5 Memorable Events From 2008

Around this time of year, I'm always reminded of what a rep friend once said. Every time he attended CES, a number of people would tell him "this is going to be a really interesting year."

We all know every year is an "interesting" year. We wouldn't have anything to report if they weren't.

Now that 2008 is coming to a close, it's time to take stock of what went on in the industry, whether it's the good, the bad, or the ugly.

HDMI Starts to Grow Up

Things definitely started to improve this year for custom installers making use of HDMI. New distribution products from Gefen and Key Digital, and the way integrators could share knowledge via channels like the CE Pro Community, allowed us to better come to grips with making HDMI work in our installs.

We're not totally out of the woods yet, but 2009 promises still more improvements in the HDMI standard.

Media Servers Go Mainstream

CEDIA Expo 2008 saw twice as many vendors offer media server solutions as did CEDIA Expo 2007. Closely related to that figure is the relative economy of some brands.

Granted, $5,000 to $8,000 may not be "cheap" by some standards, but in the context of a $20,000 to $50,000 media room project, it makes perfect sense. If seeing media servers break out of the six- to seven-figure installs doesn't qualify as "mainstream", I don't know what does.

Movie Downloads Set to Explode

The year 2008 could easily be summed up as "The Year of the Download."

Whether online through iTunes or HDGiants or through dedicated set-top boxes like Vudu or the Netflix Roku, digital downloads gained traction among integrators, retailers, and consumers.

I'm looking forward to what 2009 brings us on this front.

Blu-ray vs. HD DVD

The biggest waste of time last year was the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD.

It shouldn't have happened, it eroded consumer confidence, and seriously set back adoption of a High-Definition optical disc format.

We're only now seeing growth of Blu-ray numbers, when the whole industry could have been making progress at least one year ago instead of wasting time and resources battling it out in public.

It still makes me smile that no matter what I wrote about the subject, I'd get hate mail that accused me of being either a paid pro-Blu-ray or a paid pro-HD-DVD shill, or both.

Can't we all just get along?

The real irony is that online HD downloads made great strides even as Blu-ray began to dust itself off following it's victory over HD DVD. In the end, Blu-ray's victory may be a hollow one.

Speakercraft's CEDIA Expo Booth

With the exception of the months of vitriol that was spilled over Blu-ray vs HD DVD, I can't think of a bigger case of misdirected effort than the sheer volume of carping that went on over Speakercraft's booth at CEDIA Expo 2008.

Whether you loved it or hated it, Speakercraft's CEO and Empresario well understood the old maxim that "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

Is 2009 going to be as "interesting" as 2008? I'm counting on it What about you?

Let us know in the comments what you will remember most from 2008.

Lee Distad is a freelance CEDIA Certified Professional Designer who offers design and process consultation to firms in the Custom Installation industry, as well as copy writing and other professional writing services. Lee’s business and industry blog can be read at http://www.leedistad.com