cedia 2009: should we expect nothing new?

Yes !!

According to what I've read, CEDIA stays in a city for three years and then moves to another city. Atlanta will have it for three years.

Yes there is a fee to attend, and the event is NOT open to the public on any day. You need to have a business somehow related to the HT business to attend, but nobody will check that closely to see what your business is, or how it related to HT.

Glad to help.

What is the fee? I live four hours from Atlanta and am planning on going. I did a few installs for a local hi-fi house and can use them as a ticket in, but need to find a cost.

The information is on the CEDIA website - cedia.org
It is organized for Custom Installers. If you know someone who is a CEDIA member or is a custom installer, they may be able to arrange for admission.

I live 30 minutes south of Atlanta. I will be there without a doubt as long as I can get tickets.

I might be able to get to Atlanta. Any sugestions on getting tickets?

Gotta know somebody. Are you friends w/ a local installer or dealer? Last time I went my nephew (local electrician) let me use his company name.

I spoke with CEDIA person, wont say who yesterday. They informed me that you can pretty much skip the name of your company field and still get in. As long as you register online you can pretty much make up a name. They told me that they do not check into the company that you put down. I told them that I had done a couple of installs, which I have on the side, and was interested in the new products coming out. Thats the only criteria you need, plus $30.00 early bird reg. fee in July.

you can also contact companies that are displaying. Some of them will give out free passes. I know Sencore does this.

You can also join Cedia for $500 or so annual dues and get free show admissions for you and your company. Safest thing to do is register on line and pay the $30. If you wait too long the rate keeps going up. Gets pretty expensive at the door. You become an attendee and getting a high attendee count is the only thing trade show organizers care about. Inflate the attendence fiqures with consumers and it counts the same as company buyers. In Sept, the economy while it might be better than today will still signal caution to manufacturers introducing new products and paying high exhibit costs, very high exhibit costs. I think the real show numbers will be substantially down from Denver and its was not exactly booming in Denver.

At the rate of me replacing equiptment I should be able to qualify as a custom installer....Oh and I have owned 3 RS-20'S. LOL

LOL, thats a perspective I never thought about. In that case I am a custom installer! My clients are the most demanding in the industry, family members who want the best for free!!!!! haha

Good to know! Thanks for the info.

It's about $50. $30 if you register early IIRC. No at the door regs. Have to do it on-line. There are no checks of credentials, basically anyone who pays can get in. 18 and up. I highly recommend going if you can or are shopping for stuff. Prepare to get a second mortgage when you leave though

I seem to remember $30 early, about $50 one month or so in advance, and $100 at the door.

So Scott, you can't pay at the door any longer ?

Art

I don't know, Mark may be right, but I'm pretty sure the website said you could not last year. You may be able to walk over to a computer and do it on line, then go to registration to get your badge, not sure. Never waited that late.

Registration is not yet available so we can't be sure whether available at the door. If it will be, its a lot more expensive than doing a pre.

Oh yeah, FYI, if you are considering going, best to book a room now. The hotels fill up (tight assuming like Denver or Indy). And Atlanta is not a convention friendly city (IMO). Nothing much is close to the convention center and they are running shuttles from everywhere. I mean it's not like Denver with the super-convenient downtown mall with everything in walking distance. I made my reservations at the closest hotel abut 2 months ago.

Here's the hotel info from CEDIA. I think this is where they had all teh shuttle and hotel details...
http://www.cedia.net/expo/att_hotel09.php

At least using that page, housing can't be booked till June. The big problem for me is I'd have to miss my boys football to go unless I come and go early. The floor opens usually on Thursday ?



Art

Yes. Thursday 10AM. Usually if you go to one of the discount hotel sites, you can do better than show rates. Sunday is a waste. Two days is enough for spectators rather than dealers anyway. I suspect the show will be smaller than usual with less exhibitors and less on display, Manufacturers are hurting right now and show costs are very high.

Agree with Mark. As a non-CEDIA member, you are likely to do better on discount sites. I just gave the link so people can lookup what hotels are "participating" and who/where the shuttles go. I think it even has travel times on the shuttles.

Also agree about Sunday. As much as it costs I'd stay for every minute if I were an exhibitor but a lot of them pack up and go on Sunday, particurlarly the smaller ones. So likewise using Sunday as a travel day is OK. Although the lines on some of the bigger demos are smaller/non-existant on Sunday. Closes earlier on Sunday, too IIRC. For 2 years in a row I've ended up in meetings with the projector manufacturers which have burned up a lot of my exploring time Good and bad. Need to start earlier this year if I can (Thur).

It is true there are 3 months to go to Cedia, but the forum seems unusually quiet compared to the hectic developments of the last few years. Almost no speculation about any new projectors; led and lasers are barely mentioned except to say they are years away. At first this was the attitude re 1080p when 720 was the norm, but 1080p came on in a hurry and at amazingly low prices. All progress seems to have come to a complete halt - no exciting posts, eliciting a lot of traffic. Compare this to the frenzy over the OPPO blu ray player in the blu ray thread. There is almost nothing to read in the projector threads. A couple of posts here and there saying nothing new affordable for years, if not a decade. This is depressing. Has the recession killed off projector development?

I would expect something new from Sony, but it will be minor changes to existing models with some high end features trickling down.

On the DLP side I'm sure we'll see some LED based projectors but they'll be $15K+ with little practical improvement in contrast and brightness but they'll tout the instant on and wide color gamut potential.

I don't expect to see anything new from JVC but they have been known to surprise. I would love to see some big surprises but I've been doing this too long now to know that isn't going to happen. Just a few new things with minor improvements here and there.

But I would LOVE to be wrong!!