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Gizmodo: Yamaha has teamed up with lighting experts Koizumi to create these home theater speakers with built-in lighting.

Each unit has three 25W halogen lamps that are remote control-dimmable down to 20% brightness, designed to reduce the contrast between your TV picture and the wall behind to “ease the burden on your eyes.”

So, a kind of one-color, non-reactive ambilight then, but the effect they produce is pretty subtle and saves you from installing moodlighting.

The 47-inch high units have a 70Hz – 35kHz response, and will cost around $1,250 (811 Euro), but there’s no info on availability.

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Akihabara: Japan is well known for its expensive real estate so it’s common to see small apartments. This can be a real problem for video and audio fans. Yamaha has been offering for a while a virtual Surround speaker, and today, they announced their latest model, the YSP-900. Designed for 32” TVs, this speaker can simulate different audio modes such as 2.1 or 5.1. It is also equipped with audio sensors to precisely focus the sound on your exact location in the room.

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Akihabara: The YSP-1100 is a new version of the Yamaha speakers with virtual 5.1. This time, the speakers come in 40” and 42”, instead of 32” for the previous versions. They support the entire range of Dolby, DTS, etc, and also offer an IntelliBeam feature to improve the sound depending on the room you install the speakers in. The YSP-1100 outputs 120W (20Wx2 + 2Wx40).

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Ubergizmo: Yamaha has introduced a new flat panel surround sound system that boasts 40 individually-amped drivers.

The YSP-1100 Digital Sound Projector utilises Yamaha’s very own CINEMA DSP technology which is compatible with the Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS Neo:6 sound formats.

There are 5 different sound settings: 5-Beam Mode, Stereo Mode, 3-Beam Mode, Stereo+3-Beam Mode and My Beam Mode for your listening pleasure.

The YSP-1100 will retail for $1,699.95 (around €1,340).

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Tech Digest & various sources: It’s the world’s largest consumer electronics show – and it will be open from today until 6th September. Here are some highlights from the manufacturers:

Philips: they’ll be announcing a new Skype VoIP phone, a new Windows XP Media Center for the living room with 250GB hard drive and Blu-Ray (again the product was first shown last year). See www.ifa.philips.com for more.

Pioneer: their latest line-up in Plasma, AV Receivers, DVD players and Sat Nav systems, plus a few surpises.  Expect samples of their Blu-ray player, the BDP-HD1, their new 60-inch Plasma TV – the PDP-607XD and a new HDMI DVD Recorder DVR-940H with huge 500GB hard disk.  See Pioneer’s news release for more.

LG: plan to launch new TVs with built in DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) following the success of the 43-inch plasma model launched in May.  Apparently LG has shifted two million handsets of its ‘hero product’, the chocolate phone, but no news on a successor yet.

Samsung: Among the new products will be the company’s Blu-Ray DVD players which are due to go on sale before the end of the year. Also showing off an LCD TV that uses LEDs as a backlighting source.

Grundig: Now part of the Alba Group, Grundig is showing off a pair of wireless stereo speakers which according to the blurb ‘have the potential to be design icons’.

Thomson: Unveiling a completely wireless (2.4GHz) system for linking up various devices in the home, including DVD player, set top box and TV screen.

Yamaha: The company plans to launch two new Sound Projector models (a single speaker mounted below the TV screen which replaces five or more surround speakers).

Daewoo: An interesting sounding GPS system with built in DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) system so you can listen to the radio and watch TV whilst navigating.

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Futuremusic: Yamaha has launched its EMX5016CF, a 16-channel stereo powered mixer, which includes two 500-watt amplifiers. The EMX5016CF combines a mixer to balance sources, effects to add ambience to the sound and amplification to drive house speakers. Features include single-knob input compressors, feedback eliminator, automatic digital graphic EQ, Dual Effect engines and a Maximize function for the main output. The unit replaces the company’s EMX5000-20.

More info to be found at the EMX5016CF productpage.

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AV Zombie: All of Yamaha’s new AV receivers for 2006-2007 use traditional analogue powerplants – primarily because they believe that the sound of modern digital amplification does not meet their high standards.

Yamaha’s Product and Marketing Manager Hiroshi Kondo, explains: “Of course, we continue to study the technology and we have a lot of choice when it comes to using digital LSIs, but the sound quality is not yet at the level we want. We currently have no plans to put digital amps into our AV products.”

Their new receiver line up includes the RX-N600 DAB receiver, DSP-AX759SE amplifier (pictured above), RX-V559 DAB receiver, the RX-V2700 (an update on the best-selling RX-V2600) receiver, HDMI-ready RX-V1700 receiver, RX-V459 DAB receiver and entry-level RX-V359 receiver.

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