Jest wondering... anything new and exciting in ol' Denver???
P.S. Keep an eye on Rhm9 -- he gets a little out of control after his first beer!!!

The cool thing is my SUV rental......a 2007 Escalade!!!.....I lucked out!!!!...

This thing rocks!!!

And, if there's any stuff you'd like me to film in HD, just let me know! :-)

AVAD's booth babes, maybe;)

I will be looking at:
new Middle Atlantic cabinet and room ventilation accesories.

new control platform and multi-zone system from Request.

Savant... to see what the hell it is (and to try to score some Black Crowes tickets)

new Philips remotes, one of my colleagues got a beta of the little guy and it looks VERY nice.

new RTI hardbutton keypads and monochrome touchscreen/hardbutton combo KP... and hopefully the T2C and XP-8 processor that is closer to being ready (I have already heard that the release was pushed back to Q1-'07)

new Grafik Eye from Lutron... I hear it has an IR input right on it.

Thanks! All us poor s.o.b.'s that aren't there would enjoy a pic or two... Also interested in what projectors in the 3 to 5K range are looking good!
Thanks for the film offer... I'll let you be the judge... products of course.. and maybe an attractive female sales associate or two wouldn't hurt! Have fun!

Anybody see the both babes dress in the red cheerleader outfits in the ballroom at the "house fiberoptic" or whatever booth. Makes me think I might start installing fiber again. Then of course DVDO and the AVAdistributor.

AMX new R3 and R4 zigbee remotes, Vantage WHA system, Vantage low cost zigbeee lighting system. RTI's stuff, all good. I heard the same about the XP-8 processor being delayed, but looks VERY nice along with the T2-C.

Am I missing something this year? There's a few thing that caught my eye, but overall I'm not that impressed.

Those girls in the red minis would be nice in HD...

Get those cameras out!!! I need to live vicariously!

Went to a URC training first thing yesterday morning and Jeff Wagners complaint was where is the oxygen. I live here and don't think twice about it. Probably shoulda warned them about the lack of oxygen here. I suggested that he run around the convention center a couple of times and he will be as good as new.
Aside from all of that, lots of cool stuff here.
Russound has a new A-Bus controller that you can add up to 8 A-Bus zones with new lcd keypads with controller keypads as well. They increased the power outputs of the A-Bus keypads from 7 watts to 10 watts.
MacIntosh has these new "samsonite suitcase" sized amps with just an lcd meter displayed on the front. Very cool.
James Loudspeakers sound booth is always packed. Aircraft aluminum sealed in wall speakers that will blow you away. They have an in-wall that stands about 5 foot tall and must weigh about 100 lbs apiece. Takes 2 guys to mount this in the wall. They also have a subwoofer that has 2 flexible tube ports that you route the ports to grills mounted in the wall. Totally awesome. Think I sold one to a customer over the phone yesterday.
Well, I better get ready to get out of here and head on down. I love having this in my back yard.

URC was giving away these little keyfob sized remotes that are pretty cool. They also had a bowling party last night at the lucky strike bowling alley last night with a bunch of the Denver Bronco Cheerleaders.
Tonight, Lynard Skynrd is playing, so we will go to it, my son wants me to take him to see kid rock tommorrow night.

So basically what I'm reading is.....

Nothing really earthshatteringly exciting, right?

Kinda figured as much, which is part of the reason I didn't go this year (money being the other).

I'll splurge on Vegas next year, maybe.

Here are the cool products I've seen, in no particular order.

Crestron:

Wireless Thermostats that can be powered either by batteries or by HVAC system.

New CNXTA box with both analog telephone and Ethernet NIC. Holds lots of .wav files incuding menu to turn any phone into a UI. Supposed to have caller ID that works.

New addition to Adagio line: 2 new products, one with built in 5.1 surround processor, 5 zones of distributed audio and component video switching. The second with 7.1 surround processor, 4 zones of distributed audio, and a high end video scaler for video sources being output as component video.

Request:
New 8x8 2 peice distributed audio system with 80w/ch amp, 4 zone hard drive and separate am/fm/xm or serius tuner. Their UI are any of 3 different types of touch panels. Recessed panel at 500 msrp, wireless at 2k and 12 inch table top whose price I do not recall. Not only can mata data be displayed on these touch panels but weather and stock information as well. No control as of now but supposedly down the road.

Stealth Acoustics: Surprisingly good sounding invisable speaker system. The sub-woofer reeally shakes and there are no bezzels to be seen so decorators will not let you place the sub or LCR where you want since the speaker is plastered into the wall. Much easier to install than competitors.

Niles

New ICS system is really cool entry level 6x6 card based distributed audio system. Audio cards for HD radio, am/fm/xm or serius, network card with analog audio input for legacy devices and serial/IR interface. Like all other systems it plays with the IPOD as well as Escient and Rquest cd servers. UI are simple keypads, numberic keypad with small lcd, color touch panel and wireless 2-way remote. What really impressed was the very well designed programming wizzard that really makes this system quick and easy to setup the system.

I also thought their new speakers were quite a step foreward. Recessed theater LCRs with back boxes, round ceiling speakers where the bezzel is installed first and supports the speaker structurally. Rather than screws you "twist" the speaker into the bezzel to install it.

Fujitsu: 1080P plasmas and LCDs. Simply amazing picture, even if it was from a tape as opposed to live TV. They also deserve praise for providing a real demo of their existing products from just about every possible source technology.

Sony 1080P SXRD real projection displays with the largest display retailing for under 3k.

Digital Projections

What to see what every possible TI chip looks like on the same source at the same time? This is an exhibit everyone should visit to see what the difference are between entry level DLP Dark 2 chip, 720p single chip, 1080P single chip, 720P 3 chip and 1080P 3 chip. They even have a constant height anamorphic lens on both 3 chip sets.

My opinion based on a qucik look-see is that there is very little difference between 3 chip 1080P and 720P sets.

This is based on just one day's wonderings.

Alan

Somebody MUST tell me about the drill bit I heard of... What's the name? Booth location?

The bit that goes through anyhting and doesn't get dull...
Makes my mouth water.

yes... even through tile I hear.

My interest is now peaked?