Bob Ankosko

Hisense is not exactly a household brand but the Chinese-based company came out swinging at a pre-CES press conference touting aggressive plans to grow its business in the U.S. and become one of the world’s top three TV manufacturers. The company, which opened a U.S.-based subsidiary in Atlanta more than a decade ago, sells boatloads of TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, and other products through Walmart, Best Buy, hhgregg, and Costco.com. In TV alone, it produces more than 10 million sets a year globally.

Hisense executives are counting on the new Android-powered H7 VIDAA series smart televisions to meet their goals.

In just over 12 hours the first wave of 150,000 showgoers from 150 countries will descend upon the 2014 International CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center. As you can see from these photos, workers will be up all night frantically putting the finishing touches on the more than 3,000 exhibits. Somehow it will all get done—it always does.

In a world increasingly populated by horizontal soundbars, Artison has taken a different approach with the high-performance Masterpiece LCR DualMono MK2 speaker system, which produces three front channels from two cabinets flanking the TV.

Stepping up its TV game in 2014 by putting a “big emphasis on picture quality,” Vizio announced yesterday that it will add full-array LED backlighting with local dimming to its 2014 E Series line of LCD TVs. The line will include a 55-inch model that will sell in the “mid $700” range, according to a spokesman.