Michael Berk

Last month we got a peek at the 4TV and EVA, the initial offerings from AudioXperts, a new company with a long collective history. We were sworn to secrecy at the time, but there was one cool product we couldn't tell you about then - and now we can.

As S+V tech editor Al Griffin and I were wandering the floor of the Indiana Convention Center Friday afternoon, we came across the Mozaex booth. The music server manufacturer had some of those on display, ordinary enough for CEDIA - but wait. . .

In a sign of the times, Sony and Control4 announced today that a pair of Sony's top-of-the-line ES receivers (the $2,099 9.2 channel STR-DA5800ES and the $999 7.1 channel STR-DA2800ES in particular), would include Control4 automation right out of the box (single-room, entertainment-center-specific flavor only), with upgradability to a full Control4 Activation License available for $300 through your friendly neighborhood system integrator.

Where some other Press Day events - namely Samsung's - were big production numbers, Panasonic's was low-key, almost to a fault. Strangely for a consumer show, a big chunk of time was spent by chairman Joseph M. Taylor and CTO Eisuke Tsuyuzaki B2B and industrial products like solar panels, avionics and green initiatives for institutions and industry (Ed Begley, a Vegas-area resident, told the crowd that they could "have a cool beverage and a warm shower, but you can be more efficient").