Rebecca Day

MAHWAH, N.J. -- Denon will begin selling direct to consumers via its website in early October, Jim Caudill, CEO of D&M Holdings, told Consumer Electronics Daily at D&M’s headquarters Tuesday where the company held press briefings about its recent organizational changes. The move is in response to changes in the way consumers shop for electronics, Caudill said, and mirrors a direct-to-consumer website that sister brand Boston Acoustics has in place for its speaker line.

Panasonic’s email to Club Panasonic members Monday touting sale prices that were below minimum advertised prices from several of its retailers for four Viera TVs (CED Sept 12 p4) contained erroneous information, said Judah Zeigler, director of commerce for Panasonic. Zeigler told Consumer Electronics Daily: “Unfortunately, the email that was sent to our Club Panasonic members contained incorrect pricing information.” Panasonic planned to correct the pricing Tuesday in “another email to our Club Panasonic members about this error,” he said. Zeigler said the error occurred “when the email was being coded for transmission to our members.” The actual prices on the four models listed in the email “are higher than the prices that were shown, and Panasonic sincerely apologizes,” he said. Zeigler said Club Panasonic members “always enjoy exclusive offers not made available to the general public.” In compliance with Panasonic’s Minimum Advertised Price Policy, “the only way for Club Panasonic members to see these prices is to be logged in to the Club Panasonic store and to place the item in their shopping cart,” he said. “Without doing this, a Club Panasonic member will instead of a price see the message ’see price in cart,'” he said. Shoppers can always remove the item from the cart, he added. “This is not to say that the prices that were in the email were correct,” he added. “They were not, and the prices that are being offered to Club Panasonic members are higher than those that were shown,” he said. The growth of Panasonic’s e-commerce business is an “important component of Panasonic’s overall market strategy,” Zeigler said. “However, Panasonic is committed to achieving this growth in a manner that is complementary to our authorized channel partners, and therefore we are committed to consistent and complete compliance with the Panasonic MAP policy,” he said. Some prices shown in the original email to members were roughly 10 percent lower than prices for the same products at high-volume retailers, we found. Although the email information was wrong, the website prices were always correct, so no customers could order at the erroneous bargain prices.

Trying to make the still-novel concept of remote monitoring more attractive to custom installers, cloud-based monitoring company ihiji launched at CEDIA what it bills as the industry’s lowest cost remote appliance. The $200 INV-APP-500 enables integrators to “further reduce remote servicing costs while simultaneously increasing system reliability, earning recurring revenue and maximizing operating efficiencies,” it said. Monthly monitoring costs start at $120, allowing dealers to offer a combined first-year hardware/software package for $320, which, the company said, a dealer can recoup by “avoiding just one truck roll."

Panasonic sent an email to Club Panasonic members Monday, extending a sale offering up to 40 percent off select Viera TVs -- including a 3D plasma model and LED-based LCD TV -- until Saturday. Included is the 60-inch ST30 model, cut by $1,260 to $1,340, with two pairs of 3D glasses thrown in. The 50-inch GT30 plasma was sliced to $1,105, a $795 discount, the email said, and the 50-inch S30 plasma TV was chopped from $1,099 to $634, it said. A 42-inch LED-based LCD E3 TV is $557, down from $950, Panasonic said. Club Panasonic is a free service consumers can sign up for to receive news on products and special offers. The sale prices came in under promotional prices of Panasonic dealer websites we viewed. Amazon’s and B&H Photo’s price for the 60-inch ST30 was $1,506, compared with Club Panasonic’s $1,340. B&H ran its price, after requiring consumers to add the TV to their shopping cart and log in, with the disclaimer: “This Item has a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) restriction set by the Manufacturer/Distributor that limits how we can display our selling price. The price above is our actual selling price.” Panasonic’s $1,104 price for the 50-inch GT30 undercuts the $1,199 price posted at Best Buy, Sears, Buy.com and Crutchfield. Club Panasonic is selling the 50-inch S30 for $634, compared with Abt Electronics’ $797 price, and Best Buy has the 42-inch Viera E3 LED TV at $699, compared with Panasonic’s $557.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The HDBaseT Alliance announced the release of the Power Over HDBaseT (POH) Addendum to the HDBaseT 1.0 spec at CEDIA and demonstrated working prototypes of the technology at its booth on the show floor. Prototypes incorporating the power capability included a Sony DA6400ES AV receiver, specially outfitted with an HDBaseT connector, said Dana Zelitzki, head of business development for the alliance.

