ARLINGTON, VA—The Consumer Electronics Association has a new name, as it will now be known as the Consumer Technology Association. In an excerpt from “It Is Innovation,” Gary Shapiro, CTA president and CEO, describes how the change in name recognizes the shift in the consumer electronics industry, most notably how the most important electronics developments come from technological advances.

CTA has grown in membership size and diversity since 2000, now featuring more than 2,200 members in fields that range from Internet retailers to 3D printer makers, drone builders to smart phone and tablet makers, and more. The change in name looks to reflect this.

“The word ‘electronics’ is limiting and does not capture all the innovation swirling around wireless, the Internet, automobiles, health and the new economy,” said Shapiro. “The word ‘technology’ better defines what we have become and who we represent.”

This is just the latest name change for the company that was first known as the Radio Manufacturers Association in 1924, but has since changed its name several times to the Electronic Industries Association, and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. It had been known as the Consumer Electronics Association since 1999.

The name for the CES trade show and conference will not change. CES has become "a global brand representing innovation," according to Shapiro. 

ARLINGTON, VA.—Like the first leaves of fall, consumers’ expectations for purchasing new technology fell this October, but it all is likely the calm before the holiday season storm.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association Index of Consumer Technology Expectations, consumer expectations for technology spending dropped 5.5 points to 83.3 in October. However, this is consistent with previous years, as many expect it to be a conservative move by consumers in advance of expected sales during the traditional holiday shopping season.

CEA’s annual holiday outlook shows 71 percent of consumers—10 percent more than in 2014—are planning to wait until November or December to begin holiday shopping, while only 24 percent—down 31 percent—expected to do holiday shopping in October or earlier.

The recent drop for October likely had little to do with the overall view of the economy, as the CEA Index of Consumer Expectations dropped just 0.6 points from September.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO—It’s official: the Consumer Electronics Association has announcedits industry definition for High Dynamic Range compatible video displays. In doing so, the CEA has set a standard for consumers and retailers to rely on when buying a HDR compatible display, be it a TV set, monitor, or video projector. Compared to standard HD, HDR TVs offer much greater contrast between light and dark images, thus providing a far more realistic viewing experience.

“HDR provides a significant step-up in delivering an incredible viewing experience for the consumer,” said Brian Markwalter, senior vice president of research and standards for CEA. “We encourage manufacturers and our industry partners to use this voluntary compatibility guideline to provide greater consistency and clarity while ensuring compatibility and interoperability across the full content development to display ecosystem.”

LG Electronics promoted its lineup of OLED TV sets with support for HDR at the recent IFA in Berlin.
For broadcasters, CEA’s establishment of an HDR standard signals the arrival of this new technology. The problem is that today’s HDTV broadcast plants are unable to broadcast HDR/HDTV programs; let alone the HDR/4K content that consumer TVs are starting to support and that Web-based OTT providers such as Amazon and Netflix are beginning to offer.

Add the recent announcement from Rogers Communications that its cable service—Canada’s largest—will begin offering live sports in 4K and HDR starting with the Toronto Blue Jays home opener in April 2016, as well as 20th Century Fox movie studio’s support for HDR/4K home viewing; the push to offer HDR/4K on the next generation of Blu-ray (Ultra HD Blu-ray) discs and the new Vidity dockable HDD players, and the push to woo consumers to HDR is in full swing. The question is how will broadcasters be able to respond without breaking the bank?

WHY HDR NOW?
The reason consumer TV manufacturers are promoting HDR/4K when very little content exists is the same reason they’ve been selling 4K sets and 3DTVs before that: they need to make money. “We want to speed up the TV replacement cycle, especially with the addition of HDR,” said Peter Fannon, vice president of corporate and governmental affairs for Panasonic.

There’s a good reason for Fannon’s assertion. “TV sales in the second quarter of 2015 were down 8 percent,” said Peter Putman, president of Roam Consulting in Doylestown, Pa., and one of three SMPTE Education Directors. Worse yet, this is just the latest drop in a consistent five-year sales decline. According tothe German statistics compilation firm Statista, global LCD TV sales peaked at 104 billion euros (US$116.48 billion), and has fallen annually since then; with 2014 sales at 95.7 billion euros ($107 billion) and 2015 sales projected to fall to 93.5 billion euros (US$104.7 billion).

Faced with this constant decline, TV manufacturers are pushing HDR/4K TVs hard; even though they know that virtually no content exists for consumers to watch at home.

“If there is HDR content, it would show up well on our OLED displays,” said Dr. Nandhu Nandhakumar, senior vice president of advanced technology for LG Electronics USA. “Besides, although HDR doesn’t exist on broadcast TV, the fact that 20th Century Fox, Amazon and Netflix are supporting HDR/4K content, plus the development of Ultra HD Blu-ray and Vidity dockable HDD players, means that content is on its way.”

THE HDR DILEMMA FOR BROADCASTERS
It cost broadcasters millions of dollars to convert their broadcast plants from analog to digital. Unfortunately, it would cost them even more money to transmit HDR content, because the system isn’t compatible with the current ATSC 1.0 standard.

