Stewart Filmscreen Rep Creates Texas Showroom
By Llanor Alleyne
With the shadow of a recession engulfing the future plans of many businesses nationwide, it is always impressive and heartening to get a tip about a company bucking the fear and investing in potential growth avenues.A couple of weeks ago, Residential Systems got an email regarding Stewart Filmscreen manufacturing rep firm, Charles Lucas Sales Company which, to the delight of its customers, created a custom-built home theater showcase room at its Fort Worth, Texas location. “We took a three step approach to designing our showrooms,” Sam Lucas, CFO of the company noted. “First we designed a ...
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Talking Up the iPhone… One More Time
By Llanor Alleyne
I tend to refrain from saying things like, “This [fill in the blank] is the best thing. Ever,” mostly because shortly thereafter said item, act, book, either falls short or is replaced by something that can, quite legitimately, be the next best thing ever. But, because I have been known to break my own rules, I am going to go ahead and say this: The iPhone is the best thing...ever. (I reserve the right, however, to retract that statement at any time). Since giving in and buying one earlier this fall, my affection has slowly grown from a wary adoration to full-blown love. At the time that ...
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Optoma Shows Another Use for a Napkin
By Llanor Alleyne
Digital projection and display manufacturer Optoma is making the rounds this week in New York to get the word out about a few new products coming down the pipe line. This morning, I met with Jon Grodem, the company’s director of product and marketing, who came armed with two Picos, and a lot of insight into where the projection market is heading in these heady times.Over coffee and after a near disastrous water spill, Grodem unveiled the Pico PK-101, touted as “the world’s smallest and lightest micro-portable DLP projector.” Shipping now, (can you say, Christmas present?), the Pico has been ...
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Control4, Panasonic Tap into Phones
By Llanor Alleyne
Panasonic, which most of us find notable for its consumer electronics, took this rainy and windy Thursday in New York City to highlight its communication-branded products -- delivered and appropriately packaged as "enhanced communications solutions." While many of the unveiled products were targeted at the small business market (fun fact: there are 25 million small businesses in the U.S. that, according to Panasonic, represent the world's third-largest economy), custom installation integrators might find one the company's latest offerings of interest.Back in September Panasonic entered into ...
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Netflix Finally Recognizes Mac Users
By Llanor Alleyne
As an advocate of the mail order DVD rental site, Netflix, i was thrilled to learn last week that the company had finally opened up its "Watch Instantly" functionality -- which streams some movies directly to a PC's screen for no additional cost (with a subscription to Netflix, of course) -- to the Mac platform. I was immediately zinged, however, when I signed into my account and got the "Our apologies, but..." this feature is not available for Macs; the beta-version of the platform was only open to certain Mac customers that Netflix had apparently already chosen. The comments section of one ...
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Polk Audio Fans Show Love and Affection
By Llanor Alleyne
In these finicky consumer times, for a manufacturer to have diehard loyalists is a wondrous thing in and of itself, but Polk Audio's fans are something special. Last week, starting on Thursday night, Polkfest got underway at the Baltimore, Maryland, home of Matthew Polk, chairman of the speaker company. Invited were approximately 20 Polkfest members, all enthusiastic audiophiles mostly from the north and southeast, who helped to organized the event. Perhaps the right word to describe Polkfest is "reverential." Started in 2001 by the shy and very modest Russ Gates, the gathering is an ...
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RealNetworks Cites Kaleidescape in Hollywood Lawsuit
By Llanor Alleyne
RealNetworks,
most popularly known for digital music service Rhapsody and digital
media player software, RealPlayer, didn't get much of a chance to
celebrate the launch of its latest digi-coup, RealDVD.
That is because the company was promptly sued by Walt Disney Co.,
Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth
Century Fox, and Universal Studios -- basically all of Hollywood.
Sounds familiar?High-end media server manufacturer Kaleidescape
is probably in Silicon Valley feeling RealNetworks' pain. Last year,
after a long battle with the DVD Copy Control ...
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