ESPN will begin airing Monday Night Football in 3D beginning in 2014, a company spokesman confirmed Wednesday, following the announcement of ESPN’s eight-year contract extension with the NFL, which includes 3D distribution rights. The multiplatform agreement also includes expanded NFL studio programming (beginning this week), highlight rights for TV and ESPN.com, the Pro Bowl, the NFL Draft, 3D rights, and enhanced international rights, ESPN said. The package of NFL rights supports ESPN’s “best available screen” strategy with NFL programs on TV, online and on mobile devices via authentication and digital rights, ESPN said. Rights also include simulcast network coverage of ESPN’s MNF and NFL studio programs on tablets through ESPN’s WatchESPN App, ESPN said. The agreement is international as well, including Super Bowl rights, for 30 million households in 144 countries including Brazil, the Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Israel, Australia-New Zealand and Europe, ESPN said.

Former Sony and Pioneer exec Mike Fidler is returning to CEDIA in Indianapolis this week as chief marketing officer of In2Technologies, a manufacturer of an integrated sound system for flat-panel TVs. Fidler, who stepped down as CEO of DVR maker Digeo in 2008, is joined by Todd Beauchamp, president, formerly with Apple and Carver, the company said. In2 will be showing offsite at the Canterbury Hotel, by appointment only, the Unity audio system, which combines a three-piece stand with HDMI, subwoofer, audio system and a slot-loading disc player in the base, according to the invitation for a private viewing. Calling the Unity a “new category,” In2 said it’s designed to boost attach rates for audio after a TV sale, by “refining into a single buying decision the many steps usually needed to select components, a TV rack and speakers.” It’s designed to hold flat-panel TVs up to 60 inches, a company spokesperson told us.

With advances in cell phone cameras putting increasing pressure on standalone camera manufacturers to bring out compelling features at affordable price points, Samsung announced Wednesday at a new product launch in Manhattan two feature-packed $279 point-and-shoot models and an NX family compact system camera. “People see cell phones as a threat to the digital camera business,” Reid Sullivan, senior vice president of Samsung’s digital imaging business, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Representing a brand that has toes in both waters, Sullivan said camera phones have expanded consumers’ interest in taking pictures, and Samsung’s camera division sees the interest generated by cell phone cameras “as an opportunity” rather than a threat. The $279 MV800 camera is an ultra-compact point-and-shoot model with a flip-out 3-inch LCD viewfinder that adjusts to varying angles to facilitate high and low shots, said Tim Baxter, president of Samsung America. The 16-megapixel camera has a 5x optical zoom lens and 26mm wide-angle lens, he said. The camera has an app for 3D stills and a panorama function that can use different images to stitch together a shot, he said. The $279 12-megapixel WB750 point-and-shoot camera touts an 18x optical zoom lens and can capture stills at 10 frames per second in high-speed mode, Sullivan said. The camera can also capture Full HD video while recording 10-megapixel stills simultaneously, he said. The Action Panorama feature tracks a moving person or object with a static background to record movement within a single, still photo, the company said. The 20-megapixel NX200 compact camera system comes with an 18-55mm lens and is supported by nine NX lenses from Samsung, including four shipping this fall. Users can have direct control of ISO -- which ranges from 100-12800 -- from the viewfinder so they don’t have to take their eyes off the subject, Sullivan said. Suggested retail price is $900, he said. The NX200 takes Full HD video at 30 frames per second with the H.264 codec and has a 3.0 VGA AMOLED screen, the company said. Shipping for all three cameras begins later this month, the company said.

With a strong vested interest in supporting two PC categories, Lenovo executives downplayed the suggestion that tablets would cannibalize the ultraportable PC market, it said during a webcast. During the webcast, the company released additional details of an Android tablet previewed earlier this summer (CED July 21 p 1) -- including an aggressive $199 price tag -- and launched a trio of slim and light PCs based on Intel’s Ultrabook platform.

Despite a 3 percent drop in Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store sales for fiscal Q1 2012, CEO William Lynch said in the company’s earnings call that the consolidation of the physical bookstore market has begun “in a meaningful way” and the company forecasts a 2-3 percent sales uptick for the fiscal year ending April 28. The turnaround is a direct result of increased store traffic from Borders’ liquidation of 200 stores, Lynch said, and Barnes & Noble’s expectation is to become the “bookstore of choice for those displaced customers.” With less competition, the company is forecasting this holiday season to deliver the most traffic Barnes & Noble stores have seen in 5 years, Lynch said. For Q1 2012, Barnes & Noble’s physical book business slipped 3 percent to $1 billion, with comparable store sales shaved by 1.6 percent for the quarter.