“HDR requires at least 10-bit color, whereas the MPEG-2 system now being used by U.S. broadcasters uses 8-bit color,” said Putman. “The ATSC 3.0 standard now being tested does support HDR and 4K. But ATSC 3.0 is not backward-compatible. If you completely upgrade your station to ATSC 3.0 when this becomes possible, viewers with older generation, ATSC 1.0 HDTVs won’t be able to see your broadcasts.”

For broadcasters, HDR is not just a challenge, it is a true dilemma. “TV broadcasters are in a position where their viewers are increasingly stepping up to the TV equivalent of Ferraris, but today’s TV broadcast highway is still a slow gravel road,” said Putman. “If the broadcasters want to keep these Ferraris from going elsewhere, they’ve got to build a faster highway—but who will pay?”

This same dilemma doesn’t exist for OTT services like Amazon or Netflix, because they can theoretically offer HDR/4K, 8K, or even 16K programming should the demand arise for it, and the bandwidth into the home would be sufficient to support it. Meanwhile, supporting HDR/4K gives Blu-ray manufacturers the chance to sell current DVD and Blu-ray player owners a whole new generation of devices; just as the TV manufacturers hope to do with HDR/4KTVs.

The worst part for broadcasters: even if they do spend millions to adopt ATSC 3.0 and support HDR/4K when they can, there is nothing to stop TV manufacturers from pushing the resolution envelope to 8K and beyond once they have decided that everyone has a 4KTV and the only way to boost sales is to start another replacement cycle.

It is ironic that U.S. TV broadcasters spearheaded the launch of HDTV, in a bid to protect their analog spectrum—and their businesses—from encroachment by other users. The success broadcasters achieved by launching HDTV taught TV manufacturers that there was big money to be made from consumers replacing their current TVs with new, more capable models every few years; just like personal computer manufacturers have been doing for decades. What remains to be seen is whether TV broadcasters can cope with the fallout from this sales cycle, and the TV manufacturers’ push for ever-increasing resolution TV pictures.

ARLINGTON, VA.—“We are pleased that Gov. Brown recognized the concerns expressed by the broad coalition of private and commercial users, manufacturers and retailers of UAS and vetoed SB 142,” Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement released Sept. 9.

California Senate Bill 142 would have restricted the flight of unmanned aerial systems. Shapiro said that “issues of privacy and drones should be addressed” but this legislation took “the wrong approach.”

Instead, he said, “We look forward to a balanced and thoughtful UAS policy framework from the federal government and the stakeholders group — a process that will help deliver as many as 18,000 more jobs and more than $14 billion in economic impact to California in just the first decade once federal rules are implemented.”

The CEA’s economic research indicates that the United States will reach one million UAS flights per day within the next 20 years — but only if regulatory conditions are right. The U.S. consumer electronics industry trade association also supports the UAS safety campaign “Know Before You Fly,” which provides prospective UAS operators with information and safety guidance.

“Safe, responsible drone use will transform the way we do business — allowing these devices to assist in search and rescue and disaster relief missions, improve crop production and efficiency, and create safer work environments for infrastructure maintenance,” Shapiro concluded.

ARLINGTON, VA.—The Consumer Electronics Association has announced its industry definition for high dynamic range compatible video displays. The CEA designation is designed to assist retailers and consumers in identifying display products that incorporate the interface and processing technology needed to display the new content properly.

CEA’s Video Division Board approved the following definition: A TV, monitor or project may be referred to as a HDR Compatible Display if it meets the following minimum attributes:

-Includes at least one interface that supports HDR signaling as defined in CEA-861-F, as extended by CEA-861.3

-Receives and processes static HDR metadata compliant with CEA-861.3 for uncompressed video.

-Receives and processes HDR10 Media Profile from IP, HDMI or other video delivery sources. Additionally, other media profiles may be supported.

-Applies an appropriate Electro-Optical Transfer Function, before rendering the image.

These new characteristics for HDR interoperability were developed in collaboration between CEA and its display manufacturer members with leading content providers and distributors. CEA has also implemented a variety of promotional efforts to help educate consumers and retailers about the new display technology.

ARLINGTON, VA. – A year after calling for new terminology to better represent the current industry innovations, the Consumer Electronics Association has revealed a new set of camera terminology for digital imaging-related communications and promotion.

Here are the new terms and their definitions:

• DSLR – Short for Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras, a subset of ILC cameras that includes a mirror mechanism.
• Mirrorless – Short for Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens cameras, a subset of ILC cameras that does not include a mirror mechanism.
• ILC – Short for Interchangeable Lens Cameras, includes both DSLR and Mirrorless cameras, which, by definition, have interchangeable lenses.

The new terminology was determined by a group of companies, including B&H Photo, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Ricoh, Samsung, Sony and Walmart, and was approved by CEA’s Digital Imaging Board. The new terminology is now being implemented.

“This new terminology represents our industry in its current state today, but also assures consumers of where products and categories will be in the coming years,” said Neal Manowitz, deputy vice president of Digital Imaging for Sony North America.