Projectors are where the home theater action is this year. Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing micro-mirror technology has been adapted by many manufacturers in their new projectors, which offers amazing gains in brightness over earlier models. Sim2 Séleco, a projector company based in Pordenone, Italy and Miramar, Florida, has several beautiful projectors, including the sleek HT 200 and HT 250 models, which are capable of brightness levels of 800 ANSI Lumens and 900 ANSI Lumens respectively, and resolution levels of 800 x 600 (SVGA) and 1024 x 768 (XGA) respectively. The Séleco projectors boast a lamp life of 4000 hours; the HT 250 includes an IEEE 1394 input.

Home theater isn't a huge draw at Alexis Park, home of Specialty Audio exhibits, but some manufacturers have video and surround-sound demos going here. Martin-Logan had one of the best-sounding multichannel rooms we have visited so far, with a "Theater" center channel beneath a Runco PL-50C plasma display, a pair of "Ascents" front left and right, a pair of "Scripts" for the side/rears, a "Cinema" in center rear, and a prototype subwoofer handling low bass duties.

A new report released by analyst and consulting company Ovum suggests that, as digital television opens new frontiers, competition between telecommunications giants and the TV industry will increase rapidly. Ovum also predicts that digital television connections will grow from 62 million in 2001 to 350 million in 2006, creating numerous opportunities for companies throughout the new media sector.

Last week, interactive television developer TeleCruz Technology and Zenith announced a product development agreement intended to integrate TeleCruz's technology inside Zenith's multimedia television platform. The two companies claim this will result in the first generation of integrated interactive television sets.