CEA hosted an event they call a "Line Show" in New York City yesterday and today, but it is really a mini-conference for CE companies to showcase their wares, and for a series of speakers to discuss industry trends (like the 3D Summit I participated in today). There were clearly some interesting products, but I wanted to focus on Monster/Bit Caldron and Vizio for today.

Chris Chinnock
Senior Analyst and Editor
for Insight Media

Let’s start with Monster who announced they would soon start selling their Monster Vision "Max 3D" eyeglasses and transmitter kit. These are "Universal" 3D shutter glasses, which will sell for $249 this September, with a Zigbee transmitter included. Additional shutter glasses will cost $169.

The 3D glasses were developed by Bit Caldron, which has entered into a non-exclusive licensing deal with Monster to sell the glasses in major retail outlets. This is a great deal for both.

The glasses operate by plugging the digital RF Zigbee transmitter (2.4GHz) into a USB port on the TV for power and placing an IR detector in front of the IR glasses transmitters, which are embedded in the TV. This sensor picks up the IR sync signal and translates this into an RF Zigbee signal that is immune to light interference and insensitive to RF interference. Bit Caldron says they can sync the glasses for 5 minutes in a noisy RF environment even if they get only 10% of the packets. Look for further announcements from the company in the 3D PC space too.

I was also able to attend a Vizio press conference and spend some time in their booth talking with Vizio Vice President & Co-Founder, Ken Lowe. Key highlights included:

• Three new LCD 3DTVs with active shutter glasses
• One new X-pol type 3DTV with passive polarized glasses
• A remote with keyboard, IR and Bluetooth interfaces
• A wide range of Internet connectivity options
• Great set up and ease of use features
• An expanding focus on the TV ecosystem
• Leading performance at great prices

Starting with 3DTVs, coming in Q4′10 will be 42", 47" and 55" 3DTVs using LCD panels from LG and active shutter glasses. The glasses will use an IR protocol, not the Bluetooth one discussed at CES. Pricing is not yet set, but Lowe suggested that the 55" would come in around $2,000. Ghosting was clearly evident on the demo in the booth, but the image was Full HD resolution with no compromise in 2D image quality.

Since Vizio admits they are "conflicted" as to which 3D approach is best at this time, it will also come to market with a passive polarized solution. This will be an X-pol type display at 65 inches with the X-pol laminated panel coming from AUO. This is a glass-type X-pol that creates left-handed circular polarization on even rows and right-handed polarization on the odd rows, thus reducing 3D resolution in half. It has a black stripe for improved contrast and vertical viewing zones, but this remains limited (maybe +/- 15 degrees). The chief benefit is the low cost of the glasses, but the TV now becomes more expensive. This will debut in Q1′11, but pricing has not yet been set. Current solutions are very expensive, but Vizio is known for leading pricing, so it must believe it can offer this set competitively. As Lowe put it, "We don’t like to sell TVs for more than $3,000." This set will also integrate Sensio decoding. You have to believe that Vizio also has their eye on the pub/bar market for this TV.

Speaking on Vizio’s main TV product line, Lowe noted that the company is focused on energy reduction and suggested that the power savings of the TVs it will sell it in 2010 will save about 320MegaWatts of power compared to the TVs it sold in 2008. "That’s a whole power plant," said Lowe.

The use of LEDs is a big element of this savings and Vizio intends to offer 40% of their models with LED backlights by the end of 2010. These will be both edge lit type and direct type, with the former offering the thinnest TVs and the latter offering the best black levels via 64 to 120 zone dynamic dimming.

Vizio will also focus on its Internet Apps TVs this year. These offer an open, not walled garden approach to accessing content on the web, and includes 2GB of internal memory to support buffering of streaming content. Ease of use is facilitated by a remote that has a slide-out keyboard with a Bluetooth interface to the TV and an IR interface to the set top box.

Lowe also showed some customer survey results that highlighted their high satisfaction with the TV set up, Internet connectivity, streaming of content and overall satisfaction. Nearly 70% of Vizio TVs with Internet capability are connected to the Internet, an industry-leading figure. "The key is making Internet connection wireless and simple," said Lowe.

To prove the point, he went thru the initial set-up and Internet connection of a brand new TV during the press conference. As promised, it was quick and easy with content streaming from the Internet in less than 5 minutes. Vizio is really doing a good job in this area.

Finally, Lowe said that Vizio in transforming itself from a TV company to a consumer electronics company. To do this, it is expanding its product line beyond TVs to include mounts, Blu-ray players, sound bars, wireless headphones, cables, mobile TVs and even a simultaneous dual-band 802.11n wireless router, using both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. And, the company is offering leading edge technology and great prices with these products.

Some have said the Samsung is the new Sony. Well, maybe Vizo is the new Samsung. However you figure it, this company is one to watch.