Audiovox flashback features Elvis and rabbit-ears

By Angela Gunn | Published January 7, 2009, 4:35 PM

Elvis! The season's first sighting of the King occurred at the Audiovox press event. The King was in relatively svelte form (for jumpsuit-era Elvis); also, Audiovox announced some products.

(Really, CEO and president David Geise reminded the crowd, it wasn't such a stretch; the 35th anniversary of Elvis's Aloha From Hawaii special, the first event ever broadcast worldwide live via satellite, is at hand. Only at CES...)

In this case, the King dropped by to present the new Acoustic Research XSight Remote line, which contains setup information for thousands of devices in its little rectangular body; one supposes that if you're inclined to shoot out TVs in the Jungle Room, a one-touch-setup product such as the XSight might increase the peace in important ways. The remote can in addition be set up with multiple Internet-manageable profiles, adding a layer of child-proofing to the gadget among other possibilities. Audiovox showed two models, the XSight Touch ($249, handles up to 18 devices, RF-capable) and the XSight Color ($179, up to 15 components), both shipping in spring. Uh-uh-huh.

A number of old-line hardware makers have gotten the Flip-video gospel this year, and Audiovox showed off its ultra-simple EZ209HD. You, however, may call it the Webslinger, and it knows a few tricks Pure Digital hasn't shown off yet -- direct-to-YouTube uploading, for instance, and software that enabled simple edits (including splices!) as well as the easy addition of title and credit sequences.

Audiovox, part now of RCA, has a particularly interesting assortment of product lines, and part of the hour was devoted to over-air TV antennae. It really was, and Geise made a reasonable pitch for why you need one: "Even if you're a cable subscriber, an off-air antenna is still the best way to get local channels -- before the image quality is compressed. You also get the multicast channels your cable provider might not carry."

Fair enough; for Audiovox's part, they debuted nine capable offerings, none of which bore the least resemblance to their rabbit-ear progenitor. (That explains why their were nine; the darn things breed like...um, yeah.) Guests also saw a propeller-like yagi antenna, capable of picking up a digital signal 40 miles off.

The assortment of audio offerings included a Wi-Fi headset that we found (in our stolen seconds of product testing) to be slightly cantankerous, as well as the promise of a voice-activated remote control for in-vehicle systems. Far more extensive was the assortment of in-car video options, including one that incorporates one's trusty PlayStation 2 and -- sometime in third quarter -- a MediaFLO-partnered version that picks up live TV broadcasts. Twenty-five stations should be aboard by launch, and 108 markets by the end of the year.

Of course there was an environmental angle! The topic was fuel cells, and Audiovox has an enironmentally friendly version on the way, as well as a "superbattery" that can charge a device in minutes rather than hours. Thankyouverymuch.