Ultimate AV Staff

The annual CEDIA convention is only three weeks away, and equipment makers are generating plenty of pre-show excitement with new product announcements.

DirecTV in the north: On August 13, DirecTV Group Inc. has received clearance from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move one of its satellites into an orbital slot controlled by Telesat Canada, a move that will expand DirecTV's reach to an additional 24 markets. The El Sugundo, CA–based satellite service should soon be serving as many as 130 markets, and could add as many as 7 million new customers to its existing base of 13 million. The company's new Canadian service should be in full operation by early October.

You wouldn't know it to talk to most home theater purists, but there's a market for simplified, easy-to-implement surround sound systems: college students in cramped dorms, for example, or vacationers in summer homes.

Thomas J. Norton reviews the follow-up to last year's Editor's Choice Gold Award, the <A HREF="/videoprojectors/604nec">NEC HT1100 DLP video projector</A>. Norton reports that the latest model is more of a good thing.