iSuppli: Strong PS3 Performance To Lift Global Console Business
El Segundo, Calif. – According to a video game system market forecast by iSuppli Tuesday, Sony’s strong U.S. PlayStation3 sales performance during Black Friday week should help the global video game console market return to growth during the fourth quarter.
If accurate, the feat would mark the first time this year that the market has expanded on a year-over-year basis, iSuppli said.
Global video game console shipments are set to rise to 24.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 5.2 percent from 23.4 million during the same period in 2008, iSuppli said. This follows declines of 2.1 percent in the first quarter, 35.7 percent in the second quarter and 10.9 percent in the third quarter.
“Sony’s PlayStation3 sales reached an all-time high during the week of Black Friday as consumers were attracted by its new low pricing and alluring bundle deals,” stated Pamela Tufegdzic, iSuppli consumer electronics analyst. “According to Sony, 440,000 PlayStation3 consoles were sold in the United States during the week of Nov. 29, a record for the product and nearly double from a year earlier. In comparison, Nintendo Wii sales were down year over year during the same period.”
Since its introduction in November 2006 the PlayStation3’s sales performance has lagged that of Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, due primarily to its higher comparative price.
Sony now appears to have somewhat leveled the advantages enjoyed by its rivals and has found ways to attract consumers back to the popular PlayStation line, iSuppli said.
“Sony has finally gotten it right with the PlayStation3,” Tufegdzic said. “The company has made a number of moves that now are paying off in terms of increased sales. These include a new product design that has allowed a price reduction to $299, down from $399, making it more affordable for consumers. Sony also is selling the PlayStation3 in bundles with popular game titles that cater to all ages. Furthermore, the PlayStation3 is being sold in bundles with Sony high-definition LCD TVs, pushing the game console’s Blu-ray player capabilities. These deals are perceived as good value by consumers. Finally, Sony increased its level of advertising on television, newspapers and the Internet, further boosting its sales during Black Friday and likely throughout the Christmas season.”
On the other hand, the Wii system has slowed down from its blockbuster pace during Black Friday 2008.
“Wii sales during the week of Nov. 29 likely amounted to 550,000, compared to nearly 800,000 during the same period in 2008, according to Nintendo,” said Tufegdzic.
Despite the decline from a year ago, the Wii outsold both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 over the recent Black Friday period, iSuppli said.
The big driver for Wii sales was gaming titles, particularly the new Super Mario Bros Wii, which is estimated to have sold more than half a million units in the second week of release.
Other popular titles for Wii include Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and Mario Kart Wii. In addition, the $50 price reduction from $249 to $199 has helped to prolong the Wii’s popularity among consumers.
Microsoft did not report actual sales during the Black Friday week, but the company offered bundle deals to promote sales.
However, the strong performance for the global game console market in the fourth quarter won’t be sufficient to make up for weak conditions through the first three quarters of the year, according to iSuppli.
Worldwide video game console shipments will amount to 51.6 million units in 2009, down 6.7 percent from 55.3 million in 2008.
By Greg Tarr — TWICE
http://www.twice.com/article/439134-iSuppli_Strong_PS3_Performance_To_Lift_Global_Console_Business.php
Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Entertainment Audio and Video services in North Carolina.
Posted in Blu-ray, Gaming Systems
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Tagged audio advice, Best Buy, black friday, blockbuster, Blu-ray, Charlotte, consumer electronics, i-phone, i-pod, LCD TV, LED TV, mario kart, NC, nintendo, playstation, ps3, Sony, wii, wii fit, wii sports resort, xbox, xbox 360, zobo
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10 Holiday Gifts for Tech Lovers
 You won’t find a $78 Blu-ray player on this HTSA-approved electronics gift list.
CE pros don’t generally experience the holiday shopping bump that retailers do.
They can’t compete with Walmart and its $78 Blu-ray player deals. Nor should they try to, according to the Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA).
The 59-member buying group wants CE pros to carve out their own holiday shopping niche and it has issued an electronics holiday shopping list for “the tech obsessed.”
You won’t find any $78 deals. Prices begin at $300 and go up very, very high, but at least they’re HTSA-approved.
Of course, the buying group’s list isn’t completely objective. Each product comes from an HTSA vendor partner. But, with 42 vendor partners, it’s a wide field. But we’ve narrowed it down to our 10 favorite.
Click here for 10 Holiday Gifts for Tech Lovers.
By Tom LeBlanc
http://www.cepro.com/article/10_holiday_gifts_for_tech_lovers/
Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Entertainment Audio and Video services in North Carolina.
Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged audio, audio advice, Best Buy, Blu-ray, Charlotte, Custom home builders, Davidson, diy electronics, dv wise, HDTV, Hickory, home audio consultation and design, home entertainment systems, i-phone, i-pod, innovative systems, Lg, Marantz, Matthews, Mint Hill, Mooresville, multiroom audio, NC, new construction, Onkyo, panamax, Panasonic, retrofit, Sharp, Speakercraft, surround receiver, surround sound, Waxhaw, wii, xbox
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Inside BB King’s $1.4 Million Tour Bus
 For legendary blues guitarist BB King, the thrill isn’t gone when it comes to touring. The 83-year-old “King of the Blues” is still on the road with his famous Gibson guitar “Lucille” performing 100 concerts per year.
