Days after IFA organizers’ revelation that Microsoft will mount an exhibit at the Berlin show in September to promote the release of Windows 10 (see 1504270040), CEA confirmed that it’s nearing a contract that would return Microsoft to the CES exhibit floor for the first time in four years. “We are working with Microsoft on space for 2016 but have not finalized a contract with them,” Karen Chupka, CEA senior vice president-International CES and corporate business strategy, emailed us Wednesday. CEA also is “waiting on a contract” from Microsoft’s “Xbox group” to exhibit at CEA’s inaugural CES Asia show in late May in Shanghai, Chupka said. “As a result we don't count either as an exhibitor until a final signed contract is received.” Microsoft ended its 14-year run as a CES exhibitor and keynoter with the January 2012 show, saying then that CES no longer served its needs “because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing” (see 1112230090). As for whether Microsoft will return to CES next January in a keynoting role as well as an exhibitor, Chupka said: “We haven’t confirmed all of our keynoters so I cannot answer this at this time.” Microsoft representatives wouldn't comment about their IFA and CES show participation.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's visit last week to CES led her to conclude that diversity in the tech world is improving, but more needs to be done, she said Tuesday in a blog post. “As I tried to cover the more than 2.2 million net square feet of exhibit space, I could not help but notice that there seemed to be more people of color on the floor and presenting at the exhibits than in prior years,” she said. “While notable, there is clearly more that can and should be done.” Clyburn cited reports that African-American women in the tech industry receive less than 1 percent of venture capital funds available each year. The wireless everywhere world in display at CES also points to the need for the FCC to restructure its voice-only Lifeline adoption program to also support broadband, she said. “News flash: The technology to enable the ‘Internet of Everything’ is not two or three years away,” Clyburn wrote. “It is here today, but as regulators, we must never forget that all consumers must have access to broadband in order for that [sic] virtuous reality exists when everyone benefits.”

In support of its curved TVs, Samsung will bow at CES an expanded lineup of curved soundbars and a new wireless speaker series for music, the company said Monday. According to Samsung, “unlike conventional speakers that project sound in a single direction,” the WAM7500/6500 design allows it to fill “entire rooms with sound.” The speakers -- comprising the tabletop WAM7500 and portable WAM6500 -- use Samsung’s proprietary Ring Radiator technology to deliver music in a 360-degree soundfield with an optimal balance of treble and bass, Samsung said. WAM7500/6500 is a new product concept for Samsung that provides a “rich-bodied sound experience no matter where you are in relation to the product,” the company said. WAM7500/6500 was developed in part at Samsung’s new audio lab in Valencia, California, it said. The portable model has a built-in battery, the company said, and both models connect wirelessly to TVs, soundbars and mobile devices. The company will also unwrap three new series of soundbars, bringing the number of curved soundbar series to four, designed to match screen sizes from 45 to 78 inches, Samsung said. Poor sound quality has been a major consumer gripe as TV speakers have been compromised in the race to thinner TVs, and Samsung hopes to provide enhanced TV sound in the 8500 series of curved soundbars that pack speakers in a 9.1-channel configuration, the company said. The design wraps side speakers around a central speaker, it said.

Join the HDBaseT Alliance’s “fight against the cable invaders,” reads an invitation emailed Tuesday urging CES showgoers to visit the consortium’s booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall for a demonstration of HDBaseT technology. Founding members of the 4-year-old alliance are LG, Samsung, Sony Pictures Entertainment and chipmaker Valens. HDBaseT “is the ultimate digital connectivity solution” between Ultra HD video sources and remote displays through a single 100-meter CAT6 cable or fiber, “delivering uncompressed high definition 4K video, audio, USB, Ethernet, control signals and up to 100 watts of power,” the alliance said. HDBaseT has “revolutionized” the pro AV market, and has been installed in commercial and residential projects all over the world, “for a more elegant and clutter-free look.” Visitors to the alliance booth can “learn how HDBaseT can provide the ultimate entertainment experience,” and can show off their “fighting skills” with the Cable Invaders arcade game, it said. The top three scorers will win tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles Love show at the Mirage, it said.

Radio-TV host and producer Ryan Seacrest will be at CES on Jan. 7 during a headline address with iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, CEA said Wednesday. Pittman will interview Seacrest at 1 p.m. at "C Space" at the Aria hotel, the location for the marketing, advertising, content and creative communities at the 2015 CES. Also Jan. 7, Paul Marobella, president of marketing communications company Havas Worldwide Chicago Group, will speak in the same location at 1 p.m., CEA said.

CEA President Gary Shapiro used a news conference Tuesday at the CES Unveiled New York conference to announce that CBS President Les Moonves will keynote the Brand Matters workshop at CES on Jan. 7 at 3 p.m. at the theater in the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas. Shapiro hailed Moonves as "an innovator" who "does things differently," and is "leading his company to the next digital era." Two years ago, Shapiro blasted CBS for "practicing effective censorship over CNET’s editorial staff" when it ordered CNET to pull Dish Network’s Hopper with Sling DVR from consideration for its Best of CES awards (see 1301140063). CNET is an affiliate of CBS, which like ABC, Fox and NBC, has sued Dish in federal court seeking injunctions that would bar the AutoHop feature in ongoing litigation. When we asked Shapiro at the Tuesday news conference about the irony of inviting Moonves to keynote CES two years after blasting CBS for "denying CNET readers full access to information about an exciting innovation" in the Hopper with Sling DVR, he responded with a long answer about how he and CEA have long defended CES as "a very big tent." In retrospect, the dust-up with CBS over CNET was a "tiny issue," though CBS’s actions were "not pleasing to us" at the time, Shapiro said: "I have a personal philosophy that I never make these issues personal. I know that today we may disagree with someone, but tomorrow they’ll be our ally. That’s how we succeed in the business world." At CES, "people disagree with CEA’s position on any issue -- net neutrality, any other issue -- and we invite them to come onstage and present it," he said. "We treat them fairly and respectfully, and that’s indeed why we have over 100 associations supporting CES as our ‘allied associations,’ and their names are posted." CBS representatives didn’t comment.