Standing Room Only in Shanghai

Standing Room Only in Shanghai

The consumer electronics industry is awfully important to China. Powered by the design and manufacture of mobile phones, DVD players and recorders, flat-screen TVs and digital still cameras, it accounted for nearly $50 billion in sales revenue in 2004 and is expected to grow by more than 20% annually to over $90 billion in 2007, according to industry estimates.

More than 200 engineers attended the 2005 Digital Consumer Electronics Seminar.

The exhibition hall entrance.

So it was not surprising to find more than 200 attendees squeezing into a second-floor meeting room at the Shanghai New International Expo Center for the 2005 Digital Consumer Electronics Seminar, produced by EP's sister publication Electronic Products China in conjunction with electronica and Productronica China.

Dr. Tom Zhang.

Doug Chafee.

EP China Publisher Daphne Liu.

The exhibition floor.

As an appetizer, attendees heard Dr. Tom Zhang, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of China's state agency MMTA speak about opportunities in mobile multimedia, including the challenges of interoperability among different applications platforms, IP digital rights management and the need for national standards. MicroChip Director of Engineering Doug Chafee then delivered a talk on the use of a system level approach to battery management, focusing on security, fuel gauging and protection against overcharging. Other notable papers addressed such topics as analog solutions for digital consumer applications (TI), choosing the right power management strategy for portable application design (National Semiconductor) and factors driving MP3 player growth (SigmaTel).

�Murray Slovick