Audio Video News

J. Gordon Holt taps away at the titanium "Elliptical Oblate Spheroidal waveguides" of the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?31">JBL Performance surround-sound speaker system</A> to help uncover clues to its sonic signature. But in the end, Holt finds that only extensive listening with both music and movies reveals the true measure of the JBL's unusual design.

Home theater is increasingly a mainstream phenomenon, and no one recognizes this better than <A HREF="http://www.sharp-usa.com">Sharp Electronics</A>. During the last week of August, the manufacturing giant hosted its dealers and some members of the media at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel/golf resort in a celebration of new products that included a DLP video projector with a suggested retail price right around $3000.

Sharp is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a wide array of new upscale home entertainment products, unveiled at a dealer conference and media event in late August at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines resort north of San Diego. Sharp's US sales division is also celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, making 2002 doubly important for the Japanese manufacturing giant.

Financial life is looking good for <A HREF="http://www.echostar.com">EchoStar Communications Corporation</A>. The Littleton, CO-based direct broadcast satellite operator reported second-quarter profits of $45.8 million, with revenue up 21%, to $1.17 billion. EchoStar's subscribership increased by 295,000 during the quarter, and the company is predicting that it could add more than 1.2 million new subscribers to its DISH network in 2002, with a total approaching eight million by year's end. EchoStar reported the results August 15.

The cable industry isn't a happy one these days. Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable provider in the US, is under investigation by federal prosecutors for possible accounting irregularities. Owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Charter was on the receiving end of a grand jury subpoena delivered Thursday, August 15 by the US Attorney's office in St. Louis, MO, Charter's home city. The cable service has more than 6.8 million customers in 40 states.

Consumer interest in digital video recorders appears to be slowing, according to an August 13 report from <I>Screen Digest</I> magazine.