Those with their finger on the pulse of technology have either attended the annual Consumer Electronics Showcase or followed along online. At this year’s show, the conference floor was teeming with new gadgets featuring a trend that shows no sign of losing steam — voice automation.

From the Google voice assistant to Amazon Alexa, consumers want the seamless control that voice technology provides. Polk Audio broke barriers with the unveiling of the Command Bar, the sound bar system with Alexa built-in. The ability to cue up movies or shows, adjust volume, set alarms, control your smart home and activate Alexa skills with a sound bar changes how we experience home theater and control our environment.

Ahead of the cusp, HEOS developed a skill that lets you control your speakers, pre-amplifier and AVR with your voice. It’s featured in the Denon AVR-X8500H receiver and Marantz AV8805 pre-amplifier, the newest models from each brand that both offer 13.2 channel configuration — a world’s first. You can switch inputs on your media player, play or pause a song, turn up the volume and more with your voice.

In addition, the HEOS Super Link was selected as a winner for Multiroom Product of the Year by the Mark of Excellence Awards.

If you missed the show or didn’t tune in online, catch up with some of these highlights from CES 2018.

The HEOS 3, a compact Wi-Fi speaker, features dual full-range drivers powered by a two-channel Class D amplifier. Control the speaker with your voice, an Amazon Alexa device and the HEOS Home Entertainment skill.

The SR8012, an 11.2 channel full 4K Ultra HD AV surround receiver, debuted in 2017 at CEDIA and continues to wow with its formidable power. Integrated HEOS technology lets you control it with your voice once the HEOS Home Entertainment skill is enabled via the Amazon Alexa app.

The Polk Command Bar is fully integrated with Amazon Alexa — no skill download required. As told by CNET, “Polk’s new sound bar swallowed an Echo Dot.”

The 13.2 channel, 15.2 XLR Denon AVR-X8500H is fully compatible with the latest HDMI and HDCP 2.2 specifications, prepared for any 4K Ultra HD source and can be controlled via voice to stream music with HEOS-technology built-in.

This world’s first from Denon took home an AVS Forum Best of CES 2018 award. Get a closer look at its decked out back panel.

The Marantz AV8805 took the lead ahead of other pre-amplifiers as the first 13.2 channel, 15.2 XLR pre-amp. It supports the latest three-dimensional audio formats and full 4K Ultra HD. Control it with your voice through HEOS technology and the HEOS Home Entertainment skill — which you enable through the Amazon Alexa app.

Learn more about HEOS and HEOS-enabled products and stay up to date with tech news — subscribe to the newsletter by visiting https://usa.denon.com/us/heos and filling out the form in the upper-right corner.