News, Notes From D.C., Dallas

CEA's Washington Forum in D.C. and the Brand Source/Home Entertainment Source (HES) Summit in Dallas occurred on the same days in late March and provided some interesting perspectives on the current pulse of the CE industry.

At the Forum, the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers held a breakfast, a small affair compared with previous years when the Forum was named the "HDTV Summit." The breakfast speaker was an Academy member who has been there from the beginning and received awards from the organization over the years, Panasonic's Peter Fannon. He discussed the 20-year or more trek in the development of HD and digital TV to where the technology is today.

The atmosphere in the room during Fannon's remarks was collegial. That's amazing when you consider there were executives representing the CE, broadcasting and cable industries in that room who, at any point during the past 20 years, could have been at each others' throats.

Relative success creates good fellowship and a collegial atmosphere.

The HES meeting (see story on p. 1) showed that while the atmosphere in D.C. is collegial, it is anything but in the retail trenches. While HES is one of those groups that can "sell-up" with installation, services and the like, outgoing HES president Bob Cole, founder of World Wide Stereo, said the pricing situation has made vendors and dealers look like "deer in the headlights."

There was talk of falling flat-panel pricing in D.C. and Dallas, in our "Talkback" section of TWICE.com and via e-mail. An executive with an upscale CE company vented in an e-mail to me when I got back from my trip saying, "It's almost embarrassing to see [HDTV] pan out the way it has," blaming falling prices on the " 'build it then sell it' approach of most flat-panel suppliers" vs. a "build it on demand" strategy.

All of this may be "embarrassing" but it is sad, oft-repeated story to anyone who's been in this industry for awhile.

It pains us to report that Mike O'Hara has passed away at age 46. I can't add much to what his colleagues Al Arras and Joe Clayton said about Mike in the story at right, except that he was a New Jersey guy. He loved sports and you always heard stories about how Mike took on all of his RCA and Thomson co-workers in Indy when the Jets played the Colts, or the Knicks and Pacers had one of their classic NBA playoff battles. And his co-workers loved it. As a news source he was precise in his answers, highly-knowledgeable and a real pro. Our thoughts and prayers go to his friends and family.