John Sciacca Writes...

It’s true, I’m not much into beers that don’t have I, P and A in the title. Well, that’s not totally true. I like to think that I’m open to a great beer in whatever style it comes. You got a great blueberry ale, I’m gonna try it. You got a good Boch, I’ll drink down those hearty and bready malts with the best of them. And I’m really starting to get into Belgian Triple and other styles.

Howev...

Like many of you, I received a postcard from CEDIA the other day getting me pumped for the 2013 EXPO.

Honestly, not much pumping is required. I love the EXPO. And by “love” I mean I frickin’ love the EXPO

“Swag may refer to:

•    Swag (album), a 2002 album by former Guns N' Roses guitarist, Gilby Clarke

•    Swag (bedroll), an Australian bedroll

•    Swag (motif), a garland

This pretty much sums up the whirlwind which is CES… I started dinner my first night at the same time I was climbing into bed the previous night! It’s Vegas, baby, so you’ve got to just suck it up! Fortunately it was an amazing dinner.

I thought that my dinner dance card had been filled up, but a look at my Sunday night schedule showed an opening that GoldenEar Technologies Sandy Gross was only too kind to fill. (Sandy a...

I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this it means that you aren’t actually in Las Vegas attending CES 2013 right now (or rather didn't make it to the show last week). So, I’m going to share with you what it’s like to be here, on the first pre-day of the show and through the week.

Sunday at CES is about arriving and getting settled. ...

Thanks to the largesse of the folks at GoGo In-Flight WiFi, I am coming to you live – well, live as I type this, highly unlikely to be still live as you are reading it – for the first time ever from 30,000 feet from my US Air flight to Las Vegas for the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show! Huzzah!

Unthanks to the umm, whatever is the polar opposite of largesse, folks at US Air for lumping...

There was a bit of a hubbub at CEDIA this year when a major, well-respected trade journal decided to run a “fun” (their words), “Hottest CEDIA EXPO Booth Babes” contest during the show. (I’m not gonna say who it was. Except it wasn’t Residential Systems or Sound + Vision, whom I write for. You can Google “Hottest CEDIA booth babe” if you want to know...)

Amidst the Twitter pus...

Another CEDIA EXPO is in the bag, and this show marked my 14th in attendance. There have certainly been a lot of changes for my EXPOs over the years; from those wide-eyed days of running around the hallways checking out the HD Garden of Delights, grabbing every piece of literature I could stuff into a backpack and sneaking into parties uninvited to being a member of the press, grabbing every USB drive I can stuff into a backpack and attending “under embargo” meeting...

My first official, non-press-related day at CEDIA EXPO began at 5:50 AM after The Darryl Wilkinson's alarm went off. It sounded like an angry, malevolent, homicidal robot had burst into our room and was augmented with the flashing of the the iPhone's arc sodium light that punctuated the staccato bleeps and blaps of the hostile robot intruder. Since I had no idea what this was, I leapt out of bed yelling, "I don't know what's happening?! Why is this happening?! What's going on?!...

I had a new strategy to covering the CEDIA EXPO show this year; I wandered about the showfloor aimlessly with no real plans or specific objectives and when I found something that looked interesting, I'd pop in to take a closer look. If it was really interesting, then I'd ask the exhibitor to talk about the product while I video'd them. Quick upload to YouTube and BAM! I've got my show coverage done!

So here's the videos I sh...

This moment finds me in the US Air Lounge in Charlotte, waiting for my connecting flight to Indianapolis for the annual CEDIA EXPO. (I’ve already come face-to-face with the cruel, harsh realities which are life as a lowly Silver Elite member, cast down on high from the Olympus of Gold Elite status as I didn’t even get a bump up to First Class for my Myrtle leg today. Oh, how the mighty have been humbled, forced to sit on the wrong side of the curtain, smelling the a...

A week from today, I will be walking off of a plane and stepping into the (hopefully) welcoming bosom of Indianapolis for the annual CEDIA EXPO. (Love ya, Indy, but, can't lie, looking forward to going back to Denver in '13!)

This will be my 14th EXPO and it is my favorite of the conventions for all of the reasons listed in my “Why...

“A meme (meem) is ‘an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.’ A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word...

As someone who has attended a number of tradeshows, I can easily – and honestly – claim that the annual CEDIA EXPO is my favorite. (It's held each year in September, and will be in Indianapolis from the 5th to the 8th this year.)

While the other events have their plusses, the EXPO is the one industry event that I consider a must attend for anyone truly serious about the industry. Since I became a custom installer in 1998, I&#...

If you have spent any time on Twitter lately, you have probably encountered the #CEDIATweeps hashtag. This is a new concept CEDIA is experimenting with to try and build buzz around the 2012 Expo being held this September in Indianapolis.

In the beginning of May, CEDIA put out a call for applicants. They were looking to fill out a team of 10 “social media fanatics” to help spread the word on why the CEDIA...

If my shoddy memory serves, this year’s CES show was my seventh. And while that might feel like an infinity-worth when you are actually the one IN Vegas doing ALL of the walking (and walking and walking...) and writing and eating and drinking, the reality is, in the world of CES show attendance, I am but a babe.

There were many in my press crew that were into double-digit show attendance numbers. Some that can claim the badge of *n...

Well, the fat lady has sung, the curtains have been closed and CES 2012 is officially a few days in the bag. After several days of decompressing and detoxing – there is a LOT of drinking in Vegas – and reflecting, I thought I would share my list of Best, Worst, Coolest, and other superlatives from this year’s biggest party in all of electronics.

#1 Best Demo – The Unforgettable Home Theater Experience

I’d like to say that night three ended as awesomely as nights one and two – and it was certainly headed that way – but, alas, it was not to be. Following the awesomeness which was the IOSAFE “Cage of Death!” demo, I dutifully returned to the press room to file my stories like a good little cub reporter before heading over to the Tau Nightclub in Palazzo for dinner with Lutron’s Melissa Andresko and arch-Sciacca Nemesis (and Home Theater Edito...

Day two ended much like day one, with me at a wonderful dinner with some of my best-est press buddies. (Oh, Jeremy G and Glasses; that you could have been there as well...) The good folks at Paradigm – namely Mark Aling and Erin Phillips – are always great fun to hang out with (even when one of them -- OK, it was Erin -- may or may not admit to TOTALLY agreeing to do a Polar Bear Club dip for $50. And, no, Erin, I am *never* letting go of that...) and the restaurant...

Before I start talking about Day 2, a quick recap of my previous evening is in order… (This would be Tuesday night for those keeping score at home.) I ran into Kaleidescape’s product manager, Tom Barnett, and he accompanied me to what is one of my most MUST NOT MISS events of the show, the DEG party. DEG (Digital Entertainment Group) has something-something to do with Blu-ray disc sales and promotion, but the fantastic thing about their event – besides a well-...