Feature Article
Ruminations on CES
2005
By Logan Enright
Small shiny objects
under bright lights, the world’s largest TV, and
retro turntables and HiFi combo units come
immediately to mind from the opening day of CES,
2005. The Consumer Electronics Show, held each
January in Las Vegas, is the trade show for the
world of gadgets small and large. Local TV news
reported that $140M was infused in the local economy
by CES attendees and exhibitors this year.
This year’s show
marked the first year without the Comdex Expo in
competition. CES always lived in the shadow of the
immense computer show, which has called it quits, at
least for now.
A rare snow fell on
the Strip Friday morning, which some say is a sign
of good luck in Vegas. Speaking of the white stuff,
Motorola built a snow board run in the parking lot
of the Convention Center and featured experts doing
flips off the 100’ high contraption. They used
man-made as the real stuff did not stick.
If you measure by
booth size, it seems LG and Samsung, in the Central
Hall, are the new giants of the business. These two
companies, who were little known a decade ago,
occupied about 25,000 square feet each at the show!
A 102” plasma from Samsung, advertised as the
World’s Largest TV, was on display but is not
deliverable. Their 80” inch at $50,000 is shipping,
said a Samsung person. LG, formerly Lucky Goldstar
who now owns the Zenith name, had street musicians
perform by banging plastic tubs loudly and shouting
“LG means Life’s Good”.
High Def plasma, LCD
and DLP devices were just everywhere. Prices are
dropping precipitously on plasma, and LCD displays
are getting larger and are looking great! Benq
introduced a 40” and a 46” LCD at 6 and 8K
respectively. Viewsonic
showed their HiDef 50” VPW5500 AliS enabled plasma
featuring ClearPicture 1000 cd/m2 of brightness.
On the CES in-room TV
channel serving area hotels, Gary Shapiro, CEO of
CEA (the trade association responsible for CES),
said one key issue this year will be distinguishing
mere digital displays from high definition displays.
There will be some confusion in this area.
For PDA fans, the
Treo 650 with faster processing and improved
keyboard over their popular Treo 600, is their new
integrated cell phone/Palm. Benq has also introduced
a “Treo killer” which will ship in Q2- or Q3. HP
introduced their new Windows CE Pocket PC with a
very impressive large display which accommodates
landscape as well as portrait mode.
In the audio world,
it seems that he with the most trade-marks embossed
on the front panel of components wins. I counted 12
of these logos on the front of a Denon amp: HDMI,
THX, RDS, Dolby Digital, etc.
Other noteworthy cool
toys: The Apex integrated digital server with 6”
LCD, which holds 25Gig (80 movies) on an internal
hard drive. Creative Labs showed an MP3 player the
size and shape of a disposable lighter. Apple
announced the shipment of their 10 millionth Ipod.
Casio and others continued to miniaturize their
digital cameras, offering more pixels on a unit
which could get lost in your pocket. I tried to
imagine how I would use an IP-addressable oven. And
how about an electronic wine tasting tool which
reads out tannins and taste qualities?
The halls were loud
with demos of surround sound speakers and live
presenters. CES used to have a policy or unwritten
rule, which seems to have vanished, that loud demos
are held off-premises in hotel meeting rooms. I used
to mention this to NAB, NSCA and InfoComm
exhibitors, hoping they would follow CES’ lead in
this area.
Despite the noise
level, CES is always a gas. This writer was there
first in 1977 and has always loved it. This
particular year was huge and full of great products.
A fabulous place to spend a day or four for the
incurable gadget lover.
Logan Enright is Principal and
Founder of The Enright Company, a commercial video
and AV rep firm now in their 20th year in California .
logan@enrightcompany.com
