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These days, everything in mobile audio/video is about convergence: linking your CD player to your digital storage drive, your DVD player to your surround sound setup, your portable devices to your mobile system. It?s an exciting time for the industry, but one that calls for more and more cooperation between the various manufacturers. A cutting-edge video installation is a great thing, but if it can?t talk to the rest of your system or won?t integrate with your speakers, it?s essentially worthless. Clearly, with today?s crop of complex and interconnected products, the need for universally agreed-upon standards that cross manufacturing lines has never been greater. That?s where the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) comes in, bringing companies to the table and leveling the playing field with standards for everything from amplifier power ratings to cable TV signals.
We were lucky enough to sit down with Brian Markwalter, Engineering Director with the CEA, at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to talk shop about the association?s new amplifier standard and learn more about what the future holds for the CEA standards program.
Q: Standardization within the industry as a whole seems like a major priority for the CEA. Where do you see the state of mobile electronics in terms of standardization?
A: Right now it?s guided mostly by the resources that everybody [in the industry] can put into it. Our role is really as a facilitator. We organize the process that brings the interested companies together — legally — to make standards for their products. I?d say mobile is on par with the other major segments in terms of getting standards established and reaching agreements between the manufacturers.
Q: So you?re just trying to bring all the interested parties together in a common place and get them to agree on something?
A: Exactly. Standards are critical for our industry; they?re the only way that we?re going to be able to sell large volume. The manufacturers share a lot of the same problems when it comes to development, so once they agree on ways to handle them, everybody can go and build the best, cheapest products they can — and that all depends on standards. Our process just lets them do it openly and legally so they don?t violate any anti-trust laws. It?s all open to anyone who wants to participate.
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These days, everything in mobile audio/video is about convergence: linking your CD player to your digital storage drive, your DVD player to your surround sound setup, your portable devices to your mobile system. It?s an exciting time for the industry, but one that calls for more and more cooperation between the various manufacturers. A cutting-edge video installation is a great thing, but if it can?t talk to the rest of your system or won?t integrate with your speakers, it?s essentially worthless. Clearly, with today?s crop of complex and interconnected products, the need for universally agreed-upon standards that cross manufacturing lines has never been greater. That?s where the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) comes in, bringing companies to the table and leveling the playing field with standards for everything from amplifier power ratings to cable TV signals.
We were lucky enough to sit down with Brian Markwalter, Engineering Director with the CEA, at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to talk shop about the association?s new amplifier standard and learn more about what the future holds for the CEA standards program.
Q: Standardization within the industry as a whole seems like a major priority for the CEA. Where do you see the state of mobile electronics in terms of standardization?
A: Right now it?s guided mostly by the resources that everybody [in the industry] can put into it. Our role is really as a facilitator. We organize the process that brings the interested companies together — legally — to make standards for their products. I?d say mobile is on par with the other major segments in terms of getting standards established and reaching agreements between the manufacturers.
Q: So you?re just trying to bring all the interested parties together in a common place and get them to agree on something?
A: Exactly. Standards are critical for our industry; they?re the only way that we?re going to be able to sell large volume. The manufacturers share a lot of the same problems when it comes to development, so once they agree on ways to handle them, everybody can go and build the best, cheapest products they can — and that all depends on standards. Our process just lets them do it openly and legally so they don?t violate any anti-trust laws. It?s all open to anyone who wants to participate.
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