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(Note some of these photos may have already been posted here to SatelliteGuys.US already, they are being reposted so I can better explain what you are seeing)

For the past few years CEDIA was like a mini sneak preview of the CES show, this year however it seems like the best has been saved for CES in January.

I arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana on Saturday morning, and was greeted by some friends who arrive a few days earlier. I was immediately escorted over to the RCA DOME (Photo 1) where they pointed me to the setup Dish Network was using to receive it's off air signals, they had a total of 3 1.2 meter dishes setup plus an OTA antenna. (Photo 2) Dish was not using a Dish 500 to receive its signal for the show. An interesting part of this photo is if you look at the LNB's they are marked "DP" which we are guessing means Dish Pro. The 3rd dish was pointing at 61.5.

After we walked past the Dish Network outdoor reception setup and went inside where I went to the Press Room where my press credentials were waiting for me. From there we walked down to the RCA Dome entrance (Passing a small VOOM booth which was in the hallway), I got a laugh when I went through the revolving door and saw the warning on the door (Photo 3) I got a laugh out of it because a few members told me not to open the wrong door .

I walked into the RCA Dome and I couldn't believe how small the dome was, things look so much bigger on TV.

I then searched for the Satellite Companies, almost immediately we saw the DirecTV booth (photo 4) I was hoping to see the new satellite dish I have been talking about and that I have seen photos of from various sources. The new Dish was nowhere to be found, in fact there were no Dish's at all at the DirecTV booth, instead the booth was pushing the fact DirecTV was carrying Over 100 NFL Games in HD. They had 3 displays setup 2 HD and one SD.

Manning the DirecTV booth was Jeff Cuban of HDNet (Brother of HDNET and Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban) I spent awhile talking to Jeff about HDNet and HD in general, he was a great guy to chat with and enjoyed talking shop.

I talked to a few DirecTV people running the booth and asked them all where the new Dish was, answers varied from There is no new Dish coming out' to "It's coming however it is being tweaked a little bit and will be ready soon"

After digging enough at DirecTV, I went to find the next Satellite Company in the Dome, I spotted over the many booths the Dish Network logo and began heading in that direction, but on my way there I spotted some friends from Sirius Satellite Radio (Photo 5) and spent a good hour talking with them about various things about the Satellite Industry. The folks over at Sirius are good people, It was great being able to talk with the Sirius Guys and their executive management. I went through their booth and looked at all the new equipment available from Sirius, some of it very impressive (Photo 6, Photo 7, Photo 8) equipment. (I should note XM was NOT in attendance at the show, this was a very noticeable absence, I heard many people asking where XM was and wondering why they were not there)

After Sirius we strolled down to the Dish Network booth, I was promptly greeted by Echostar Spokes Person Marc Lumpkin who took me around quickly to show me the LCD TVs. (Photos 9 & 10) I must admit the LCD TV look great and are quite a value. The LCD TV's will be available at the end of the month.

Before going to CEDIA I chatted with my contacts at Dish so I knew besides the LCD TV's there would be nothing else new like the 942 shown. I asked someone if the 942 would be shown at CES, I was told by this rep there was no such thing as the 942.... when I told him I saw it in Dallas he then opened up by saying they are hoping to have it at CES, when I asked about a release date I was told they are now expecting it in the first quarter of 2005.

After spending awhile at the Dish Booth and talking with friends at the Dish Booth, I then left the Dome and went to the VOOM Booth.

When I went to the VOOM Booth I was greeted by Ken who works for UCentric the company which is making the DVR and whole house DVR for VOOM, Ken gave me a quick demo of the VOOM DVR (photo 11) while he was doing it another VOOM Staff member noticed my SatelliteGuys Shirt, soon I was surrounded by VOOM staff all stopping by to say hi, I was very happy to hear from them that they all stop by daily to check in on things. Trust me when I tell you this VOOM IS listening to SatelliteGuys members.

After spending some time with the folks from VOOM I then took some time to check out the entire show floors, I wanted to see what the future was and wanted to see what I wanted to add to my list for Santa. The show floors were HUGE with lots of booths and unique displays. (Photos 12,13, 14 & 15)

While walking the floor the camera crews from HDNet were EVERYWHERE. (Photo 16) they were taping interviews with various booths and were also covering the installer Olympics.

After walking throughout the floor, NOTHING caught my eye that I really wanted to have. The main thing I saw was home media servers, units which let you play your MP3's and show your JPEGS throughout the house. I was really hoping to see something I could go home and beg my wife for it. But my wife got lucky.

About the coolest thing to catch my eye was a d-box (see http://www.d-box.com) this devices attaches to any kind of furniture you have and turns it into a full motion ride. So when you watch a DVD and you see a car chase you are not just watching the chase, you are part of it!

While walking around the hall I ran into SatelliteGuys FTA/MPEG2 moderator Tom Taylor. Just shortly after running into Tom, I got a call from VOOM forum moderator Ilya, we quickly found each other on the floor, we talked for a bit and said we would work more together tomorrow (Saturday) Ilya went and did his stuff. Shortly after that Claude Greiner from DishStore.NET arrived on the scene however by the time he got there the show was almost closed for the night, we got a call from Ryan from SkyReport / SkyRetailer we decided to hook up for dinner and this dinner made the entire trip worth it, during dinner we threw around some ideas and suggestions and we also made some very good contacts with a few other companies. It is because of this dinner that I see some good things coming for SatelliteGuys.

We popped in to the AVSForums party and I finally got to meet David Bott, we had a lot of people who wanted to talk to us and buy us drinks, but the AVS Party was loud, so we headed down stairs and had some more very good meetings with some big people and companies, as I said before, doors are opening for SatelliteGuys. I really wanted to meet more people at the AVS Party but it was just to loud up there to talk to anyone.

On Day two I went around and video taped the various satellite booths, I got together with Ilya and Claude and we did some taping at the VOOM booth.

Ilya Claude and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had a good lunch, then we were back off to CEDIA. Ilya and I had some good discussions with some very high level folks from VOOM, I see some doors opening up to us there, after that Ilya headed home so Claude and I went and bugged the guys at the Dish Network booth. When the voice came over the loudspeaker saying CEDIA was closed Claude and I went and and grabbed dinner.

This morning at 5:30 am I was on my way back to the airport. Once I got on the plane I was going to start editing the video for the website, however I noticed that I forgot my video gear bag in Claude's truck. I managed to call Claude and he will be mailing me the bag tomorrow. So stay tuned video is coming soon.

I must admit, Indianapolis really impressed me, the city was alive with activity, there were loads of people walking the streets and having fun, and you felt safe as well.

My overall thoughts were Disappointment both from the Satellite Front, as none of the companies had anything to really show. Plus I was disappointed to not see something really cutting edge from the show. However by the same Tolkien the show was excellent for us because of the meetings we had and the new contacts we have made. SatelliteGuys is definitely making a name for itself.

Again Video will be coming soon. My thanks to our pub members who made the trip to CEDIA possible.