Rebecca Day

Widespread demand and critical shortages have forced traditionally cautious semiconductor industry players to add capacity, said Tien Wu, CEO of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, on a supply chain panel at Wednesday's Silicon Labs Works With 2021 conference.

Lack of foundry capacity is hampering growth in an “exploding” IoT market, Silicon Labs President Matt Johnson told Consumer Electronics Daily Wednesday as part of the fabless chip company’s virtual Works With 2021 conference. Silicon Labs expanded the Works With IoT developer conference -- its second -- beyond the smart home this year, to include lighting, commercial, industrial and retail.

Macro photography, new photo editing features, Dolby Vision video recording and longer battery life lead highlights of the virtual iPhone 13 series unveiled Tuesday. The iPhone 13 series uses the Apple-designed A15 Bionic chip, which CEO Tim Cook called the fastest chip available in a smartphone.

Sonos is taking a software-driven approach to Dolby Atmos in the second-generation Beam sound bar launched Tuesday, Principal Product Manager Scott Fink told us on an embargoed call Friday. The next-gen Beam, which will replace the current model when inventories are depleted, doesn’t use upfiring speakers to deliver Dolby Atmos, unlike the $899 Arc that bowed last year, he said.

Houses of worship and corporate video; transactional and advertising-based VOD; and pick-and-choose subscription plans are among the models gaining traction in the “fluid” over-the-top video market, said panelists on a recent Streaming Media future of video event.

Voxx doubled its inventory and lead times when it began to see “tightness” in components and factory shutdowns due to COVID-19, said CEO Pat Lavelle on a Thursday investor call. Calling chip shortages the worst in 40 years, Lavelle said Voxx realized early it needed to build inventory and get the goods shipped to the U.S. to sell. “We’ve done as best as we could in order to support a 90% increase in Q1 and increased sales we’ll have in the second quarter,” Lavelle said: “It’s been problematic, it’s been difficult, but we’ve been able to manage through it.”

After reports last week signaling the debut of the first “Amazon-built” TVs (see 2109030041), Amazon unveiled the inaugural Amazon Fire TV family Thursday, including flagship 65- and 75-inch models with Dolby Vision.

TCL plans an Oct. 9 news conference at the NAB Show with Sinclair, Technicolor and pro AV supplier Cobalt, but a spokesperson for the TV maker wouldn’t say if it’s to announce TCL brand NextGenTV support -- thus far confined to LG, Samsung and Sony. As one of the largest TV brands globally and in North America, TCL “invests heavily” in R&D, emailed the spokesperson Thursday. “These investments in technologies and technology partners help us better understand and prepare for what is coming next in the categories we support or plan to support in the future,” she said. “To maintain the leadership position, TCL must continue to engage with all paths to the future to find the ones that benefit our users most and provide the most compelling value proposition. At this time, we have nothing to announce in regards to NextGenTV for the North American market.” Sinclair didn’t respond to questions. Sinclair’s ATSC 3.0 content in its NextGen TV launch markets has used Technicolor’s Intelligent Tone Management algorithm to upconvert non-HDR video to match native HDR, the broadcaster told us in January (see 2101130006).

Whole Foods Market will begin testing its Just Walk Out technology as a checkout option in stores in Washington, D.C.’s Glover Park neighborhood, and in Sherman Oaks, California, next year, blogged Dilip Kumar, vice president-physical retail and technology.

Temporary spikes in streaming activity due to lockdowns early in the COVID-19 pandemic “have turned out to be not so temporary,” said a Q2 Conviva report released last week. A tipping point spurred by the pandemic “shows no signs of reversal,” with Q2 streaming rising 13% over the “pandemic heights” of Q2 2020, it said.