A number of British companies will be exhibiting at CES in Vegas this coming January, in the hope that such international exposure will increase their market size.

Voice over IP is expected to be big in 2006, and Manchester-based VoIPvoice is demoing uConnect Plus, a USB-powered PSTN to VoIP adaptor to integrate its software to use with Skype. Such products are beginning to become fairly common now, so it's got a tough job ahead to stand out in the market, but it has received a CES Innovations Honoree award. 

It also has its Cyberphone–W, a USB handset to make Skype calls. Again, there's now loads on the market, and some are very good, so this is going to need to be particularly special or very cheap to make an impact. If we get the opportunity though, we'll try and get them in for review and see how they compare to the products we've recently seen.

Imagination Technologies, best known for its digital radios such as the 'love it or hate it' Bug, is showing a range of products, including multi-standard HD video decoder that supports all major standards, such as jpeg, H.264, WMV9, VC1, Mpeg-2/4 and DivX, from a single IP core. It also has mobile phone application processors and a multi-standard mobile TV platform that supports DVD-H, T-DMB and ISDBT-ss to enable roaming-mobile TV handsets.

On the consumer electronics front, the list includes Atlas (Scotland), which develops audio visual and hi-fi interconnect leads and cables. It's launching a range of HDMI cables and Hyper speaker cables. Also from Scotland is Wolfson Microelectronics, which supplies mixed-signal semiconductors for digital audio and imaging applications.  At CES it is focusing on portable audio, including new amplifier technology to provide portable hi-fi audio and extend battery life.

Audio Acoustics is launching its Radical Nexgen loudspeaker and cable systems, plus showing its Sapphire Ti-C and Fundamental-k2 range of speakers, which have a frequency response of 20Hz - 43KHz (+/-3dB).

Finally, London based Oregan Network has a system to deliver video, audio, images and data over IP networks in the home. It is demonstrating a range of home entertainment devices that use its Oregan Media Browser. Network DVDs, digital media adaptors, set top boxes and gaming consoles can become  web-enabled, entertainment products.