Due to the impending birth of my child in two short weeks, CES this year just wasn’t an option for me, so I got to hold down the fort here in cold Rhode Island while my colleagues got to go to sunny Vegas and fight the monorail traffic, feel like cattle on the floor, and end every day soaking their exhausted feet (wait, why am I complaining about not being there again?).

Anyways, I was feeling a little left out, so Kim, Nick and Megan have been kind enough to send me some great snapshots from the show floor and make me feel like I’m right there with them. Now I will share them with you. Check out the action from our clients Control4, Paradigm, MartinLogan and IOGEAR on the floor at CES. Enjoy!

For news and images from the show, be sure to check out our client pages on the Caster website.

One of our favs, Darryl Wilkinson proving its only Day 1 - he's still smiling

After smiling for our cameras, Darryl got on to business interviewing Paul Williams from Control4

The hustle and bustle of CES finds its way to the IOGEAR booth

There's Mark Aling showing off the fancy new Active Atom from Paradigm Shift

Here's Darryl again. This time he's interviewing Allan Tarrant from MartinLogan

And here we have a very rare sighting...Shannon Townley of SurgeX without a tie! Either the show is coming to an end or the world is!

MartinLogan, The Great American Speaker Company, is proud to announce new Architectural speakers comprised of nine custominstallation models, voice matched to the company’s award-winning Folded Motion and ultra-premium electrostatic speakers.

“The popularity and demand for our Folded Motion technology drove us to create new in-wall and in-ceiling products to match up with the performance, voicing, and styling that makes MartinLogan so special,” said Dean Tassio, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing.

Research and design from the Motion® Series, the upcoming ElectroMotion™ Series (available Spring 2011), and the company’s ultimate performance ESL and Reserve ESL Series of electrostatic speakers form the backbone of the new in-wall and in-ceiling offerings.

These new stealthy speakers will also feature low-profile, paintable grilles with virtually no bezel for an invisible integration into any wall or ceiling. A magnetic system secures grilles easily into place, reducing the risk of warping or damage during installation.

“We went back to the drawing board on styling and performance,” tells Carl Masters, Mechanical Designer at MartinLogan, “and designed these speakers to be as visually unobtrusive as possible while maintaining stunning sound, similar to our electrostatic speakers.”

Motion Architectural Series
Voice-matched with the award-winning Motion Series, all three models feature rigid, poly cone woofers and exotic Folded Motion tweeters.

ElectroMotion Architectural Series
The ElectroMotion lineup features step-up performance with low-distortion aluminum cone woofers, an advanced topology Vojtko crossover network, and premium wire connections.

Stealth Architectural Series
MartinLogan’s flagship Stealth Architectural Series speakers utilize MartinLogan’s new larger, low distortion Folded Motion XT tweeters, along with black-aluminum, high-excursion bass and mid-range drivers. Key to their sophisticated sound is an advanced topology crossover network with polypropylene and low-DF electrolytic capacitors, custom wound inductors, and thermal and current protection. Premium wire connections, a gloss piano-black speaker baffle, and solid one-piece cast aluminum chassis round out the feature list.

Prices start at $249.95 each (US) for Motion Architectural Series and start at $399.95 each (US) for the ElectroMotion Architectural Series. Pricing for the flagship Stealth Architectural Series TBD. All nine models are scheduled to ship in Summer 2011.

For more information on the new Architectural speakers from MartinLogan, visit their website at: www.martinlogan.com/architectural.

Paradigm Electronics Inc., an international leader in speaker design and manufacturing, announces a new brand called Paradigm Shift™ aimed at a younger audience and those with a focus on exceptional audio solutions for personal audio, PC and gaming.

Paradigm has enjoyed a long history of growth by building a loyal network of specialty A/V dealers who have helped build awareness while selling and installing the company’s floorstanding, bookshelf and architectural speakers. Paradigm Shift represents an additional focus by providing more consumers access to the inherent possibilities for a better overall audio experience through Paradigm sound. The new brand will target mobile music consumers and modern gamers with a focus on enhanced audio quality for products in four different categories including powered speakers, earbuds, headphones, and gaming headsets.

The company will unveil the new brand and provide prototype demonstrations of the first product in the new line, the new Paradigm Shift Active Atom, otherwise known as the A².

The new A² is a powered bookshelf/tabletop speaker designed to be used alone, as a left/right audio system or in stereo pairs with devices such as iPods and other music players, desktop computers, home DJ decks, videogame consoles and so much more. The A² is bi-amped with 100 watts of power per speaker and designed and engineered to the exacting standards that Paradigm products are known. The A² can be used with any devices that have a 3.5-mm mini-jack or RCA outputs or for wireless streaming.  The A² has a built-in interface on the rear panel for Airport Express.  The A² has an estimated US FMV of $249/each US and an expected availability of spring 2011. Demos can be heard at CES 2011 in the Paradigm room at the Venetian Tower Exhibits: 30-136.

“With a shift in the way people are listening and reacting to audio, we’re bringing Paradigm to a new generation, the next generation. Paradigm Shift will appeal to the iPod users, die-hard gamers and everyone in between – all ages, both sexes,” says Mark Aling, director of marketing for Paradigm. “The focus of Paradigm Shift is to offer market-leading products while educating a new generation on the varying levels of sound quality so they can hear the difference themselves. With a long history of creating the best price and value in high-end audio, consumers will reap all the benefits.”

For more information on Paradigm, please visit www.paradigm.com/shift.