For most of us the holiday season goes holiday season goes by entirely too fast. For those in the technology industry, including the smart home and commercial AV markets, the end of the holiday season means the beginning of trade show frenzy season with several events set to take place in concurrent weeks.
Starting things off of course is the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show with other shows such as Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), International Builders’ Show (IBS) that includes the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS), and Lightapalooza 2026.
KMB Comm will have feet on the ground at both IBS and Lightapalooza supporting brands such as RoseWater Energy, Sonos, and Leon Speakers, and ISE lending support to Kordz and Sonos.
What’s Happening in the World of Consumer Electronics
Getting back to the start of the winter’s run of trade shows, there is news coming out from CES from all the major global brands that include LG and Samsung. Looking at audio, Ecoustics has an item from Onkyo’s CES announcement in which the popular company introduced a new line of compact, smart-home friendly amplifiers. The article points out this year marks Onkyo’s 80th anniversary, and the new Muse Network Streaming Amplifier Series includes the Y-40 and Y-50 models.
Check out the new Onkyo products here.
Over in the audiophile world, Future Audiophile has a product review on the VPI Signature 21. The review points out that VPI Industries was started in 1978 by Harry Weisfeld in Cliffwood, N.J. with the goal of selling turntable solutions to local audiophile hobbyists.
Fast forward to 2026, the review goes on to point out the company offers a complete line of turntables ranging from the $1,500 Traveler to the top-of-the-line Titan Direct that retails for $64,000.
To read the entire review for the $8,700 Signature 21 go here.
Rounding out the KMB Comm look at the residential side of the electronics industry is an Amazon Alexa item from LinkedIn.
According to the LinkedIn post, Amazon has introduced a new website that allows site visitors to interact with Amazon’s Alexa+ AI assistant. The post also includes news about other newly announced Amazon products.
To learn more about the browser-based version of Alexa AI+ go here.
Commercial AV News for the Week of Jan. 5
If you like the Star Trek franchise this story from SCN may be your favorite news item of the week. The story explains the German company UNWARE has launched its Holodeck portable VR CAVE that delivers cinema-grade immersive experiences that are inspired by the fictional show’s holodeck simulation room.
SCN notes the system includes a 6.5-foot high, 220-degree curved screen, spatial audio, and AI-powered body tracking.
Click the link to beam over to the UNWARE story on the SCN’s AVNetwork website.
KMB Comm National News Wrap Up
Earlier this week Yahoo Finance posted a story on the U.S. Midwest grid teaming up with the tech company Microsoft. The alliance between the parties will allow Microsoft to utilize its technologies in the Midcontinent Independent Operator grid that provides power for 42 million people in 15 states, as well as the Canadian province of Manitoba.
According to Yahoo Finance, the Microsoft technologies will be used to predict weather-related incidents, along with transmission line planning and other operational elements.
To read about the new Microsoft partnership, click this link.
Wrapping the KMB Comm Week in Review up, we thought we would take a bit of a diversion from electronics with a rundown of game times for the National Football League’s (NFL) Wildcard weekend.
NFL.com has the full slate of dates and game times on its website to help football fans plan their weekend of couch potato activities. Games this weekend include MVP (most valuable player) candidate Matthew Stafford and the L.A. Rams traveling to North Carolina to play the Panthers, then one of the league’s oldest rivalries with the Bears playing the Packers.
Sunday, the Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills travel down to Florida to play the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1 p.m. The 4:30 p.m. game features the champion Philadelphia Eagles taking on the San Francisco 49ers. The Sunday night primetime game features Drake Maye and the New England Patriots hosting the L.A. Chargers in Foxboro.
Concluding Wildcard weekend slate of games, the Houston Texas and the team’s number one ranked defense traveling to Pittsburgh to play Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.
KMB Communications hosts a podcast called AV Trade Talk. Listeners can check out the podcast to learn about the latest happenings in the custom installation electronics industry. To listen to the KMB AV Trade Talk Podcast, click here.