Up to 18% of remote controls shipped by 2018 will feature wireless radio frequency (RF) technology IMS Research reports, allowing for a range of functionality not enabled by current IR technology.

According to the analyst RF remote shipments for the 2013-2018 period should total 450 million units.

RF technology allows for a number of features, such as non-line-of-sight, voice, gesture, touch and motion-- key for device makers wanting to make  richer control environments in Smart TVs and the like.

“With Smart TVs finding their way into more and more homes, advances are taking place in how consumers control these devices," IMS says. "And increasingly, RF technology is being integrated into the remote controls of consumer electronic devices to enable a range of advanced functions.”

This year Extron celebrates 30 years of business.

Extron started in 1983 with a single product that was designed to solve a specific problem. The RGB 100 interface converted non-standard CGA graphics card signals to an analog video format compatible with existing projectors and monitors.

From this one product to the thousands produced today, Extron is still solving AV problems. To back these solutions, Extron grows its global presence: when the remaining offices open in 2013, the company will have more than 30 offices worldwide.

“We are at a very exciting time of growth here at Extron,” says Andrew C. Edwards, president and owner of Extron Electronics. “In recent years we’ve embraced digital AV with hundreds of new products, broadened our control line to include sophisticated touchpanels, and designed fiber optic, twisted pair, and streaming technologies that have transformed the industry. Plus, with the addition of many new global offices, our customers have more convenient access to training and the latest in Extron technologies. For three decades, Extron has been characterized by our S3 Service, Support, and Solutions. S3 remains at the core of what we stand for—today, and for the next 30 years.”

Fiscal 2012 sees Sony  posting the 1st annual profit in 5 years-- even if said return to black is less the result of CE sales and more of property sales, belt-tightening measures and a weak yen.

Thus in the year ending 31 March 2013 the company makes net profits worth $436 million from $68.4 billion in sales (with 4.7% growth), a contrast from the $4.6 billion losses seen in 2011.

“We set out this year with the aim of doing everything we can to get back in the black,” Sony CFO Masaru Kato says. “This year, we absolutely intend to make a profit in electronics.”

The escape from the red is due to various streamlining efforts, such as the dissolving of flat-panel TV making ventures with Sharp and Samsung, the dropping of its chemical product business and various asset sales (including the company's New York U.S. HQ) worth nearly $2.5bn.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) kicks off the R7.8 Working Group 2-- a group busy working on "a new standard to enable home electronics to communicate energy use data to smart energy management systems and apps."

Called CE-Energy Usage Information (CE-EUI), the standard will, at least so far, conform to the N. American energy standards (NAESB-EUI) forming the basis of the national Green Button initiative.

“Product manufacturers already understand how much energy a device will use during operation, based on its design,” the CEA says. “By programming that information into the device and enabling the device to calculate how much energy it uses over time, manufacturers can help homeowners accurately capture the data for their energy management systems and applications.”