Sony launched the Collaborative Alliances program for professional audio video market providers. It will focus on integrating and optimizing hardware and software for channel partners, resellers, integrators and consultants serving corporate, education, government, healthcare, faith, retail, entertainment and transportation, said Sony Tuesday. It's enabling alliance members to use digital signage, video collaboration and communications platforms to engage customers, said Sony Pro Division President Theresa Alesso.
Platinum VIP, SiriusXM’s new top-tier package, gives subscribers access to “the full spectrum of SiriusXM content in up to two cars,” with a SXM App login for each, said the company Monday. The $34.99 monthly package's “special perks” include passes to SiriusXM events, plus access to live concert video and audio recordings through nugs.net, it said. A less comprehensive Platinum subscription package already was available for $8.25 monthly for the first year, $21.99 a month thereafter. SiriusXM reports Q2 results Tuesday.
Walmart’s cloud-powered checkout system lets the retailer “stay nimble” and deliver a positive customer experience, blogged Wes Sweet, vice president-global tech. The Cloud Powered Checkout (CPC) system was born from an effort to expedite the checkout experience in Walmart’s garden departments and ended up changing the point of sale (POS) landscape, Sweet said Thursday. It's scalable, processing billions of transactions globally. Walmart’s previous POS system primarily used stationary terminals and was written in a coding language that wasn’t broadly used, making it a “hindrance” for developers, said Sweet. It was also tightly coupled to a proprietary operating system and limited the retailer’s options for different experiences such as mobile, he said. CPC was built as an e-commerce system first, leveraging common architecture, he said. It can run on different clouds or at the edge in a store and integrates with business services using standard application programming interface patterns, making it easier for tech teams to deploy additional features, said Sweet. CPC is in all U.S. stores and clubs and in most global markets. The system enabled stores in Canada to create a self-service checkout experience with a different layout and hardware supplier than other Walmart markets, he said.
Accell bowed an electronic sanitizer for small devices that doubles as a wireless charger. The $69 Power UV sanitizer uses ultraviolet light to kill germs in five minutes and is designed for objects including masks and smartphones, said the company Thursday. It’s Environmental Protection Agency certified, it said. Users can add a drop of essential oil to have an aromatherapy effect, said the company.
Summit Wireless shares reached a 52-week high Thursday at $7.06 as the company continues to raise awareness for the WiSA-certified category and a WiSA-branded store on Amazon. The stock closed 13% higher at $4.60. Summit’s Wireless Speaker and Audio Association officially announced the Amazon storefront Thursday, after CEO Brett Moyer teased the news on an investor webcast last week (see 2107160043). WiSA expects its Wave marketing program to drive 2 million visitors to its website this year. At Amazon, consumers will be able to buy WiSA-certified TVs, transmitters and speakers. In addition to home cinema solutions from WiSA member brands LG, Hisense, Klipsch, Harman, Enclave and Platin, the Amazon store will show WiSA speakers and TV bundles from retailer partners including Electronic Express and Walts TV, WiSA said. The store is designed to present customers with options for system configuration, performance level and budget. A search for WiSA at Amazon Thursday brought up a Samsung 65-inch UN65TU8000 bundled with a WiSA SoundSend transmitter and WiSA-certified Monaco 5.1-channel speaker system for $1,795. Also shown were non-WiSA-certified Edifier Bluetooth speakers; Samsung, Onkyo and Vizio multichannel speaker systems; a WeMax laser projector; and a Retekess FM transmitter for houses of worship and schools. A Google search Thursday listed Bestbuy.com third behind the WiSA Association website.
Zvox is promoting dialogue intelligibility in its latest sound bar. The AV357 ($299) uses the company’s Accuvoice hearing aid technology and SuperVoice technology that lets users reduce the level of background sound in TV programs to help bring voices “front and center,” it said Wednesday. The manipulation of the audio signal “lifts” dialogue out of the mix to help viewers who have difficulty understanding speech while watching TV, said the company, saying the sound bar has 12 levels of dialogue boost. Using what Zvox calls an Alexa Ready feature, users can connect an Alexa Echo device to the sound bar's input 2 and use it while listening to a program. They could ask Alexa for a football game score while watching a different game, for instance, said the company.
Summit Wireless’ Wireless Speaker and Audio (WiSA) Association announced Toshiba's Regza TV brand as the first certified product under the SoundSend Certified program. The WiSA certification is an effort to bring TV makers into the WiSA ecosystem “to ensure flawless and simple connection and interoperability,” it said Wednesday. Smart TVs will receive certification after successfully testing to work with SoundSend, including all audio connection and control requirements between the SoundSend wireless audio transmitter and the smart TV, WiSA said. SoundSend, which can be connected by HDMI or optical cable, is the association’s first branded product. The $179 puck-shaped transmitter is designed to make wireless multichannel audio accessible “in minutes” from most smart TVs. WiSA estimates SoundSend will open the WiSA speaker market to more than 1 billion TVs by year-end.
Verishop and Snap teamed to debut Verishop Mini as a “curated” e-commerce service enabling Snapchat’s 280 million daily users exclusively to shop fashion and beauty products without leaving the app. The online store will feature a “rotating selection” of labels, said the companies Tuesday. “Snapchatters will have the chance to virtually sample popular beauty products and accessories available from Verishop through Snap’s new augmented reality try-on experiences,” they said.
Consumers plan to spend record amounts on school and college supplies as they prepare for a return to in-person classrooms this fall, said survey results emailed Monday by the National Retail Federation. Spending for college will average $1,200, up $141 from last year, with $80 of the increase pegged for electronics and dorm furnishings, NRF said. Back-to-school shoppers plan to spend an average $21 more on electronics this year than 2020, it said. Of those planning to buy electronics, 49% plan to buy a laptop, 32% a calculator and 31% a tablet, it said. Total back-to-college spending is forecast at $71 billion, up from $67.7 billion in 2020. Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $848.90 on school items, $59 over last year, with total back-to-school spending expected to reach a record $37.1 billion. As of early July, 51% of K-12 and college shoppers had begun shopping for school items; 39% shopped for school items during recent sale events such as Amazon Prime Day, Target Deal Days and Walmart's Deals for Days, said the survey. Some 43% said they plan to use money they received from government stimulus to buy back-to-class items. The most popular destinations for K-12 shoppers are online (48%), department stores (48%), discount stores (44%), clothing stores (41%), office supplies stores (27%) and electronics stores (27%). Top college shopping destinations are online (43%), department stores (33%), discount stores (30%), office supplies stores (29%) and college bookstores (28%). The survey of 7,704 consumers was fielded by Prosper Insights July 1-8.
About a week before the July 28 one-year anniversary of the cancellation of the in-person Consumer Electronics Show 2021 due to COVID-19, CTA says it’s committed to returning CES 2022 as a physical show to the Las Vegas Convention Center in early January but is releasing few details about pre-show preparations.