One interesting comment I heard at the 2007 CES from a convention-goer was a lament over the death of diversity in the electronics industry. “It’s a display convention” he said. The emphasis on the TV set is understandable (on the main show floor), as the eyes are the primary user interface. Developments in image capture, both still and motion, over the last 20 years have created devices that amaze us with their ability to bring a slice of reality into the living room. Having said that, he must have not have seen all the high-end audio that was at the show.
Even the infrastructure companies put their finest on display. LSI Logic had demo boards going on all around their booth demonstrating cross-platform video source switching and image management technlogies, and companies like LG had the latest ultra-thin OLED display prototypes on show.
Although there weren’t the kind of breakthroughs we’ve come to expect, there were plenty of advanced products. We’ve already seen the Super Multi Blue BH100 dual-format Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player, here’s the computer drive. Speaking of drives, here’s the first single drive with a Terabyte capacity media center apps, anyone? Considering media players, Samsung’s newest are representative of the current state of the art.
To remind us what real music sounded like, the CEA held a free (albeit short) 3 Doors Down concert in the main hall, using the ESPN soundstage.
Is it me, or do these guys look alike?
Chairs that vibrate and thump while delivering amplified sound in conjunction with movies and games (especially games) seem to be all the rage. I’m in a BoomChair, and the people below me are in the Pyramat SoundRocker and the Ultimate Gaming Chair, respectively.
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Smartalix’s CES 2007 retrospect #1
Thanks for the story. Tried to email you at marketwatch but it didn’t go through. That Mirage project on the strip is positively huge. At last count there were 13 huge construction cranes and a cement processing plant at work on site.
Regarding the CES, I too was disappointed that there was little of the innovation I’ve come to expect over the years. Many manufacturers are showing new products at the CEDIA show in September and don’t show at the CES. Typically the larger manufacturers show advanced video and networking technologies at the CES, but there was little of that.
When Toshiba declined to show SED, it appeared that they may lull back from the promissed US introduction. Now it looks like they were in negotiations with Canon to sell their interest in their advanced display company SED Inc., to Canon in attempts of avoiding a judgement inntheir Nano-Proprietary lawsuit. That’s what probably figured into the decision to leave the SED in Japan for the CES.
Reportedly, Sony showed a 27″ OLED prototype, which would be nice consumer piece, but definitely not a first. Pioneer showed a very nice 60″ plasma display that was a huge improvement over their existing 60″ unit, but no word on when or if it will see production. Most likely soome of the technologies used will make the transition to Pioneer’s production models at some point in the future.
All those large flat panel displays have liuttle commercial viability in terms of consumer electronics. They may be used more in the sommercial display and sineage markets. As an illustration, Sony showed a 70″ LCD. While it looked good, a 65″ Sharp Aquous with an equal or better picture can be had for less than a third of the price. Have you ever tried to get a 103″ plasma up a curved staircase?
Thanks again for the story.
Steve Faber
I have to straighten out that Marketwatch thing..This is Alix’s story, not mine.
Sony did, in fact, show off a 27″ OLED display, along with a number of smaller ones. To say that it was the most amazing display I’ve ever seen would be an understatement.
“Boom Chair” What an awesome name for a chair, must cost a fortune.
Good, cheap OLED displays are the way of the future. So is IPTV.
Hi, please check out my video-blog from CES at http://ces2007.video-blog.eu
I got lots of videos in HD and on the Google Video..
And thanks if you blog about it..