Payton Place

Although I’ve never had opportunity to drive and electric vehicle, I hope to own one someday soon. Strangely enough, my ultimate vehicle wish is to own an electric pickup truck. I’d like a four door truck that’s about the size of a Honda Ridgeline but better looking. Perhaps an electric vehicle the size of the Toyota Tacoma would also be cool.

Unfortunately, I won’t own a Toyota truck until they reverse the direction of their grills. I just can’t imagine owning a vehicle that looks like its frowning. I want only smiles from my trucks! The Phoenix SUT comes close to “a grill with a smile” but still isn’t in production. One look at is grill and I think you’d agree, its more of a smirk than a smile.

Imagine what it would be like to drive an All Electric vehicle around town. Unlike the traditional mechanical noises we’ve grown accustomed to with four, six, and eight cylinder cars, electric vehicles make very little noise. Now Lotus is developing a technology called HALOsonic Electronic Sound Synthesis which is designed to recreate the engine sounds hear from internal combustion engines. Check out this video of the HALOsonic system tested in a Toyota Prius.

My favorite is the second Futuristic sound. And with the exception of the flying part, driving a vehicle that sounds like this would be oh so “Back To The Future!”

~SP

Thanks to Tom Young with Electroacoustic Design Services for pointing me to this very cool video . . .

It seems the demise of HD DVD predicted by many is soon to be a reality. In an article posted at engadget, Toshiba is pulling the plug on HD DVD! Say hello to my little Playstation3 friend, Blu-Ray!

Japan’s NHK has followed up The Hollywood Reporter’s earlier indications Toshiba was ready to dump its money-losing HD DVD
business, with news that the company is prepared to cease manufacturing
software and hardware, at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
This caps the worst week ever for red, when HD DVD was dumped by
Netflix and Wal-mart, pushed to the background by Best Buy and put on
– an apparently incredibly short — deathwatch right here.
Toshiba is mum on the subject right now, but we hear there’s plenty of
cheap players and movies in a dumpster around back of the HQ.

Although I’ve had a gut feeling that Sony and the Blu-Ray format would win this battle in the end, I really expected the battle to last at least another year. Polls were listing the formats running neck and neck up until a few months ago. Evidently the holiday shopping season initiated the death knell for the HD DVD format.

When I first heard of these two competing formats for high density data storage and HD Video delivery, I wondered if Sony could wage war and win this time. Considering the fact they lost the Betamax vs. VHS Format War which began in the 70s and ended in the 80s, I was dubious but hopeful all along. I knew back then that Beta was a superior format. Quality was visibly better but all the associated recorders/players were more expensive. So in order for the video tape format wars to conclude, the less expensive format had to gain marketshare and drive future publishing from studios to the dominant format.

Now that I know the better quality, greater storage, and more compatible (with my Playstation2 Game Library) HD format solution will win, I’m all the more likely to begin earnest planning toward the purchase of a Playstation 3. Lot’s of fun to come!

~SP

I never thought I would see headlines like this. But I’m glad these events came to pass. In fact, I think the consolidation makes perfect sense, perfect business sense, that is.

If cooperation between the two primary organizations in my field of work/study didn’t occur, then one of them was going to experience diminishing returns until it was phased out of existence. The alternative was for the NSCA Expo to morph into a different trade experience completely. Here is the title paragraph from the press release:

NSCA and InfoComm to Consolidate Trade Shows

FAIRFAX, Va. — InfoComm International, the worldwide leader in professional AV exhibitions and NSCA, the leading trade association for the electronics systems contracting industry, have announced a cooperative effort to consolidate the leading industry events for both the professional AV and electronics systems industry. As part of this consolidation, the 2008 NSCA Systems Integration Expo?will now become part of InfoComm?s annual tradeshow in Las Vegas on June 18-20, 2008. NSCA will also transfer its ownership interest in Integrated Systems Europe to the remaining partners, as per a separate operating agreement.

In the past several NSCA Expos that I attended, a common topic in conversation was, “Seems like fewer people are here this year. What do you think?” or “Show seems a little dead this year, do you agree?”

Since I’m a “supporting” manufacturer’s representative, I felt conflicted indicating that I could also see the writing on the wall. The NSCA Expo was in trouble. The majority of folks with whom I discussed this concept were in alignment with this. InfoComm is the way to go. Not one single person (of dozens I spoke to) indicated they were NOT going to InfoComm. Most said such things without ever appearing at the NSCA shows. So I had business associates planning to attend InfoComm Expo without bothering to also come to NSCA.

My primary interest going forward is to watch development of the education and certification programs from both the NSCA University and the InfoComm Academy. In the same sense that dueling expos had the tendency to cause fatigue in the industry (one too many shows to attend) I suspect dueling certification platforms will be the next level of consolidation (one too many certifications to support).

I’m not interested in taking two tests to certify that I know what I’m talking about!!! If you don’t think I know such things, put my advice to the test in the real world. That’s where it really counts, eh?

~SP