By Paul Gagnon – Director, North American TV Research, DisplaySearch

Traversing the show floor at the 2009 CEDIA EXPO in Atlanta, Georgia, I can’t help noticing the lack of traffic compared to last year in Denver. It may be the huge (and very confusing) layout of the Georgia World Congress Convention Center, but I suspect more than a few specialty retailers have been forced out of business or decided to conserve precious money.

Things have also been quiet on the product front with comparatively few new TV products being announced compared to previous years. I get the sense that manufacturers, who have struggled with the quickening pace of product introductions during the past few years, are slowing down to a more measured pace in order to improve product profitability.

I also get the sense that several major manufacturers, and a few smaller ones, are aggressively going after the brand vacuum in the A/V specialty channel since Pioneer has left. Even brands that haven’t strongly gone after the specialty channel, like Sony, are stepping up their game. However, there are fewer fish to go after…

All-in-all, this CEDIA show is a bit more somber than prior ones. However, there are some burgeoning new technologies that are attracting attention at the show, like LED backlights, 3D (including a great demo trailer from Panasonic) and wireless networking. I’ll share more on those technologies in later blogs.