On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

The global market (excluding N. America) for audio devices sees sales worth €7.9 billion in H1 2019, GfK reports-- a 15% Y-o-Y increase, with headphones and headsets as key growth drivers together with portable Bluetooth speakers and loudspeakers for the home.

The analyst also points out the growth potential of smart devices with embedded voice assistants and loudspeakers aimed at enhancing the entertainment sound at home. As such, global audio markets have the opportunity to prolong the growth trajectory with positive results almost uniformly around the globe.

The sales value of in-ear headphones is up by 55% in H1 2019, and accounts for sales worth nearly €3bn for 70% of total headphone turnover. W. Europe is the 2nd biggest market, following China. Almost 50% of wireless in-ear devices sold in 2019 are true wireless (with two separate earpieces). The global market for such headphones is up by 300% in 2019, and high consumer demand has attracted the attention of more and more brands, leading to APs dropping to €85.

Signify announces a means to synchronise Philips Hue lighting with the TV-- the Play HDMI Sync Box, a means to "create immersive media experiences" by matching the colour and brightness of the lights with the action on the screen.

As the company puts it, the sync box sits between any HDMI device, be it a streaming device, satellite or cable STB, games console, Blu-ray or DVD player, or laptop, and the TV, in order to take movies, music, TV shows or games to "the next level" with surround lighting. Setup takes place using the Philips Hue Sync mobile app, and users can connect up to x10 Hue colour-capable lights to the system.

We are still quite some time away from receiving concrete details regarding the PlayStation 5, but Sony presents some interesting tidbits at the UN Climate Summit-- specifically involving the power-saving capabilities of the upcoming machine, of course.

According to Sony, the PS5 allows users to suspend gameplay at "much lower consumption" compared to the PS4, at around 0.5W. To do so, the machine uses an integrated system-on-chip with all components held on a single substrate, together with an energy-saving suspend-to-RAM mode. If 1 million owners take advantage of such capability, the company claims, it would bring electricity savings equivalent to the average consumption of 1000 homes in the US.

DVR pioneer TiVo hopes to make a return to hardware with a stick device-- something similar to the Amazon Fire Stick running on Android TV together with upcoming services from the company.

As CEO Dave Shull tells CNN, the attempted comeback follows the recent splitting of the company, with one unit taking care of products and the other of IP licensing. The stick will be the opposite of the high-end DVRs that previously made TiVo's bread and butter, being a simple device one sticks to the back of their TVs. As such it bears a low pricetag, specifically of $50.