A third excellent report from the floor of CES by our correspondent Spencer Hooks:
Acoustic Projector from Yamaha
Yamaha has a small room in their booth where they are demonstrating a very interesting new technology. The Acoustic Projector is an array of 56 small drivers that delivers surround sound using just one “speaker”. Unlike other virtualization technologies, the Acoustic Projector doesn’t require listeners to sit in a “sweet spot.” Instead the sound is beamed to locations in the room and appears to come from those locations regardless of your location. There is still an optimal listening zone, but you are able to move around much more freely than with conventional virtualizers. The trade off here is cost. Pioneer launched a similar product about a year ago [Editor’s note – the PDSP-1] – but with a price over $25,000 I would be surprised if they sold more than 10. Yamaha seems committed to offering the product at a lower price.
My favorite part of the demo involved using the technology for watching two programs on one TV. The TV screen is slit vertically into two, showing one program on each side. The product is able to deliver the audio from just the program on the side of the room where you are sitting. If you walk to the other side of the room you then hear the audio from the other program. You always hear people talk about the Spouse Acceptance Factor – a one-speaker surround system that allows you to watch two different TV shows at once is a home run in that respect.
DVD Recorders Getting Smarter
A welcome trend at CES this year is the inclusion of electronic program guides into DVD recorder products – especially those with hard drives. Pioneer started this trend with their DVR-810H combination TiVo/DVD recorder that came out last year. Toshiba is planning to add TiVo functionality to their DVD recorders in the near future, and their SD-H400 DVD player already comes with TiVo built-in. Samsung and Panasonic are taking a different approach and are getting their guides via Gemstar. The Panasonic DMR-E85S, for example, is equipped with a 120GB HDD and allows users to program recording directly from the Gemstar-TV Guide. At a price of $699 this is a pretty compelling product when compared to the Pioneer DVR-810H, which is $999 and includes only an 80GB hard drive. The Gemstar-TV Guide costs nothing and displays 8 days of programming, while the free version of TiVo shows only 3 days worth. Yes, the TiVo interface is nicer, but I don’t think that that alone tips the scales back in the favor of the Pioneer.
Another First From Alpine
Alpine is showing another first at CES. This time the product is an interface box that allows you to control your 3rd generation iPod with any Ai-Net equipped Alpine head-unit. Ai-Net is what Alpine uses to interface things like CD changers, XM Radio receivers, etc. It’s standard on most Alpine head-units. They’re using the iPod’s Accessory Interface Protocol, which allows you to navigate your library, view track information, and play music. The system also provides power to the iPod so you don’t drain your batteries. This is going to make for some very happy iPod users and could be a great partnership for both Alpine and Apple. Definitely a better everyday solution than an iTrip.