And King gets from gig to gig on more than just a simple set of wheels.
King rides in a $1.4 million, 45–foot luxury motorcoach that has more than $200,000 worth of electronics inside, making it a center of inspiration for laying down tracks, reviewing audio and video, keeping up to date on news and communicating with his fans and crew. But, most importantly, he’s entertained by a first-class A/V setup.
The interior design of the Prevost XL motorcoach was done by Superior Coach Interiors in Nashville, Tenn., while the electronics were installed by Digital Home Lifestyles of Phoenix, Ariz.
The tour bus, which took 100 hours of design time and 300 hours of installation time to complete, has seven miles of of cabling from Liberty Cable, five miles of Cat5 wiring and 3,000 feet of CresNET. The pre-wiring was done before the walls on the tour bus went up, requiring large bulks of wiring in channels and luggage bays that run the length of the vehicle.
King has a music and video server system that allows him to access a collection of more than 20,000 CDs, 6,000 DVDs and “more VHS tapes than I have ever seen,” according to Daniel Henderson of Digital Home Lifestyles.
Electronics Galore
The electronics on the bus would make any electronics lover blush. There’s a distributed audio/video system with eight zones of video and nine zones of audio. The front and rear lounges have 7.1 surround sound systems that are fed through a combination of dedicated and distributed sources. The sources include:
* 4 DirecTV HR21-PRO DVRs (1 dedicated to the rear lounge, 3 for distributing audio and video)
* 4 Kaleidescape 1080p players (1 dedicated to the rear lounge, 3 for distributed A/V)
* 1 Kaleidescape 3U server
* 1 Crestron iPod dock that is distributed throughout the coach
* 4 individual iPod docks for each bunk
* 1 Crestron XM tuner (distributed to all zones with feedback on all the touchpanels
* 1 AM/FM radio (distributed with feedback on all the touchpanels)
* 2 Integra Blu-ray DVD players (1 dedicated to the rear lounge and 1 dedicated to the front lounge)
* 1 PS3 and 1 Xbox 360 in the front lounge
* 1 Sony Professional DAT Player (dedicated to the rear lounge)
* 1 Aiphone back-up camera (for driver’s touchpanel)
* 1 Aiphone PTZ front door security camera (distributed to all TVs and touchpanels)
The coach has a 12-inch touchpanel in the rear lounge, an 8-inch panel in the front lounge, a 6-inch panel for the driver (also for backup camera) and 4-inch touchpanels in each bunk. There also is a 12-button keypad up front. All controls are hardwired.
Other electronics include:
* 7 Crestron touchpanels
* 8 HDTVs, including two 37-inch LGs with Triad LCR speakers
* 13 Lutron motorized shades
* 6 motorized windows
* A proprietary 12-relay lighting control system designed by Digital Home Lifestyles
* 64 zones of lighting
* Loudspeakers in the luggage bays for music during load-in and load-out
* Temperature sensors
* Surround sound systems with Focal and Triad custom speakers
* 8 headphone jacks that can be used to listen to any source
There are multiple satellite dishes (auto-tracking) to enable eight tuners (four dishes with two tuners each) and occupancy sensors for the bathroom. King also has an emergency button in the lounge in case he needs something.
Power Management
King’s electronics require six separate 20-amp circuits and are powered in three different ways: 1)They can be plugged in when the vehicle is stopped; 2)They can run off the engine’s inverters; 3)They can run off a generator.
That constant switching can wreak havoc on the electronics without proper power management. To solve it, the integrator developed some proprietary logic for the Crestron APS unit for switchover sequencing of the power.
The system remotely communicates with Digital Home Lifestyles to let the company know about failures. King can even press a button on the touchpanels to send an email requesting a service call.
BB Loves Technology
BB King is a content hoarder and techie who always wants the latest gadgets, music and movies. Before he had the Kaleidescape servers, he had a tiny table that was cluttered with five portable hard drives and a laptop plugged into a CD recorder.
Henderson says King had 200 movies on the Kaleidescape servers and 100 TV shows recorded on Tivo within the first month of owning the tour bus.
“The coach is his (and the crew’s) home away from home,” Henderson says. “They don’t sleep in the coach, they stay in hotels every night, but they spend a significant amount of time in there.”
Click here to look Inside BB King’s $1.4 Million Tour Bus.
by Jason Knott
http://www.electronichouse.com/article/inside_bb_kings_14_million_tour_bus/C117
Custom Installation Services, LLC – Home Entertainment Audio and Video services in North Carolina.
Posted in Automation
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Tagged 20-amp circuit, 7.1 surround, a/v setup, am/fm, AV Components, back-up camera, Blu-ray, cat5, cds, Cool Homes, cresnet, dat, digital home, Digital Media Servers, directv, dish network, Displays, distributed audio, dual tuner, dvd, dvr, email, focal, freemans, gadgets, generator, gibson, hard drive, harmony, HDTV, headphones, Integra, integrator, iPod, Kaleidescape, keypad, laptop, Lg, liberty cable, lifestyles, lighting control, logic, loudspeakers, lutron, motorized shades, multiroom audio, Multiroom Video, portable, power management, ps3, receivers, rg6, security, Set Top Boxes, sirius, sound systems, superior coach, surround sound, temperature sensors, tivo, triad, vhs, wii, xbox, xm
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