Rebecca Day

Networking company D-Link brought a cloud strategy to CES, introducing a cloud-based router, a cloud-based camera and a new category of “mobile companion” that offers wireless access and content sharing to iPad, iPhone and Android devices. The device, smaller than a mouse, was designed to give mobile device users access to content from an external hard drive or thumb drive and to sync videos, music and photos, said Daniel Kelley, associate vice president of marketing at D-Link. The Mobile Companion includes Wi-Fi Protected Setup and a free SharePort Cloud app for Android and iOS devices that gives users access to their music, videos and photos from anywhere, Kelley told us in a product demo. The USB port can be used to view and sync data stored on a connected thumbdrive on a tablet or smartphone, or it can be used to charge a smartphone, Kelley said. Price is $75 with April availability, he said. In its wireless camera line, D-Link added a microSD card slot to enable users to record video and a pan-and-tilt functionality up to 340 degrees, Kelley said. Users can control up, down, left and right camera movement remotely from a mobile device using a D-Link app, he said. The Cloud Camera 5000 records at 720p/30 frames per second, Kelley said, and can record in daylight or up to 15 feet in the dark using night vision technology and motion sensing. The company also showed a cloud-based router, which Kelley said allows users an easier way to view what’s going on in their home networks than through traditional PC software. The HD Media 3000 router includes HD Fuel, which provides automatic bandwidth prioritization to ensure the quality of HD media streaming, Kelley said. The router will be available in April for $169, he said.

LAS VEGAS -- Pricing of active-shutter glasses has plummeted with the arrival of the Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative announced last year, said Ami Dror, chief strategy officer of Xpand, a founding member of the Initiative, which showed the first Full HD Glasses demos at the Xpand CES booth here. The first glasses, from Xpand, Sony, Samsung and Panasonic, are expected to be in market in March, Dror told us, saying the entry-level Samsung models will be priced $19 and $29, which Dror said are a direct result of the Full HD Glasses Initiative and its licensing, specifications, quality assurance programs and test centers, which allow glasses built to spec to be manufactured more cost-efficiently.

Window and door maker Pella Windows announced Pella SmartSync at CES, a technology that enables homeowners to control shades and blinds from a PC, smartphone or tablet. SmartSync is Z-Wave enabled and compatible with the Nexia Home Intelligence platform that allows homeowners to integrate lighting, thermostats, security, door locks and other home automation functions. Pella pioneered the concept of installing shades between panes of glass, a Pella spokeswoman told us, and allowing homeowners to automate control of the shades “is the ultimate in convenience,” she said. The shades will roll out in Q4, she said. Pricing was not available, but the spokeswoman said the premium for the automation will “pay for itself pretty quickly” in energy savings. Ingersoll Rand, meanwhile, parent company of Trane and Schlage, used the CES spotlight to rebrand as Nexia its hardware/software platform, previously known as Schlage LiNK. Ingersoll Rand positioned Nexia as a smart home automation system that leverages the technologies of Trane and Schlage to make “every everything in your home speak one simple language,” including door locks, heating and cooling, video surveillance, lights and shades.

LAS VEGAS -- ESPN 3D kicked off a 135-event year with the Allstate BCS Championship Game Monday night, renting the Las Vegas Hotel Theater for select CES attendees to view the Alabama-LSU football game won by Alabama. The telecast, ESPN’s 188th 3D production, marked the first time the Championship game had been shown in 3D and will be followed by a host of 3D events ESPN plans to show over the year including the Winter X Games, Wimbledon tennis and NCAA men’s football and basketball games, Bryan Burns, ESPN vice president-strategic planning, told us.

Panasonic will sponsor 3D and HD broadcasts of the London 2012 Olympics in 3D, Panasonic and NBC Universal announced Monday at CES. The sponsorship includes 3D cameras and broadcast equipment for 200 hours of 3D footage, including opening and closing ceremonies, company executives said. Panasonic is also continuing its sponsorship of DirecTV’s 3D channel. Vic Carlson, Panasonic vice president of consumer marketing, reinforced Panasonic’s support of 3D TV, saying adoption of 3D has been “extremely fast” and five times that of HDTV. This year 7 million 3D TVs and 9 million 3D Blu-ray players are expected to ship, representing 20 percent of all TV units sold this year, Carlson said, citing CEA figures. In Panasonic’s 2012 line of TVs, 93 percent of plasma TVs will be 3D, as will 40 percent of LCD models, Carlson said. Four of six Panasonic Blu-ray players will be 3D, he said. Citing the chicken-and-egg situation, “This is the year of 3D content,” Carlson said. Panasonic also announced a partnership with MySpace for MySpace TV, a technology that enables users to watch live TV while communicating with friends on a PC or tablet. Users can sync tablets and TVs at the touch of a button, said Tim Vanderhook, CEO of MySpace TV. Initial channels on MySpace TV will be music-focused, Panasonic said, and will expand to include movies, news, sports and reality channels, including broadcast and on-demand content. Users will be able to view programs, chat about what they're viewing in real time and invite friends to watch with them virtually. A companion app will be available on tablets and smartphones, providing instant sync capabilities, the company said.

LAS VEGAS -- The HDMI Forum, launched in October to develop the next generation of HDMI -- “the “future of connectivity” -- plans to release the next version in second half 2012, said Rambo Jacoby, marketing manager for Nvidia and member of the HDMI Forum’s board, at the company’s pre-CES news conference Monday.

LAS VEGAS -- LG Electronics opened press day Monday at CES by unveiling a wide swath of new products, including the much-hyped 4mm-thick 55-inch OLED, an 84-inch LCD TV, four Google TV models, an LG Spectrum LTE smartphone and an advanced refrigerator that can communicate with a connected mobile phone at a grocery store. Another refrigerator feature in LG’s French Door series that drew audience approval was a “Blast Killer” section that can chill a warm can of beer to a comfortable drinking temperature in 5 minutes using circulating air.

Envisioning a day in the near future when “all of the electronics will be out of the panel” and TV panels will be “even thinner” than they are today, the Wireless Speaker and Audio Association is attending CES this week with the hopes of padding its member roster of speaker makers, semiconductor companies and electronics manufacturers. The group, a subsidiary of HDMI licensor Silicon Image, was formed last month with the charter to “foster interoperability compliance testing between CE devices and high-performance wireless speakers."

MK Sound announced Thursday that its M7 compact loudspeaker is the first mini monitor to win approval in THX’s Compact Speaker Certification program, but a THX spokeswoman told us that “MK is currently working on issuing a retraction to their press release, as they acted pre-maturely and a contract has yet to be worked out with THX, and Certification standards have yet to be finalized.” THX has THX Ultra2 and THX Select certifications for home theater spaces and announced a certification standard for soundbars at CEDIA last fall.

Faced with an aging demographic of customers, razor-thin video margins and declining home theater business, specialty AV dealers are making an aggressive push into digital audio, hoping to reclaim a position they see as their rightful spot as the authorities of high-quality music systems. Going into 2012, Bjorn’s in San Antonio will be focusing on “connectivity and devices,” Neil Viers, sales manager, told us. A year in the works, the strategy is to position the company “to be the place where people go” for digital audio, Viers said.