The Digital Entertainment Group is positioning its EnTech Fest expo Feb. 15-16 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles as the 2022 “home” of the industry reception it customarily has held for decades during CES in Las Vegas, emailed Executive Director Marcy Magiera. DEG won’t do the reception at CES 2022, she said: “We hope EnTech will be an annual event, but aren’t making any decisions about CES beyond 2022.” EnTech Fest will be about “showcasing what’s new and what’s next in content distribution and display technology,” said DEG promotional materials. The event will feature a “Startup Alley” to spotlight “new companies with products and services in entertainment technology,” plus an in-car entertainment “gallery,” it said. EnTech Fest won’t be DEG’s first in-person event since the March 2020 start of the pandemic, said Magiera. “We’ve had two small in-person events,” she said, “both at Skirball, which requires proof of vaccination or negative COVID test, and with COVID safety protocols including masks inside.”

The Near Field Communication Forum added Huawei as a sponsor member and gave the Chinese telecom maker a seat on its board, said the standards body Tuesday. Others joining the NFC Forum: (1) EM Microelectronic, as principal member; (2) Tokai Rika, associate member; (3) CEC Huada Electronic Design and Metaboards and Sichuan Kiloway Technologies, as implementer members; and (4) Chinese University of Hong Kong, as nonprofit member. NFC is a standard feature on the world's nearly 3 billion smartphones, said the organization.

Broadcasters should never be partisan, should focus on “the counterpunch” and shouldn't be afraid to negotiate, said outgoing NAB CEO Gordon Smith in a livestreamed “state of the industry” address before NAB’s Marconi Awards presentation Wednesday. Smith steps down at year-end and will be replaced by current NAB Chief Operating Officer Curtis LeGeyt (see 2104070045). The speech had been planned for the since-canceled NAB Show 2021. Smith has headed NAB for 12 years, after a two-term stint in the U.S. Senate. LeGeyt is “the right person at the right time for this job,” Smith said Wednesday. The outgoing CEO praised NAB’s role in securing COVID-19 pandemic relief for broadcasters and “standing up to the tech giants,” and said broadcasting has never been more important as an institution than over the past 20 months. Smith advised advocates for broadcasting to prioritize issues with practical consequences, hire “the best, not the most,” and not “punch” until they have assessed the likely response from their opponent. “Some things have to ripen, and you want to calibrate your punch when it’s most impactful,” Smith said. He will continue to work for NAB as an adviser starting in January.

ProSource held its first Lighting Technology Certification Level 2 training at its Dallas lighting technology education center, it said Wednesday. The two-day program drew 25 attendees of 98 who have completed required coursework for Level 2 training, said the buying group. Level 1 certification went live in summer on the ProSource University learning management system platform. Vendor partners for live training included AiSPIRE, Colorbeam, DMF, Proluxe by American Lighting, Savant/USAI and Vantage.

The embedded DisplayPort standard’s newly published version 1.5 specification keeps all the key features of the previous eDP 1.4b spec approved six years ago, but enables better device power efficiency and improved motion image quality, said the Video Electronics Standards Association Wednesday. For laptops with embedded displays, eDP “is the electrical interface for transporting video data from the system's graphics hardware to the internal display panel,” said VESA. The new version improves on the panel self-refresh function in the older spec by adding an “enhanced panel replay protocol” that renders additional power savings, it said. The new spec also adds capability for making small frame-rate adjustments to “prevent skipping or repeated frames” when streaming movies, said VESA. “For panels with a wide frame rate capability deployed in gaming systems, new mechanisms were added to reduce display flicker.”

A year after announcing the departure of CEO Tabatha O’Connor when her contract wasn’t renewed, CEDIA named former Recording Academy executive Daryl Friedman CEO Wednesday, to fill a role that the CEDIA board has played since O'Connor's departure. Friedman begins a three-year term Nov. 29. Friedman’s “decades” of nonprofit experience in trade association leadership includes overseeing membership, advocacy, industry relations and the technical wing for the Recording Academy, the same kind of “skill set” he will bring to the custom electronics industry association, Friedman told us Tuesday under embargo. He also brings knowledge of the audio industry, he said, citing the Producers and Engineers Wing’s 2014 endorsement of CEDIA’s high-res audio training program for home technology professionals. On his vision for CEDIA’s future, Friedman said he would like CEDIA to become “a household name” for anyone looking to install residential technology. “We want them to use a professional integrator, we want them to use a knowledgeable, certified integrator, and that’s an area I can help with,” he said. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a “once in a generation shift in mentality about residential technology,” Friedman said. “Because of what we just went through, people have an awareness of the need for the home technology sector,” which creates a more mainstream opportunity for the channel to address home-based technology needs for education, wellness, security and safety and energy efficiency. “CEDIA can be a catalyst to help it move it even more mainstream,” he said. On challenges facing the organization, Friedman said, “Coming out of the pandemic, if we miss this moment in time when everybody is thinking about the home in a different way, it’ll be a very big lost opportunity.” He plans to travel to meet with CEDIA members to learn what’s important to them and create a strategic plan that capitalizes on the opportunity created by the pandemic.

Oppo joined the Connectivity Standards Alliance’s board, said the organization Tuesday. The Chinese electronics firm, a member of CSA since early 2020, will expand its participation and leadership and advocate for its partners to join the alliance, it said. Oppo plans to adopt CSA’s technologies into its IoT ecosystem and products, with a focus on the upcoming Matter standard and Zigbee.

Dish Network and Tegna blamed each other for a possible blackout of stations in 52 markets on Dish that was to have started Wednesday night. Claiming Tegna “prioritizes greed,” Dish said Tuesday it's “demanding a massive increase to nearly a billion dollars in fees for its programming.” Tegna emailed that it started alerting Dish subscribers about the possible blackout “due to Dish's refusal to reach a fair, market-based agreement to continue carriage of those stations.” Tegna said it's “committed to reaching a fair, market-based agreement with DISH based on the competitive terms we’ve used to reach deals with numerous other providers.”

Recommendations for including age-based content ratings for streaming content from the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board are “a small step” toward addressing “widespread inconsistencies” in program ratings, said the Parents Television Council Tuesday. The industry-run board, which is led by NCTA, NAB and MPAA, “quite simply, needs to do more,” said PTC President Tim Winter. The guidelines recommend including ratings and descriptors for streamed content, displaying the ratings at the start of playback and as the content plays. “Video streaming services should at a minimum strive to replicate the ratings experience available for programming that is shown on television,” the best practices say. The guidelines were released earlier this month, and Winter also faulted the board for inadequately promoting them. Ratings for streaming won’t help unless they're consistently applied and paired with parental controls that are effective, Winter said: “We’ve proven they’re not.” The board didn't comment. PTC has been critical of the ratings board in the past (see 1910150054).

Fubo Sportsbook and the New York Jets signed a multi-year partnership. It’s the first professional sports team sponsorship for the wagering sportsbook experience that’s due to launch in Q4, subject to regulatory approvals, said the Jets Wednesday. This centers on a coming-soon 7,000-square-foot Fubo Sportsbook Lounge at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.