Audio

Yamaha will become the first supplier to offer an HD-Radio home-audio component in June when it ships the $1,899-suggested RX-V4600 A/V receiver with embedded...

In the home, satellite radio faces a challenge — putting the radio where customers want it without running long stretches of antenna cable. To...

U.S. music-industry sales rose in 2004 for the first time since 1999, but the modest 2 percent gain in unit shipments and 2.5 percent...

Sony is rounding out its assortment of compressed-music portables with an expanded selection of flash-memory headphone portables and expanded support for the MP3 format....

Factory-level sales of compressed-music portables grew in 2004, to account for 59.2 percent of total dollar sales in battery-operated music portables, CEA statistics show....

Diverse content will be the key driver of satellite-radio growth, and Sirius has built a solid foundation to profitably deliver content that consumers can’t...

Thomson’s new eight-SKU HTiB lineup includes its first HTiB with DVD recorder, its first to up-convert DVD Video to high definition, and an expanded...

Kenwood launched a new brand direction “to deliver a consistent message to customers” and will maintain its stepped-up R&D effort now that it has...

Video-display supplier Akai entered the component audio business here at International CES with step-up products intended to elevate Akai’s image and help the company...

Names, functions and forms are changing in component audio at International CES. With the component business having made a sharp turnaround in 2004, at...

Multiple companies at CES are targeting the custom-installation market with a variety of upscale music servers that can be integrated with installed distributed-audio systems....

An eclectic mix of PC, audio specialty, and full-line CE suppliers has come together to adopt wireless 802.11b and 802.11g as the do-it-yourself solution...

Las Vegas – HTiB suppliers are trying to make their systems easier to operate and set up while raising average selling prices, which have...

Custom-installation suppliers are trying to take some of the custom out of the business to deliver more cost-effective systems to a broader demographic. In...

Component-audio sales had a great fall in 2003, but audio suppliers and retailers are picking up the pieces and putting them back together again...

TWICE:What new technologies will have the biggest impact on installers’ business? Burkhardt: Everyone loves trying to find a business model to leverage the custom...

The audio component business is this year’s comeback kid, thanks in part to a comeback in component-audio merchandising by select A/V retailers. But there’s...

Suppliers will fly into next month’s CES, here, with the goal of boosting the average selling price of home theater in a box (HTiB)...

TWICE: Can you point to some things that retailers are doing right in merchandising component audio? Harman: They should be merchandising complete systems and...

TWICE:Some retailers have rediscovered the value of merchandising audio components more aggressively. Have they been successful? Gina Harman,Harman Consumer Group Worldwide:We have certainly seen...

Wireless bandwidth requirements for the typical home equipped with a broadband modem and a wireless network will grow from less than 3Mbps in 2004...

Startup Ready To Play, which converts consumers’ CDs into compressed-music formats, plans to sell its service through A/V specialty and custom-installation channels largely bypassed...

The Wireless USB Promoter Group is soliciting contributors to the Wireless USB specification definition in hopes of completing a spec by the end of...

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance plans to develop a Broadband-over-Power Line (BPL) standard that electric utilities could adopt to deliver broadband Internet access and other...

The Audioaccess division of JBL is broadening its custom-install portfolio with plans for branded in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, its first color touch screen, and...

Klipsch’s agreement to market Oxmoor’s distributed-audio system on a worldwide basis might eventually lead to a Klipsch ownership interest in Oxmoor, executives of both...

Motorola spinoff Freescale Semiconductor said it is ready to begin shipping the industry’s first wireless ultrawideband (UWB) chipset, following the chipset’s certification by the...

Contract manufacturer KSC Industries has developed a 2.4GHz wireless-speaker system that it contends is far more resistant to 2.4GHz interference than competing technologies currently...

Start-up Control4 plans to leverage IP-based standards and no-new-wires technologies to create an integrated home-control and distributed-audio system that will expand the custom-install market...

Speaker manufacturer Mordaunt-Short, which distributes in the United States through Marantz, announced two new speaker series for multichannel home theater systems. The two series...

PINE BROOK, N.J. Being alone with popular features at a given price point is one of the keys to successful sales in the home...

In portable audio, the music might be compressed, but the sales won’t be. Sales of MP3-type headset portables, including flash- and HDD-based models, will...

Bloodied and almost defeated, audio-component suppliers and retailers are staging a counterattack that has begun to recapture marketing territory seized by legions of low-margin...

In its broadest product launch in at least a decade, Bose unveiled its first home theater systems with hard-disk music storage and its first...

Tivoli Audio is moving into new radio configurations and distribution channels while refreshing its original table radio with hand-lacquered versions. New radio configurations include...

In an update of its 2004 home and portable audio plans, Philips, here, expanded its selection of 802.11b-equipped microsystems to two, reversed its plans...

Satellite-radio subscriber growth has prompted suppliers to expand the selection of battery-powered satellite-radio boomboxes in time for summertime use. The boomboxes represent a small...