Philips bids farewell to the home entertainment market-- Funai Electric will take over the Philips Lifestyle Entertainment business (audio, video, multimedia and accessories) for €150 million and a regular brand licensing fee for 5-1/2 years and the right to renew for another 5 years.

The deal provides funds & cuts losses for the ailing Philips, whose Q4 2012 losses total €355m. Philips blame the loss on the €503m fine imposed by the European Commission on the CRT price fixing "cartel" Philips made part of between 1996 and 2006.

Excluding the fine Philips income totals €875m.

The Lifestyle business will not immediately go to Funai-- while audio (including the high-end Fidelio unit) goes to Funai during H2 2013, the TV business has to wait until 2017 due to the 2012 TP Vision joint venture with Hong Kong's TPV.

Philips remote control operations, being predominantly business-to-business, are excluded from the transaction.

"With this transaction we are taking another step in reshaping the Consumer Lifestyle portfolio and transforming Philips into the leading technology company in health and well-being," Philips CEO Frans van Houten says. As part of the "Accelerate!" restructuring plan the Philips Consumer Lifestyle unit will concentrate on making more personal care devices, domestic appliances and coffee machines.

Go Philips Q4 2012 Quarterly Report

Integrated Systems Events Managing Director Mike Blackman announces ISE will remain in the Amsterdam RAI until 2019 as ISE 2013 opens its doors, the 10th time for the show.

"Extending our contract provides certainty for all our event's stakeholders," Blackman says. "The RAI has invested heavily in infrastructure and facilities, and this programme will continue in the future."

The show also sees a change of future dates-- ISE 2014 takes place on 3-4 February 2014 as previously announced, but it will move to the 2nd week of February from 2015 in order to make life easier for exhibitors attending January events in N. America such as CES and Winter NAMM.

ISE 2013 houses some 894 exhibitors in over 33000 square metres of floor space, both record numbers for the event according to the organisers.

Attendance figures also appear to reach a new high, with pre-registrations growing by around 6% over the 2012 equivalent.

In the meantime do follow the rest of our show coverage!

Go ISE 2013

How do you determine if the AV system achieves the client's objectives and is performing in accordance with the system design?

InfoComm International launches The Audiovisual Systems Performance Verification Checklist features 162 criteria developed by a global panel of AV experts.

This checklist is a valuable service but you can access it without cost at the InfoComm link below.

A featured requirement of InfoComm's Certified AV Solutions Provider (CAVSP) program, Diamond CAVSPs must show a completed Audiovisual Systems Performance Verification Checklist for at least one AV installation. Emerald CAVSPs need to commit to adopt this checklist for future AV installations.

InfoComm has convened a Standards Task Group to publish an InfoComm standard based on this list. That will then be submitted to ANSI for consideration of adoption by the Q2 2013. In the coming months InfoComm will offer a draft standard open for public review and comment.

Go See the New Audiovisual Systems Performance Verification Checklist

For the third year in a row, rave [publications] will be covering the world's largest AV show LIVE: ISE 2013 in Amsterdam.

Led by Gary Kayye, rAVe will be taking 15 reporters to the show - some from our USA office and some from our rAVe Europe. So, we'll have the show covered

“In 2012, we shot over 1000 new product videos, wrote over 30 blogs from the show floor, tweeted live and even posted over 300 product stories to our ISE 2012 microsite,” says Gary.

So whether or not you are attending, you can follow along with the LIVE coverage, if you wish, by simply bookmarking the link below.

Or, you can download our rAVe NOW iPad App that is dedicated to the ISE 2013 show here.

We're already posting new product news, plus we have a few blogs already posted. We've also aggregated all the ISE 2013 tweets there, too!

Go See the Most Extensive ISE coverage on the rAVe Portal

Niveo Professional gets a new international sales representative-- Gary Vlaeminck of HexaconAV.

Vlaeminck has extensive experience in the AV and lighting control industry, having held sales positions with the likes of Liberty AV, Speakercraft and Lutron. At Niveo Professional he will be responsible for the development of new markets.

“We are very pleased with the appointment of Gary. His long experience and extensive knowledge of the industry fits perfectly in our focus for strong international expansion," Niveo Professional managing director Arthur de Jager says.

Niveo Professional sells enterprise-grade networking products, including switches, NAS, APs, UPS systems and routers, designed for professional AV integrators and commercial/domestic automation.

Go Niveo Professional

The inaugural Smart Building Conference @ ISE lines up international experts familiar with the latest trends in integration, energy management, intelligent building, working and living.

With the promise of a day full of industry insight, opinion, practical design advice and business intelligence, the Conference will take place at the Amsterdam RAI on Monday 28 January – the day before ISE 2013 opens.

A joint venture of ISE’s co-owners CEDIA and InfoComm International, the Smart Building Conference programme will attract architects, design consultants, developers, electrical contractors and other key stakeholders in the construction sector, along with the electronic systems integrators, distributors and manufacturer channels from ISE’s core audience.

“While other events have taken a star-gazing approach to the topic, the Smart Building Conference @ ISE promises a practical look at how intelligent buildings are already being designed, built and used,” comments Mike Blackman, Managing Director, Integrated Systems Events. “Delegates will learn how emerging technologies offer them new possibilities today, not just in the future.”