The FCC should deny a petition for reconsideration filed by consumer groups representing the hearing impaired challenging the commission's accessibility rules for programming guides and user interfaces, CEA said in an ex parte filing posted online Friday. The consumer groups, which include the National Association for the Deaf, disagree with the FCC stance that using voice or a gesture command to activate closed captions is reasonably comparable to using a button, key or icon. A CEA-conducted poll of its TV manufacturer members received no responses indicating plans to provide access to captions only through voice or gesture commands, CEA said.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed several petitions for review of the DTV transition “due to the passage of time, and with no objections put forth by petitioners,” the bureau said in an order Wednesday. The affected petitions were all filed in 2008, by the Association for Maximum Service TV, Gulf-California Broadcast Co., Harris Corp., NAB, NPG of Texas and Russell Withers, the order said.

CEA announced eight inductees into the 2015 CE Hall of Fame Wednesday: Robert Borchardt, CEO, Recoton, credited with elevating accessories to a profit center for retailers; Tom Campbell, CE retail executive and consultant, who helped retailers launch new technologies and products; Crestron founder George Feldstein, an early pioneer of the connected home market; Vic Hayes, "the Father of Wi-Fi," and founding chairman of the IEEE 802.11 Working Group for Wireless LANs; Monster founder Noel Lee, who established the high-end audio and video interconnection market and introduced the Beats headphone line; Bernie Mitchell, president, Pioneer America, who took the company from a $2 million seven-product firm to a $238 million company with 125 products; psychoacoustics engineer Floyd Toole, who changed the methodology used by generations of speaker manufacturers to test and measure high-quality sound; and Wilfred Schwartz, founder of the Federated Group, which grew from a single CE retail store in California to a 90-location chain in four states.

"Preliminary registered attendance" at the NAB Show reached 103,042, NAB said in a Tuesday announcement. The show's exhibition floor had 1,789 companies using 1.015 million net square feet of exhibit space, NAB said. The data are based on preshow and onsite registration and are "subject to an ongoing audit," it said. The show closes Thursday after four days of exhibits and six days of conferences. Final data from last year's event showed 97,915 attended and that total exhibit space was 947,000 net square feet, NAB said.

Azione Unlimited scheduled its fall meeting in New Orleans Sept. 9-11 at the Westin New Orleans Canal Place, the buying group said Tuesday. The event is free to members and will include dealer and vendor members and the press, it said. Planned activities include educational and motivational speakers, panel and roundtable discussions, small group meetings, and dealer/vendor one-on-ones, it said.

CEA expanded the show floor for International CES Asia, running May 25-27 in Shanghai, China, after underestimating exhibitor interest in the first-year show, it said Tuesday. CES Asia added some 6,500 net square feet to the show floor, which had 91,500 net square feet in February. New exhibitor additions include BesTV, Cadillac, China Mobile, Lincoln, OnStar, Samsung and Volkswagen, CEA said. Audi CEO Rupert Stadler will deliver a preshow keynote at 5 p.m. May 24, and additional keynotes will be announced in coming weeks, CEA said.

CEA President Gary Shapiro, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell are among the more than 100 tech leaders who have signed their names to a statement urging legislators to add nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people to civil rights laws, the Human Rights Campaign said Monday in a blog post. The statement was “launched last week in response to a host of anti-LGBT bills pending or signed into law in states around the country,” and “technology leaders from coast to coast continue to sign on with their support in this historic call to action,” the HRC said. More than 100 anti-LGBT bills “have been introduced in state legislatures this year alone,” it said. “These tech leaders are unified in shifting lawmakers’ focus away from divisive and discriminatory policies to passing comprehensive non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.”

The Z-Wave Alliance is exhibiting for the first time at ISC West, April 15-17 in Las Vegas. Nine member companies are showing products in the pavilion and 28 companies are exhibiting in booths, said the alliance. Some 90 percent of lifestyle security systems in North America -- defined as smart alarm panels with connected devices such as smart locks, lighting and thermostats -- are Z-Wave-enabled, it said.

The number of counterfeit CE seizures and the estimated value of such goods increased in FY 2014 from the previous year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a report released Thursday. CE goods and parts were about $162 million worth of seized goods, based on estimated manufacturers' suggested retail prices, up from $145 million in FY 2013, the agencies said. That's about 13 percent of the total $1.2 billion worth of goods seized during FY 2014, it said. There were 6,610 seizures of CE goods in FY 2014, up from 5,656 seizures in FY 2013. While CE seizures increased, overall the total number of seizures and the worth of goods seized fell compared with the previous year.

CEA raised its 2015 industry revenue forecast to $286 billion from the $223 billion in the forecast it issued at CES “to reflect industry sales to consumers,” it said in a Monday announcement. The CEA executive board decided it’s important for CEA to report industry revenue “that accounts for sales to consumers -- a common expectation in the consumer goods sector,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a statement. “CEA has historically reported sales in terms of manufacturer sales to the retail channel, and we will continue to use wholesale figures for category-specific sales tracking and forecasting reports that have been relied on by the industry for decades.”