The Audio Engineering Society has raised more than $159,000 in COVID-19 funding toward its June 1 goal of $500,000, said the society Friday. It launched the appeal for funding April 23 to sustain the organization through the crisis after the pandemic forced cancellation of at least two events from which it draws its “traditional cashflow” (see 2004230055). More than 170 individuals have donated money, and speaker maker Genelec committed a percentage of the proceeds from its 2020 sales, said AES.
The global supply chain for Universal Display “remains solid and we’ve had no issues shipping materials to our customers” during the pandemic, said CEO Steve Abramson on a Q1 investor call Thursday: “There are concerns about constraints in the consumer electronics supply chain due to the pandemic.” It’s withdrawing its 2020 guidance amid “the tremendous uncertainties surrounding the consumer environment,” he said. Its Feb. 20 forecast was for 2020 revenue of $430 million-$470 million. The low end of that range would have been a 6% increase from 2019. The company supplies OLED technology and materials to panel makers. “We believe that the underlying long-term fundamentals of the OLED industry have remained robust,” said Chief Financial Officer Sid Rosenblatt. “Panel makers are looking to the future of display technology and are investing in OLED.” The multiyear supply agreement Universal signed with panel maker China Star is a big deal for OLED, said Abramson. “It is a subsidiary of TCL and they are the second largest LCD manufacturer.”
The global TV market “continues to face challenges with reduced end market demand” and supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Himax Technologies in its Q1 release Thursday. The company supplies display-drive chips to panel makers and can be a bellwether of display industry health. Himax Q2 revenue in the display driver segment for large TV panels will decline by high-single digits sequentially from Q1, it said. Though Himax “delivered strong results” in Q1, “its visibility is low for the second half as the market is still cautiously adapting to the new market environment,” it said. The “strong growth momentum” it experienced in Q1 for laptop and monitor display drivers “is expected to extend into Q2" and 2020's second half, it said. Telework and online education “have created new demand for these products,” it said.
Crestron announced its return to CEDIA Expo 2020 -- slated for Sept. 8-12 in Denver -- for the first time since 2015. John Clancy, vice president-residential, emailed that the company is hearing "hope and optimism" from dealers that the show "will happen in a physical form." If the trade event is held as a virtual event, "dealers have expressed intention to participation in sessions, trainings and more," Clancy said. On whether the company will bring out lower cost home control solutions to address an uncertain economy, Clancy said, "Perceived economic conditions have a way of turning into opportunities." The COVID-19 pandemic gave the company a chance to "think about things differently and be more creative," he said, highlighting the Crestron Home line that allows dealers to "bridge the gap within the premium smart home space, while addressing the demand for professionally installed systems." On Crestron's 2020 outlook, Clancy said the 45-year-old company "has always needed to adapt and adjust." It will make some residential and commercial announcements in coming months and is optimistic about both sectors.
U.S. home entertainment spending via digital transactions, including electronic sell-through, VOD and subscription streaming, jumped 24.2% in Q1 to $5.98 billion, reported the Digital Entertainment Group Wednesday. There was a 48% March increase in digital spending to $596 million, the highest monthly revenue. “Entertainment-hungry consumers sheltering at home during the COVID-19 pandemic” fueled the increase, it said. “Stay at home orders rolled out across the U.S. beginning in mid-March, though some consumers had started to limit social activity even earlier.” Total U.S. home entertainment spending jumped 15% to $6.94 billion. Physical media sell-through continued to suffer, declining 22.4% to $637.8 million.
Most of the 138 nations tracked by BroadbandNow had slower average download and upload speeds in April than in January and February, it said Wednesday. Among the 10 largest nations, the U.S. is the only with no download speed degradation, though many countries saw slight declines. Countries with the most new virus cases had some download and upload speed degradation, while China has begun to climb again and Italy leveled off in April. BroadbandNow said 45 countries had no drop in average upload speeds in April, and 52 saw no drop in average download speeds.
Post-pandemic U.S. economic recovery will be gradual and may vary by region, predicted the National Retail Federation’s chief economist Wednesday. U.S. households likely will “tiptoe back” to their pre-COVID shopping habits “rather than making an immediate return to the lives they experienced before,” said Jack Kleinhenz. “My overall impression is that the recovery will have fits and starts among states, regions and cities depending on the severity of the pandemic in their localities.” Q1's 4.8% gross domestic product decline was “just a murmur of how severely the pandemic has devastated many parts of the U.S. economy,” said Kleinhenz. “A much deeper contraction is expected during the second quarter.”
Display Supply Chain Consultants still plans to hold its August business conference online now that the Society for Information Display moved the Display Week 2020 show to an all-virtual event, emailed CEO Ross Young. “All the talks” at the business conference will be prerecorded “with proceedings provided,” said Young. “There will also be some live elements.” SID doesn’t “even have a contractor yet to put this together, so we don’t know the costs or all the aspects of it yet,” he said. “Hopefully it will be compelling.” SID didn’t comment Wednesday. It scrapped Display Week 2020 as a physical show about a month after postponing it to August from June and moving it to San Jose from San Francisco (see 2005050071).
The average household is watching eight more hours of TV per week than in early March, at 66 hours, said Comcast Wednesday. Due to self-isolation during COVID-19, distinctions between weekend and weekday viewing behaviors are blurring, with a rise in weekday viewing to levels resembling weekends, it said. Monday has taken over from Saturday as second most popular day to watch TV, behind Sunday. Comcast cited a 40% uptick in late-night TV viewing, especially 11 p.m.-2 a.m.; less viewing is happening 6-8 a.m. It cited a 64% bump in news viewing, peaking the week of March 30. Dramas led genres at 30%, followed by news (29%), comedy (28%), reality (15%), and action and adventure (15%). DVR usage decreased and VOD rose 50%. Comcast cited double-digit growth in discovery-related voice commands as consumers look for new content.
The Society for Information Display canceled plans to hold Display Week 2020 as a physical event, less than a month after postponing the June show to early August and moving it to San Jose from San Francisco (see 2004070051). SID decided to “move the entire conference to an online format” for the "health and well-being" of attendees, said President Helge Seetzen in a video posted Tuesday.