Given that each year's CES is a good indicator for the short-term developments in the audio/video industry, 2016 should probably be rather conservative, however not boring, since a handful of interesting products were displayed in Las Vegas. For sure, we missed both the feel of surprise and the excessive hype, elements which this year characterized other areas of consumer electronics (like the IoT technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and drones) leaving (at last?) the TV sector in the shades, probably for the first time in many years…
The ultra-high resolution TVs and the accompanying "smart" interactive technologies, supported by the recently published standards and requirements were, of course, the mainstream for the major manufacturers and the devices displayed were sufficiently impressive, but there were, also, several voices who noted a lack of incentive for the consumers to dive in.
In the area of high-performance audio devices, things remained stable for another year, but with several new products and good ideas unveiled, we should be more than happy. A quite interesting trend seemed to be an obvious effort to discipline the area of streaming and file playback with the relevant services and standards gaining a growing user base. Also, wireless transmission technologies appear to have gained both the confidence and the market share to safely go uphill in higher price segments.
Have a look at some of the most interesting products starting from here…

Dimitris Stamatakos

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