EchoStar is combining Slingbox with third-party software as it seeks to expand the technology beyond its set-top boxes, company executives said Monday on an earnings call. Since unveiling Slingbox technology under the “TV Everywhere” banner at CES in January, EchoStar has sought to jump-start its Sling Media division that has struggled to gain design wins outside of its own products and Dish Network. EchoStar bought Sling in 2007 for $380 million.

Mozaex added a 3D option to its line of disc players and media servers, claiming it’s the first company to offer a Blu-ray 3D multi-room solution. Mozaex CEO Douglas Kihm told Consumer Electronics Daily that the servers ship with “only licensed decrypting tools for playing back Blu-ray Discs and DVDs” and not with unlicensed tools that allow playback from a server. Regarding the difference between Mozaex’s approach and those of Kaleidescape and RealNetworks servers that were the subject of copy-control lawsuits brought by the DVD Copy Control Association, Kihm said Mozaex’s products don’t ship with unlicensed decrypting tools. “We ship our products only with licensed decrypting tools for playing back physical DVDs and Blu-rays,” he said.

Seven45 Studios will spend more than $10 million in marketing for its coming music game Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, including TV, print and online ads, Jeff Walker, vice president of marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily. “We know we're going up against two behemoths” of the music game genre, he said, referring to the Guitar Hero games from Activision Blizzard and the Rock Band games from MTV Games and Harmonix. And Power Gig is Seven45’s first videogame.

A new remote base antenna from LiteTouch enables the company’s existing wired lighting control system to be managed wirelessly, part of an effort to cull sales from its existing customer base amid the falloff in new home construction, the company said. To get dealers on board, the company is sending out project names and equipment lists in a starter package for an upgrade sell, making LiteTouch the latest custom electronics company that’s trying to train dealers how to mine for business in the existing-home market, it said.

The CE industry is awaiting the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) decision on California’s TV energy standards before finalizing further action on the regulations, said executives we spoke with. “There’s been some informal discussion” of a lawsuit, said one. Before the industry can “determine the future next steps,” it has to review the reasons given by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to the OAL to justify the regulations to “understand what was said and what was not said,” said Douglas Johnson, CEA vice president of technology policy. The commission submitted the regulations to OAL on July 21 for approval.

Q2 marked the first quarter in which Activision Blizzard’s sales from online channels “outweighed our retail sales,” CEO Robert Kotick said on a Thursday earnings call. The publisher continues “to see a shift to the high-margin digital side” of its business, which he said “yields faster growth, better returns on invested capital and reduces our exposure to the volatility that has historically characterized videogame companies."

An LCD manufacturers’ “cartel” fixed prices and crimped supplies for more than 10 years, “artificially inflating” LCD PC monitor and notebook PC prices, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo alleged in an antitrust suit filed Friday.

"Economic and sector challenges remain,” but videogame accessories maker Mad Catz Interactive is optimistic about the back half of this year thanks to a strong product lineup from it and other companies, CEO Darren Richardson said in a Thursday earnings call. The planned fall introductions of Kinect for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move for the PS3, “the emergence of 3D videogame products,” and the coming release of games Call of Duty: Black Ops from Activision Blizzard and Rock Band 3 from MTV Games, Harmonix and Electronic Arts stand to provide a lift for Mad Catz and the overall game industry, he said.

Premium features and easing pressures on average selling prices in the appliance and video categories offset significant declines in small electronics and camcorder sales for fiscal Q1 2011 at hhgregg, the company said Thursday in its Q1 earnings call.

TVs were among the weakest-selling products in July for BJ’s Wholesale Club and Costco, the companies said Thursday. Target, meanwhile, cited “soft sales in electronics, videogames, music and movies.” But all three companies still saw increases in overall sales for the month versus July 2009, they said.