Event Coverage

IFA Berlin, Germany 2006: Show Floor Highlights Part 1

By Terence Ang - 5 Sep 2006

At the IFA Show Floor

At the IFA Show Floor

At the time of this writing, it's already September 3rd or Day 3 of the IFA event in Berlin, Germany. With more than 26 halls (and for some, sub-halls on different levels) of varying sizes for us to cover, it is probably a good idea to first understand the scale or scope of the exhibition grounds.

So many halls, so many press conferences, which one to go to? Which one to go to?

IFA 2006 can be separated into six main segments. These are:

  • Television & Entertainment (14 different halls)
  • Sound & Car Media (11 halls)
  • Personal Computing & Games (2 halls)
  • Digital Imaging & Digital Music (1 hall)
  • Personal Communication (2 halls)
  • SNC Satellite, Network & Cable (1 hall)

Not only that, the exhibition ground has halls for conference speeches, a Science and Technology Forum and convention halls, lounges and an impressive Press Center. Of course, the main attraction of the event is probably what the players in Television and Entertainment have to offer. These are from players like Samsung, Philips, Toshiba, LG, Grundig, Sharp and Loewe. Of course, beyond flat-panel displays, we will also see plenty of showcases by proponents of the Blu-ray Disc Association (with some from the HD-DVD camp like Toshiba), from the likes of LITEON, Sony, the movie studios (Warner Brothers, Buena Vista, Paramount, Sony Pictures, etc.), Hitachi, Philips and so on.

Beyond TVs and optical discs, we have familiar networking companies like Linksys, Belkin and Netgear, music/video player products from MSI, Creative, SanDisk, ARCHOS and SonicGear, a Pavilion entirely dedicated to Korean, Taiwan and Hong Kong companies, a HD Cinema pavilion and themed displays by AMD, Intel, Fujitsu-Siemens, ATI and so on.

Over the next half dozen pages or thereabout, we bring you highlights of some of the more unique products we saw at the event over the past few days. Read on and dazzle yourself!

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