LV companies seek attention at Consumer Electronics Show

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.

Of 11 Southern Nevada companies exhibiting at this year's Winter Consumer Electronics Show, five have leading products in four different categories -- and six are rated X.

Each of them love the opportunity to reach a global audience afforded by the arrival of nearly 100,000 people to one of Las Vegas' biggest conventions.

CES continues today and through the weekend at five venues -- the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo Center, the Las Vegas Hilton, Alexis Park and Caesars Palace.

Among the mainstream exhibitors, two are showing cutting-edge auto security products, one offers electronics for high-end audio equipment, another is a long-time dealer of citizens' band radio antennas and one is riding the wave of digital video disc technology.

For Universal Electronic Designs Inc., 6255 McLeod Drive No. 12, the first day of CES was the setting for the debut of a car lot management and inventory control system.

Company President John Ghazarian explained the system, being marketed to car dealerships and rental car companies, is one of three products being shown by Universal, a company that moved to Las Vegas from Southern California a year ago.

The Galaxy management system utilizes parking lot-mounted sensors, a PC-mounted base station, a relay system, an identification unit at the gate of the lot and a series of individual units for each car and smart cards for each sales representative. Ghazarian said scale can greatly reduce the cost of the system, which he wouldn't disclose.

The system has the ability to automatically log the comings and goings of all vehicles on a lot. Ghazarian said he expects the sale of more than 1 million of the parking lot sensor units -- manufactured in and exported from Taiwan -- in six months.

In conjunction with the Galaxy system, Universal is showing two vehicle security systems, branded Icon and Vision. Both have state-of-the-art satellite communication remote control features.

Another company showing vehicle security systems is Keymaster Auto Security, 3871 Valley View Blvd. No. 54.

Eric Winston, vice president of the company, which has shown at four previous CES conventions, said he can install for $99 a bare-bones car security system that can lock and unlock a vehicle, pop open a trunk and interrupt the starter remotely. The Keymaster 990K unit has total of 10 programmable features.

Winston's sales pitch includes a reminder that a vehicle security system can often be paid for with the lower insurance premiums that many companies offer when a system is installed.

Keymaster moved to Las Vegas from Rhode Island three years ago when searching for a better West Coast distribution point for the products, which are manufactured and exported from Taiwan. Winston said the favorable tax and duty-free business climate offered by Nevada lured the corporation to Las Vegas, which company officials looked over carefully at their first CES in 1994.

Harvey Tattersall, president and chief executive officer of Direct Video Distribution Inc., 2505 Chandler Ave., is also making a move from the East.

Based in Cleveland as a corporate attorney with the Moen faucet company, Tattersall left when Moen was broken into smaller companies and formed Direct Video, which produces and distributes video CDs and the new DVDs.

Hal Tupler, vice president of sales and marketing, said most of the focus in DVD has been on recent film releases. About 50 titles have been released on the new high-storage discs that are the same size as a standard CD and have enough capacity to store an average-length feature film.

But Direct Video is concentrating on a different niche. In the company's catalog are a series called "Ancient Secrets of The Bible" and "The Shakespeare Collection." It also has purchased the rights to some of the early films of big stars -- "Choices" with Demi Moore, "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" starring John Travolta and "Time to Kill" with Nicolas Cage among them.

The 6-month-old company has begun distributing DVDs globally, taking advantage of the ability to produce multiple-language tracks on each disc. Tupler said the company also is distributing the Shakespeare and Bible features on compact disc to schools and libraries for their educational benefits. Compact disc versions can be viewed on most computers.

The Las Vegas company with the longest history at CES is Wilson Antenna Inc., 1181 Grier Drive Suite A, which isn't showing anything new this year -- just something that has been successful for years.

Sales manager Jerry Flatt said the Wilson 1000 CB and amateur radio antenna has become the standard for the industry among citizens' band enthusiasts.

The company has been around in some form in Las Vegas since 1969, changing its name from Wilson Electronics to Wilson Systems to Wilson Antenna since then. The privately held company owned by Jim Wilson has ridden the wave of popularity of the CB from a peak in the 1970s. Flatt said the CB industry blossomed in the era of gasoline shortages as truckers communicated by radio to let each other know where fuel could be found.

Flatt said the industry is in the midst of a revival in the '90s and the Wilson 1000 continues to be the company's top seller.

Lab Electronics, 3615 Ticama Road, is the only Las Vegas company showing at the Alexis Park venue. The company offers components for specialty high-end audio equipment.

And six Southern Nevada companies are among exhibitors showing at the large adult video display at the Sands.

Products range from adult videos to Internet access to exotic dancers. The companies: Cybex.Net, A Gentleman's Choice, Hillsboro Enterprises, Natalie Publishing, Online XXX Corp. and Paladin Video.