Five years after a collapsing housing market ransacked the fortunes of the residential custom electronics industry, AV integrators and their trade organization, CEDIA, are still correcting for a vastly different business environment as the industry arrives in Denver this week for the annual CEDIA Expo. Those who have adapted -- in some cases going under before rising from the ashes -- are pinning hopes on new technologies, a slice of the commercial market, smarter business practices and IT chops to lead them into the next chapter of custom electronics.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices for Sept. 23 (Note that some may also be given separate headlines.)
The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) emphasized the “essential role” that logistics connectivity plays in economic growth in a Sept. 20 statement to the United Nations’ (UN) Commission on Sustainable Development. “The role of logistics in facilitating trade is of such crucial importance that adopting appropriate policy to sustain logistics connectivity can assist many developing nations without detracting from those which are already more advanced,” said FIATA’s senior vice president Babar Badat. “It is a typical win-win opportunity that governments should embrace without hesitation. Badat added that it was “paramount” to include sustainable logistics connectivity as an objective of the UN Sustainable Development policy.
The “whole community” approach is the best way to prepare for disasters, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, testifying Thursday on behalf of the National Governors Association and the Governors Homeland Security Advisors Council before the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications (http://bit.ly/14nzsfk). He outlined “intergovernmental and public-private collaboration, effective coordination and enhanced communication” as major components of this strategy. The implementation of FirstNet is one demonstration of this approach, he said. Grants need to be better aligned with preparing for disasters, however, and cybersecurity remains a huge challenge for governors, promising NGA cyber recommendations to come next week, Ghilarducci said. “This country still needs to develop a process that defines and effectively measures our preparedness capabilities,” subcommittee Chairwoman Susan Brooks, R-Ind., said in her opening statement (http://1.usa.gov/1btUptn). She also pointed to the importance of interoperable communication, as did the International Association of Fire Chiefs in its testimony from Arlington County Fire Department Chief James Schwartz (http://1.usa.gov/157Lwne).
The FCC is “totally in and invested” in efforts to prevent distracted driving caused by the use of personal electronic devices (PEDs) like smartphones, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday at a National Organizations for Youth Safety-led rally for the “It Can Wait” anti-texting campaign. The National Safety Council said 100,000 car crashes are caused by distracted driving. That’s an “epidemic” that results in completely preventable deaths and injuries that can be prevented by education and advocacy efforts, Rosenworcel said. The FCC has led its own anti-texting education efforts directed at elementary, middle and high school students, along with sponsoring a distracted-driving technology event in April (CD April 22 p10), she said. Rosenworcel said she’s also invested in preventing distracted-driving deaths as the mother of two small children. “I never want to see them at risk because someone behind the wheel thinks that paying attention to a text is more important to paying attention to the road,” she said.
The FCC is “totally in and invested” in efforts to prevent distracted driving caused by the use of personal electronic devices (PEDs) like smartphones, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday at a National Organizations for Youth Safety-led rally for the “It Can Wait” anti-texting campaign. The National Safety Council said 100,000 car crashes are caused by distracted driving. That’s an “epidemic” that results in completely preventable deaths and injuries that can be prevented by education and advocacy efforts, Rosenworcel said. The FCC has led its own anti-texting education efforts directed at elementary, middle and high school students, along with sponsoring a distracted-driving technology event in April, she said. Rosenworcel said she’s also invested in preventing distracted-driving deaths as the mother of two small children. “I never want to see them at risk because someone behind the wheel thinks that paying attention to a text is more important to paying attention to the road,” she said.
"Governments and industry can do more” to tackle cyberattacks, European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) Executive Director Udo Helmbrecht said in an interview Wednesday. ENISA’s interim threat landscape review for mid-year 2013, an analysis of 50 reports covering the first half of this year, to be published Thursday, will show significant changes since its last full report in 2012, it said. Among those are the growing shift from botnets to malicious URLs, and the use of peer-to-peer and TOR-based botnets, it said. This first “taste” of current developments is intended to warn stakeholders as early as possible so they can take countermeasures, Helmbrecht said in a press release. In addition, he told us, a bit more regulation is needed because industry self-regulation isn’t working.
"Governments and industry can do more” to tackle cyberattacks, European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) Executive Director Udo Helmbrecht said in an interview Wednesday. ENISA’s interim threat landscape review for mid-year 2013, an analysis of 50 reports covering the first half of this year, to be published Thursday, will show significant changes since its last full report in 2012, it said. Among those are the growing shift from botnets to malicious URLs, and the use of peer-to-peer and TOR-based botnets, it said. This first “taste” of current developments is intended to warn stakeholders as early as possible so they can take countermeasures, Helmbrecht said in a press release. In addition, he told us, a bit more regulation is needed because industry self-regulation isn’t working.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have yet to achieve the level of ambition pledged by participant governments, a group of business and trade associations said in a Sept. 18 letter submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative. The letter was endorsed by Emergency Committee for American Trade, the American Apparel & Footwear Association, Business Roundtable, Coalition of Services Industries, National Association of Manufacturers, National Pork Producers Council, Retail Industry Leaders Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and United States Council for International Business.
Roughly half of total government support to agricultural industries in the world’s leading farming nations distorts production and trade, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in the latest version of an annual report released Sept. 18. That agricultural support rose during 2012, reversing historic lows registered the previous year, while shifting away from support linked directly to production, the report said. Emerging markets are more reliant on border protection and market price supports that levy taxes on consumers. “Meeting the needs of a growing and richer world population requires a shift away from the distorting and wasteful policies of the past towards measures that improve competitiveness, allowing farmers to respond to market signals while ensuring that much-needed innovation is fully funded,” said OECD Trade and Agriculture Director Ken Ash in a press release. The report analyzes agricultural policy in 47 countries that account for almost 80% of global agricultural output. Countries that have offered farmers the highest levels of traditional support, including Japan, Korea, Norway and Switzerland, recorded increases, the 2013 OECD report said. The report advocates divorce between farm support and production, a relationship the OECD claims favors large farms.