The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the trade organization to which major consumer electronics manufacturers belong. Their biggest impact in the consumer electronics arena is the yearly Consumer Electronics Show (CES). One committee of this organization - the Mobile Electronics Committee - has announced a new standard which will more easily let consumers play and charge their portable media players in their vehicles and at home.

CEA-2017, also known as Common Interconnection for Portable Media Players, was developed with the input of over 100 companies. It “defines electrical and mechanical properties for a connector that will pass audio, video and associated metadata signals, control signals, and power between portable electronic devices and in-home and in-vehicle audio/video systems. It will also allow consumers with products that support the common connector to play and charge their portable media devices in their vehicles and their homes.”

What’s the bottomline for you and I after we cut away all of the marketing speak? A single connector which will work with various portable media player devices to pass power as well as A/V signals between the PMP and an associated device such as a boombox with a built-in video screen. This is a nice alternative to having to pony up cash to buy accessories specific to one manufacturer’s connector type, though it remains to be seen if someone like Apple or Microsoft will open up their ecosystems to a more generic third party device.