Hello From the HDTV Belt

The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) trade show is underway in Indianapolis, running through Sunday. PC World and its alter magazine ego, Digital World, have sent a few editors, including myself, to cover a surprisingly large number of new consumer electronics product announcements--flat-panel TVs the size of garage doors; audio equipment with more channels than you'll ever be able to afford speakers for; and home automation controls for the kitchen, the bedroom, and the doghouse. We're surprised at the show's popularity because, one, it's only three months before the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where companies based everywhere from New York to New Guinea go to show their wares, and two, it's Indianapolis--Nap Town, India-No-Place, or The Cornfield With Lights, as it's sometimes known to the locals.

I can say those things about Indy, because it's my home town. The convention center here more often serves religious and insurance events (and my high school prom), not high technology shows. But CEDIA is huge--organizers expect 22,000 attendees to shuffle through the booths of more than 500 exhibitors; the show covers nearly half a million square feet of the convention center and the adjoining RCA Dome. That's about a third the size of CES, but that monster is held in Las Vegas.

Not surprisingly, CEDIA seems to be having the same impact on Indianapolis as CES has on Las Vegas. The hotels were fully booked months ago (at what-the-market-will-bear room prices), and the airport's doing a brisk business. Vendors attending the show will do well to show up well in advance of their departure times (remember, some people waited in the Vegas airport's security lines for three hours at a recent CES).

Yet, the area around the convention center seems calm. Heck, you could jay-crawlacross the street in front of the Dome. That'll change tomorrow, when the exhibits open.