Kaleidescape
Still the best interface available, and one of the coolest products on the market. They have a lower cost model now, which makes it more affordable, but that's still probably not the right word. The gold standard in media archiving and networking.
Sooloos
Life has a soundtrack. This was a neat product, and could easily be the "jukebox" of the 21st century, but it's a little pricey. At $12,000 it isn't something most of us will be installing, but if you have the money, and need a new conversation piece, it's great for that. For the rest of us, the Sonos will do just fine. Or you could buy the Kaliedesacpe that costs $2000 less and get music and movies. I lost it for these guys what a search for 'Progressive Rock' returned Air Supply in the results.
Harmony Remotes
We had a change to check out a demo version of the new Harmony flagship remote, the 1000. It didn't actually work, but it's supposedly in Beta right now and should be available very soon, maybe even before Christmas. Since we didn't get a chance to use it for real, we don't know how they've overcome (or if they have) the annoyance of multiple pages on a touchscreen remote. But from a form factor (size/weight/feel) perspective, and a price perspective, it was a very attractive remote. We're hoping to get a demo model as soon as they're available.
RTI Remotes
RTI is the one universal remote company we really haven't done anything with. We had a chance to check out a couple of their remotes and are hoping to get some review units soon. The T2-C looks very promising. It has all the hard buttons you need, and adds the flexibility of a color LCD for activities and custom controls. The T4 is a massive remote that you can actually watch television and browse the Internet on. The screen is so big you can probably fit all the buttons you need for any device on one page, so you don't have to worry about the paging issues. Check this one out if you're serious about remote controls.
JVC
JVC professional was showing off some LCDs, an HD-ILA TV and a couple HD-ILA projectors. Each of the HD-ILA demos had the JVC running right next to a very similar DLP model to compare and contrast the technologies. The differences were bigger in the rear pro than in the front pro, but in all cases the LCoS displays looked really good. There were compression issues that were visible on the DLP that didn't show at all on the JVC.
Lifeware
Lifeware had a huge booth in conjunction with HP, showing a bunch of advanced home control features available in their software. This was probably the biggest theme in the show, software (namely Windows Media Center) as a cntral hub for all your audio, video and control needs. Lifeware has software built on top of Media Center, at the show they were running on HP DECs (Digital Entertainment Centers), they allowed you to watch or listen to anything anywhere and control your lights, curtains, HVAC and oven, all in one simple interface. As this kind of technology matures, it will allow the common guy to have an advanced automation system, ala Crestron or AMX, without selling off your firstborn. This will be cool to watch over the next couple of years.
The DLO HomeDock Pro
is an iPod dock that lets you view and select your
iPod's music on your TV screen, and integrate your entire music library and
TV shows, Movies and photos into a custom home installation.
