Monster: Fast And Thin Are In

By John Laposky and Lisa Johnston -- TWICE, 1/7/2010

Las Vegas - Monster Cable stressed the need for speed at its International CES press conference Wednesday, upping the ante on its line of speed-rated HDMI cables.


With that he unveiled what he called "the world's fastest HDMI cable," the new M2000 Hyper-Speed cable, with a data-transfer rate of 21Gbps, as verified by Simplay's HD testing lab.

Noel noted: "Today's new HDMI 1.4 specification supports both 3D technology and larger higher pixel density (4K by 2K) displays, two advancements that will greatly impact data rate and cable bandwidth requirements. To meet these bandwidth needs, Monster has increased the performance of its speed-rated HDMI cables, removing the fear of obsolescence once and for all."

Lee stressed that the new standard Monster speed-rated cables for HDMI are "future-ready" and will not need to be replaced when new HD components are added to a consumer's system, underscoring Monster's Cable for Life and HDMI 1.4 Upgrade programs.

Cable for Life ensures that if the components customers purchase in the future ever surpass the bandwidth capabilities of their Monster cable, Monster will upgrade that cable.

The 1.4 Upgrade program provides an upgraded cable if a customer ever needs the additional functionality of HDMI 1.4, such as an Ethernet channel or digital audio return channel.

Both offers are marked on all applicable Monster Cable^® products.

Lee also announced an overhaul of the company's existing speed-rated HDMI cables to a new slimmer form factor, dubbed Monster Ultra Thin. The company added more DisplayPort cables options as well as portable HDMI cables as short as 6 inches.

Turning to the company's growing stable of music products, Lee announced a partnership with fashion designer Vivienne Tam for the upcoming introduction of limited-edition headphones. Details about the product, including pricing and availability, will be announced during Fashion Week in New York, held Feb. 11-18.

A second headphones announcement involving current Monster partner Lady Gaga was to be announced Thursday afternoon.

Lee also touted Monster's power portfolio, highlighted by the new PowerNet 1G powerline networking device. PowerNet turns a home's electrical wiring system into a high speed Ethernet network.

The product, which Lee claimed is about three times faster than any other powerline networking product on the market, achieves its speed using the Atheros AMPAR7400 chipset.

Among other categories, Monster introduced iPhone/iPod charging products, power-conditioning SKUs and a trio of universal remote controls.

All new products are on display in booth 13306 in the South Hall.

Monster held a separate conference at its booth on Thursday, announcing Project (Red) versions of its Beats Solo and Heartbeats headphones. Dr. Dre, Lady Gaga and Interscope's Jimmy Iovine joined Lee to show off the red editions.

Project (Red) raises funds for the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.