CES 2009

Aaron is a reporter for the Scholastic Kids Press Corps. I immediately asked him about what he thought about how Chelsea Clinton dissed the nine-year-old reporter from the Scholastic News in Iowa last week, and he and his Mom (right) were surprised it took so long for anyone to ask.

Demonstrating their wireless 7.2 channel speaker / amplification system, Neosonik's system uses a proprietary 5 GHz wireless system to transmit signals digitally to each speaker. A central controller will accept an HDMI input and then transmit audio digitally to each speaker. Each speaker in turn has digital amplification for each driver. I asked about the video portion of the HDMI signal that had been routed to the controller. They've a device that transmits that signal digitally as well to a small receiver connected to your display.

Jon Banner took this wonderful picture with my Panasonic Lumix TZ3 camera. Those are Ultimateavmag's Product of the Year Awards lined up on the table in the SourceInterlink suite at the Venetian. Outside the window is a long view of Las Vegas.

Last night, Mitsubishi took the Moon nightclub on the roof of the Palms Casino and turned it into a discothque to premier their long in development laser TV. Using fanfare fitting the unveiling of a major work of art (which in a way, it was), Mitsubishi lit up three of their rear projector laser engine TVs. They were at least 65" in diagonal, though we weren't told an exact size. Each was also about as thin as the thinnest DLP or LCD rear project TVs.

Thin is the thing this year, with virtually all major manufacturers showing skinny flat panels. But Pioneer takes the prize with this 9mm model (thinner than a 12mm iPhone). It’s likely at least a year from production, however.

The new Sherwood R-972 AV receiver ($1800) has the usual features expected in today’s flagships, including HDMI 1.3 and decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. But it also has a unique audio processor. Many of today’s newest receivers use the Audyssey equalization system. Sherwood is going with Trinnov room compensation. Far too complex to explain in a short blog, this processor is based on a $13,000 pro unit with a design goal to “recreate the 3-dimensional soundfield of the original performance.” The Trinnov processing was outboard at the show, (the second box in the photo), but will be built into the receiver itself in production units.