It’s been a busy week with the World Cup kicking off and pulling a massive global TV audience of an estimated billion-plus people. While over in the world of commercial AV, InfoComm 2026 is happening in Las Vegas.
Continuing the sports theme for a moment, the New York Knicks—the 2025/2026 NBA champions—also held a championship parade in the streets of New York, which drew an estimated 1 million fans this past week.
Getting back into the technology integration market, the KMB Comm Tech Week in Review for the week of June 15 will look at news from Kaleidescape, as well as Focal, and Roku. Other news items the Tech Week in Review will look at include InfoComm’s future, Netflix commercial cinema plans, and how World Cup fans such as Scotland’s Tartan Army have taken over major American cities like Boston.
This week’s look at the news comes from Reuters, SVConline.com, eCoustics.com, bbc.com, connecteddesign.tech, and cepro.com.
KMB Comm Technology Week in Review Residential Technology Recap
Starting the week off with a bang, Reuters posted a story on Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of Roku.
The story states the deal gives Fox access to more than a 100 million households and it increases its ad-revenue opportunities. Reuters reports Roku investors will receive $96 in cash, and approximately 0.97 Fox Class A share per share held.
CE Pro has an item from Kaleidescape, the popular manufacturer of digital entertainment systems. The story says the lossless content ecosystem provider has introduced its new Strato K Movie Player with 8K video capabilities. The story also notes the Strato K introduces Kaleidescape’s 4K Cinematic format, and the player is certified by the 8K Association.
Over in the audio side of the residential technology market, the next KMB Comm Tech Week in Review story comes from eCoustics. The website has posted a story on the French audio manufacturer Focal, which has introduced its $210,000 Diva Alta Utopia flagship wireless floorstanding loudspeakers.
eCoustics says the speaker weighs 236 pounds each, and the product incorporates Focal’s PRISM tweeter technology, along with its M-Profile W Midrange driver materials, and connectivity options that include HDMI with eARC, optical digital, RCA, and USB. Wireless options include Wi-Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Bluetooth 5.3, Spotify Connect, and TIDAL Connect.
A Look Back at National and Global News
Beyond the residential market, the commercial AV industry is holding its flagship event: InfoComm 2026. Crossing into the world of residential news, the AVIXA-produced event recently announced its acquisition of the Lightapalooza lighting show, and the launch of its RESIDE residential event.
Connected Design’s Rob Stott examines how the InfoComm 2027 show in Orlando will look as it hosts an event-within-an-event with Lightapalooza and RESIDE happening within InfoComm.
Summing up his thoughts on a domestic show that would be home to a combined residential and commercial technology event, Stott writes, “If RESIDE, Lightapalooza, and InfoComm can deliver that [residential communities with their own identities] while also opening the door to adjacent commercial ideas, the result could be a new kind of meeting point for the connected environment.”
Staying in the residential/commercial gray area, the next KMB Comm technology item, SVConline has a story on Netflix’s commercial cinema policies.
According to the story, the popular streaming service had announced that its Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew would get a 45-day run in commercial theaters. Now, SVConline says, the Narnia movie may have been the exception to Netflix’s commercial theater policies.
The story adds that Netflix won’t work with directors that prefer commercial theater releases as part of its policies.
Coming back to sports for the final story in this week’s KMB Comm Tech Week in Review story of the week, is an item from BBC.com. KMB Communications is a national PR firm with offices in the West, Midwest, and the East Coast. This past week KMB East has been swept up in the World Cup fandom, and notably the Scots and the country’s Tartan Army.
The Scots, as well as the Norwegians, Moroccans, Haitians, and Iraqi fanbases, have taken over the city of Boston. The Scots in fact have drunk the city dry, and they’ve brought their, “No Scotland, No Party” attitude everywhere in Eastern Massachusetts to the delight of the locals.
The World Cup runs through July 19 and the best teams in the world including France, Brazil, Argentina, and England are all competing for the right to say they are the best.
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