Freesat, the new, free digital satellite TV service, became available nationwide at the beginning of May. For a one-off payment and no subscription, Freesat provides viewers with over 80 popular digital TV, radio and interactive channels, including high definition (HD) programming from the BBC and ITV.

BDC have teamed up with Freesat to bring a range of Humax and Panasonic Freesat products to the independents market. BDC have organised for 300 free of charge point of display kits to promote Freesat to the consumer and is also arranging a series of training events which will demonstrate the benefits   of Freesat.

Long-established and family firms took the majority of the honours at this year's Retailer of The Year Awards (ROTY), with the overall winner, Oldrids Downtown Superstore in Grantham, celebrating 204 years in business.

National Food Safety Week is an excellent opportunity to remind consumers of the dangers of food contamination by bacteria and of the benefits of using modern refrigeration appliances.

The Bank of England admitted that it is set to breach its inflation target in the coming months and warn that Britain is destined for two years of soaring costs and weak growth. Also the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will rise above 3% over the next six months.

Neil Truckell has been appointed as brand director for Lawton and Lawton's new Home Electronics division (Lawton HE). With over 18 years experience in the consumer electronics industry, Neil joins the fast growing distribution company from the position of general manager at Acoustic Energy.

IN the thickening atmosphere of the impending economic downturn, which has become the principal focus of the printed and broadcasting media, it's good to hear that there are still some business opportunities left on the high street. This is exactly what this year's retra conference (in many people's opinion, one of the best so far) has delivered.

Alphason Designs has joined forces with the renowned Conran & Partners design studio to deliver an innovative 2008 AV furniture range. Designed by Conran & Partners in conjunction with Alphason, the range will be launched in September in preparation for the busy Christmas season. In the picture above Chris Emerson, Alphason's chief operating officer (right),  and Sebastian Conran, conclude the deal.

Philips Plc, the number one player in global lighting, and one of the leading brands in consumer electronics, female and male grooming (in fact, leading in the male shaving sector) and garment care, has reinvented itself many times since the company was founded in 1891.

Designed and tested by British engineers who were commissioned by Morphy Richards to build a perfect iron for ironing shirts, the Advanced Finish harnesses the power of a steam generator and puts it in   the body of an iron.

LG has unveiled its latest range of LCDs - known as Scarlet.  The striking TVs sport a slim profile along with a red-coloured back and soft touch on-off sensor.

Viewers that wish they could get satellite TV without a large ugly satellite dish will welcome a new alternative - the Sqish.

Coinciding with the launch of the Freesat service, the new FOXSAT-HD digital set-top box from Humax enables viewers to watch subscription-free high definition content.

The Lava bracket from AV furniture specialist Optimum is the maker's first ever wall mount.

Fagor's latest large-capacity washing machine boasts Turbo-Time - a washing system which improves washing results while reducing average washing times by around 30% to just 30 minutes, says the maker.

For those that worry about the unreliable British weather putting a dampener on their barbecue plans, the latest innovation from George Foreman may be the answer.

Wine connoisseurs will welcome the latest luxury wine cabinet from Amana.

Finished in a choice of four contemporary designs, the cabinet has been designed to replicate the optimum conditions for wine storage.

Archos has added GPS capability to its 605 portable media player, transforming the device into a sat nav system.

Gordon set up BBG as a specialist car audio distributor in 1983. From car audio products the company diversified into the accessory market. They started with Vogel brackets and subsequently added the Profigold and Bandridge cable brands, Jamo speakers and screen cleaning products. Last year, with the addition of Atecas' furniture they became "the one-stop-shop for independents". Gordon explains:  "We now have full ranges of these products - from entry level to top end lines, which are sold under different brand names - with different price points, different aspirations and through different channels."

I have recently returned from the very successful 2008 retra Conference in Portugal, whose theme as emphasised on all conference materials was ‘A Time to Talk'.

Bryan Lovewell, who took the post of retra chief executive in October 2007, is exceptionally well equipped to run the association. With 42 years in the electrical industry, he knows first hand its mechanics and sensibilities. He started from managing an independent electrical store, than he worked for a leading multiple, subsequently moving to white goods manufacturing. The last eight years he spent with EEIBA as appeals director.

With the kitchen becoming the centre of family life and the growing penchant for entertaining at home, the oven - its performance and its looks - is gaining unprecedented importance. This is clearly reflected by market trends. Anthony Williams, senior account manager at GfK, comments:

It is perhaps not surprising that the conference speakers focused on the hard times ahead, with the BRC reporting a 15-year low in consumer confidence. Yet, despite this and maybe because of this the tone of the event was very upbeat and actionable advice plentiful.

How would you like to declare all your customers' equipment redundant at frequent intervals and give them no choice but to replace it? To sell them a complete new set of home electrical gear when they move from an old house to a new one, never mind that it was all working OK? Nice work if you can get it. How would you like to be a housebuilder or estate agent in a world where a new house is required every few years or when new appliances or cars are bought, and then the old house is demolished? We're really talking computers here.

The camcorder sector has certainly seen some interesting changes in recent times. The move away from tape-based formats has cleared the way for alternatives such as DVD, SD card and Hard Disk Drive (HDD) recording, while the rapid adoption of High Definition TV (HDTV) has also exerted a significant influence to ensure that there is plenty of profit to be had in this product area.

Hitachi is the first and only manufacturer to launch a Blu-ray camcorder, with the introduction of two models last year. The DZ-BD7H hybrid model combines an 80mm Blu-ray disc drive with a 30GB HDD and is capable of recording up to four hours of full HD 1080p footage.

According to Sony, this is the world's smallest HD 1080 camcorder. The tiny Handycam is little bigger than a mobile phone and is crafted from titanium to make it as light as possible. Face Detection automatically adjusts focus, exposure and colour balance while a built-in zoom microphone records with Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound.

Along with a 0sub-£150 price tag, the compact Camileo Pro HD can record 16 hours of 720p HD footage onto the 128MB internal memory, or alternatively footage can be recorded onto an optional memory card. Additional benefits include an MP3 player, voice recorder and a digital still camera function.

Samsung's first HD camcorder, the VP-HMX10C boasts 8GB of internal flash memory, allowing two hours' recording, and memory cards can be used to extend the recording capacity. Along with a 2.7in touch panel LCD screen, it features a 10x optical zoom, 20x digital zoom and a battery life of 90 minutes.

Tough market conditions call for tough action but is expanding your bricks and mortar business into the custom installation sector (CI) a wise idea? In theory the move is an obvious one, a natural extension to the service for which independent retailers are already famed. But the road to CI success is littered with casualties; new entrants from retail that moved too fast or simply too far away from their core business. Conversely, some of the most successful CI operations have grown organically out of high-street show rooms - Sevenoaks and Audio T being prime examples. So why have some succeeded where others have failed?

Comet's sales have dipped on a like-for-like basis for the first time in over two years, Kesa group chief executive Jean-Noel Labroue has admitted.  During February and March Comet's comparable store sales slipped into 'small negative territory'.