CEDIA Expo owner Emerald is expecting a 20% falloff in exhibitor numbers from 2019 due to the pandemic and people’s “comfort levels for in-person events,” a spokesperson emailed Wednesday. The trade show company is hoping for about 300 exhibitors, she said. The event is Sept. 1-3 in Indianapolis. Last year’s expo, scheduled for Denver, was canceled.

The Court of International Trade will stop liquidation of unliquidated entries subject to litigation over Lists 3 and 4A Section 301 China tariffs, a CIT panel said in a Tuesday 6 opinion (Court No. 21-00052) granting a preliminary injunction. Judges Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves held that questions over limitations on CIT's ability to reliquidate the entries or grant a monetary judgment mean the Section 301 plaintiffs risk irreparable harm in the absence of one. Chief Judge Mark Barnett dissented, arguing that the court does have the power to reliquidate, and that the resulting lack of irreparable harm weighed against granting the injunction.

Voice has evolved from an interface to a distinct consumer channel -- with its own behaviors and implications for brands, Vixen Labs said Tuesday. About 95% of consumers using voice technology are mobile users; two-thirds use a smart speaker; and 31% use voice daily, with most using voice to search, consume and shop, said a May survey done by Vixen with the Linux Foundation’s Open Voice Network.

Opponents of the FCC’s order reallocating the 5.9 GHz band raise a novel issue in a spectrum fight at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- whether the FCC violated a law requiring the allocation of spectrum for intelligent transportation systems. The FCC moved away from dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), the former allocation for the entire 75 MHz. Instead, the agency divided the band with 45 MHz set aside for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology. Wi-Fi advocates say the court is unlikely to reverse the FCC in favor of the Department of Transportation.

With nearly 3.1 million households enrolled to date in the FCC’s emergency broadband benefit program, experts told us the program could last at least another year if enrollment numbers and the amount of money ISPs seek for reimbursement remain at the current pace. Others said it’s too early to say because of the limited data available.

Use of connected TV devices leveled off over the past year after being “pulled forward” in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, said a Q2 Leichtman Research Group report. Still, 39% of adults watch video on a TV via a connected device daily, 60% weekly, and 70% at least monthly, it said. Despite consumers having more ways to watch video, TVs are “overwhelmingly” their preferred delivery method, said Leichtman.

Florida plans to “immediately appeal” to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday's decision by the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee to freeze Florida’s law regulating social media, said a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Thursday. Hours before the law was to take effect, Judge Robert Hinkle granted NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association’s motion for preliminary injunction (see our bulletin). Plaintiffs and supporting amici told us they’re confident the 11th Circuit won’t overturn the lower court.

Controversy flared this week during talks on a treaty to update broadcasting protections for the digital age. Formal negotiations by the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) remain stalled due to COVID-19, but some member countries and observers were “quite shocked” to discover that an informal “friends of the chair” group had met twice this year to work on treaty language, emailed Knowledge Ecology Online Geneva Representative Thiru Balasubramaniam. The group, which had lain dormant during the COVID-19 pandemic, met before the Monday-Thursday partly virtual meeting. In his meeting summary, acting Chair Abdoul Aziz Dieng said he would consider concerns raised about the informal talks.

Vizio certified LTN, Beachfront, FreeWheel, Invidi, Google, Adcuratio and Extreme Reach for meeting technology specifications of the Open Addressable Ready (OAR) standard and successfully enabling addressable campaigns, said the TV maker Thursday. Vizio surpassed 11.2 million U.S. addressable TVs (see 2106090024) last month and successfully launched live addressable TV ad campaigns with top TV networks, it said.

Companies should treat profit as “an outcome, not as the ultimate goal,” said former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly in a Q&A session at the recent National Retail Federation Retail Converge event. Joly, who stepped down as CEO of Best Buy in 2019 (see 2003110072) and as executive chairman in 2020, is a lecturer at Harvard Business School. He discussed his recent book, The Heart of Business, which he bills as leadership principles for “the next era of capitalism.”