-and-A session following his CEDIA Expo keynote speech Wednesday. “The old brands you have known are not necessarily the brands you are going to be installing in the next two or three years,” Fadell predicted, citing a “major sea change” that’s occurring in the cloud-based, app-driven world.

DENVER -- Nest and Control4 will demonstrate the popular Nest smart thermostat at their respective booths at CEDIA Expo this week, the first time Nest has made its application programming interface (API) available to a third-party. “Nest has opened up, and a lot of people have wanted this for at least a year,” Eric Anderson, Control4’s senior vice president-products, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Nest opening its API “is going to please a lot of people,” said Anderson, saying the upstart thermostat developer has managed to accomplish the unlikely feat of making a residential thermostat “cool.” The illuminated $249 wall-mounted device -- sold through Best Buy, Sears, Lowe’s and Home Depot, among others -- is no longer “an island by itself but part of a larger automation story,” Anderson said.

Target launched a subscription-free streaming video service for “anytime, anywhere” viewing. Called Target Ticket, the service is billed as “ideal for families with children” with “no hidden costs” and includes reviews from Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that provides reviews, ratings and forums to give families “a choice and a voice about the media they consume.”