Rebecca Day

In a global, pre-CES announcement out of Korea Monday, Samsung revealed 110-, 101- and 89-inch TVs in its Micro LED TV lineup that use 25 million micrometer-sized self-emitting LEDs for light and color. The company said in December 2020 it was taking preorders for a 110-inch “MicroLED” display for availability in Q1 2021 (see 2012110015).

The Sharp TV brand will return to the U.S. with HD and 4K TVs integrating the Roku TV platform, said Roku Monday. Sharp Home Electronics President Jim Sanduski, in a statement, called the collaboration with Roku a “winning combination for our consumers.” Sanduski declined Monday to comment on additional plans for premium Sharp TVs in the U.S., saying he would respond to questions after the company’s announcement Tuesday. Sharp told us in May 2019 it hoped to return to the U.S. market with branded 8K and Aquos-branded 4K TVs, but it scrapped plans when it was unable to make deadlines for the holiday season, Sanduski told us before CES 2020 (see 2001030029). At the time, the Foxconn subsidiary studied the market and had talks with retailers, but cutthroat pricing in 4K TV scared the company off, said Sanduski. He cited “aggressive price drops” that began in spring and continued through fall. “At the end of the day, looking at the market, we couldn’t find a path of profitability,” he said then. Sharp-branded TVs were last in the U.S. market under a five-year 2016 trademark and licensing agreement with Hisense in which the Chinese TV maker produced and sold Sharp- and Aquos-branded TVs. That agreement was terminated two years early in 2019 (see 1905100067). Details and pricing of Sharp Roku TVs will be released later, the companies said.

Sound United wants to establish a stronger digital e-commerce footprint, James Krakowski, vice president-commercial operations, told Consumer Electronics Daily Thursday. “Consumers are looking to engage with brands directly,” he said, and they want to engage with trusted retailers online.

Podcast usage is rising for "diverse" audiences, Nielsen emailed Thursday. Mainstream media often centers on one perspective or experience, “with representation often addressed as a complement to a main story or primary character,” but podcasts increasingly resonate with diverse audiences, it said. The average number of times each identity group listens to a podcast varies from nine to 12 per month, Nielsen said, counting Asian Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ consumers. People with disabilities listen to podcasts most at home (67%); Asian Americans listen the least at home at 43%. Black listeners stream audio more than other audiences, “while listening more closely when brands reach out,” averaging 73% brand recall for podcasts ads, it said. Podcast listening among Hispanics 25-39 has doubled in the past three years, it said, and Asian Americans have upped their podcast listening five times over the past decade, with news among the leading topics, it said. The Interactive Advertising Bureau predicts podcast ad revenue will hit $2 billion by 2023 vs. $842 million in 2020, Nielsen noted. Host-read ads drive a brand recall rate of 71%, creating “high levels of consumer interest, purchase intent and recommendation intent,” it said. Diverse audiences want to hear from “trusted voices with similar backgrounds or that have similar interests,” Nielsen said; topics need to be inclusive and relevant from credible sources with original voices.

AudioCon Los Angeles show producers spent Christmas weekend “in crisis mode,” analyzing all possible options before realizing “it would be impossible to guarantee a safe environment” at its inaugural show Jan. 14-16, at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, Executive Producer Michel Plante emailed Wednesday. AudioCon LA was a “totally new show, presented under the umbrella of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society,” he said. The postponement could extend to January 2023, Plante said: “Being an event organizer during a pandemic is like playing Russian Roulette: You might be lucky with your dates, or you might not. Any date you plan could be canceled at the last minute.” Organizers don’t plan to disturb the established audio show calendar, Plante said: “The last thing we will do is to choose a date in 2022 that will interfere with any other show in North America. If there is an opportunity and this is a date that satisfies the industry, including the other shows, we will consider it.” The make-up show will also have to wait for availability at the Hyatt Regency, “a very busy hotel all year round,” he said. Twenty-four hours after producers announced the event in June, it had 50 reservations from exhibitors, with a target of 100 -- before the omicron surge began, he said. Presold tickets numbered under 1,000, with most attendees expected to buy tickets a week or two before the event. Producers had hoped to sell 5,000 tickets, “but we already knew in mid-November that with the Omicron, we would do like most events in 2021 and sell only 50% of it,” he said. All exhibitors received full refunds within 30 minutes of the show’s postponement announcement, he said; all tickets were refunded 18 hours later. Plante and Executive Producer Sarah Tremblay have had three of their last four shows in Canada canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance will have certification and testing tools mid-year for the nascent Matter standard when the specification and software development kit are formally released, blogged Jon Harros, CSA director-certification and testing programs, Tuesday. The standard will allow disparate IoT devices from participating CSA member manufacturers to communicate with one another over IP-based transports, Harros said, “effectively eliminating many of the walls in the current IoT walled garden ecosystem.”

Samsung previewed its CES message, “Together for Tomorrow,” in a Tuesday YouTube teaser showing friendly aliens behind a frosted glass window busy at work preparing a product showcase. A brief glimpse at themes focused on sustainability, going green, tech, e-cycling, home, human and love. Samsung Electronics CEO Jong-Hee Han is slated to give the CES keynote Jan. 4 at the Venetian's Palazzo Ballroom.

AudioCon Los Angeles, scheduled for Jan. 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, California, is postponed indefinitely, according to the event’s website. AnalogPlanet founder Michael Fremer, slated to hold a seminar on turntable setup at the event, posted an announcement from show organizers Monday that cited the “hyper-infectious Omicron variant” as the cause for cancellation: “It became evident that it would be impossible to hold our event in total safety on the dates we planned it,” said executive producers Sarah Tremblay and Michel Plante, along with Bob Levi, president-Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society. “We are not taking this decision lightly,” they said. “We have invested one year of our life in developing this project and a considerable amount of money. However, we are confident that this is an investment for the future and not a loss in the present.” They didn’t give an alternate date, saying only it would be in the future. “AudioConLA will refund everyone at 100% within the next couple of days,” they said. Organizers didn’t respond to questions Tuesday.

Hisense, which invited journalists Dec. 1 to its in-person CES news conference, scheduled for Jan. 4 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, will make the event "fully virtual to ensure the health and safety of our team," it emailed Thursday. The company will announce its 2022 product lineup at that time. Hisense still plans to exhibit on the show floor "with limited staff to ensure everyone’s safety," emailed a spokesperson.

The HDMI Forum unveiled HDMI 2.1a on a videoconference Tuesday designed to replace its annual CES media day event. HDMI Licensing Administrator CEO Brad Bramy said the decision to cancel a physical CES 2022 presence was made months ago when it was determined that a large contingent of their international HDMI adopters, manufacturers and media partners wouldn't go to Las Vegas in January.