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| Picture: CES® |
Along with vain attempts at going meat-free and alcohol-dry, one of the hardy perennials of the first full week of the new year is the gargantuan technology fest that is CES (note: not the "Consumer Electronics Show" or "International CES", as the organisers don't like either...). Every January, news feeds and column inches are filled with gadgets and gizmos getting showcased for the first time in Las Vegas that the tech industry hopes might catch on and, you know, even sell. In my day in the business, it was about launching the latest TVs, hi-fi systems and new media formats like DVD, Super Audio CD and Blu-ray Disc. As much as everyone involved would kvetch vigorously about having to give up part of the Christmas holiday to write press releases and CEO keynote speeches, then put up with Las Vegas in general and 4am visits to the Kinko's drive-through copy shop (which I once did in a limo, handing over an entire press kit through the sun roof), there is still something magical about the show, even if now viewed from afar.
Firstly, for those who've never been, Las Vegas is far from the glamour harbour it is portrayed as being. True, once it started to clean up its grubby reputation in the 1980s, and the first mega-“resort” hotels installed minibars and large screen TVs in their rooms (allegedly, against the wishes of the Mob, who wanted punters down on the gambling floors, getting rid of their life savings at the blackjack tables and slot machines), Vegas became something of an anodised version of its former self. Fun for all the family and, initially, of great appeal to the conventioneers who poured into the city in the ‘high desert’ all year round. For those visiting in January for CES, it was usual to recognise rookies as those arriving without overcoats, freezing in the endless early morning taxi queues. Just because it’s set in the vast western desert does not make Las Vegas warm in winter. But once inside the Las Vegas Convention Center, warmth of a million watts of electricity takes over, as the vast venue dazzles the visitor with its endless aisles of new toys.
My involvement, as part of Philips’ PR team, was a combination of accompanying senior executives and facilitating the journalists who rush about the place, breathlessly attending press conferences and keynote speeches, desperate not to miss the next big thing or some CEO’s visionary statement about the future. When the chance allowed, however, it was fun to go off-stand and peruse the dazzling array of what the industry, then, had to offer. This was, however, a long, long time ago. When we launched the first hi-fi system to connect to the Internet, we were given much the same rebuke as the Wright Brothers being told that planes will never take off, so to speak. Now look at it: everything is connected.
Reassuringly, this year’s CES hasn’t gone short of traditional introductions like TVs, with the big beasts like Panasonic, Samsung and Sony pushing the boundaries of both screen sizes and picture quality. This was pretty much the story in my day, 20 years ago, but then, when we thought we’d brought about the end of days by launching a 42-inch plasma TV, now we’re seeing 75-inch QLED sets offering 8K picture quality. Which I’m told is very good indeed. We've also seen a $60,000 TV from LG that rolls up and down like a blind. Indeed, thin displays are all the rage this year, with a glut of laptops at CES with foldable displays, the new groovy thing in screen-based devices.
I’m actually quite excited to see such developments. ‘Traditional’ consumer electronics, we keep being told, are supposed to be dying, as kids prefer to stay glued to TikTok on their mobile phones, Millennials opt for YouTube and even older punters prefer Spotify to actually owning their home entertainment. This sounds Luddite, I know, but I accept that as someone who still buys LPs and CDs, and is clinging desperately to the notion of owning hi-fi separates when my iPad, loosely, offers the same thing, entertainment consumption has shifted. I’m currently in the process of moving out of my flat and into my girlfriend’s house, which means making some choices - some hard, some easy - as to what I declutter. Apart from some dodgy record company promo copies, the vinyl LPs stay; the CDs can be reduced somewhat (I don’t really need two copies of the Heat soundtrack...); and the DVDs - some ‘first generation’ transfers - can go straight to the charity shop. Only a small handful of box sets and Blu-ray collections (Bond, The Sopranos, The Godfather, natch) need remain as everything else is mostly available to stream without taking up cupboard space. There will still be a market for the gear to play all this media on, but even the consumer electronics industry has wisely embraced online distribution, progressively and seamlessly incorporating streaming services into their audio and video boxes over the last decade or so (reminding me what pioneers Philips were with that first ‘Streamium’ hi-fi system in 2002...).
In fact, while home entertainment has long been the primary reason for consumer electronics shows to exist, other tech industries have moved in. Just like the IFA, the venerable Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin (translated - “International Radio Exhibition”), which converted into a hybrid event of the domestic appliances and CE industry several years ago, CES has, too, brought together traditional home entertainment devices with the likes of 'connected' toothbrushes and - yawn - fridges (that are still not in widespread use, despite being relentlessly featured at such shows for what seems like years). In Las Vegas this week, there are other new tech trends to challenge the show’s traditional interests. Motor manufacturers have seen CES as an opportunity to showcase their in-car tech for a while now, but whereas this used to be largely about entertainment and navigation technology, the car itself, thanks to Tesla, is now more gadget than vehicle. Thus, this year we’ve seen Mercedes-Benz introduce a futuristic ‘pod car’, inspired by the world of James Cameron's Avatar, while Sony - along with traditional launches like its new PlayStation and new TVs - delivered one of the first big surprises of CES by unveiling a car, the Vision-S. Now, this doesn’t mean the Japanese giant is about to take on the increasingly consolidated car industry, but the Vision-S is an electric concept car designed to showcase what Sony is still capable of in diverse applications, from in-car information and entertainment through to battery technologies, imaging and sensors.
Health technology has been a growing part of CES for some time, too, with large tech companies shoe-horning Internet-enabled personal care this-and-thats into the Convention Center, but even cosmetics brands are getting in on the act. This year L’Oréal, Oral-B, Gillette and Neutrogena have been demonstrating gadgets. I’m not sure if, yet, the world needs lipstick that connects via Bluetooth to a mobile phone, or artificial intelligence that looks for imperfections in facial skin (my mirror does that job quite adequately), but they’re on display if that’s your thing. The spin is that this is innovation, and fair play to the wonks in these companies’ labs for ‘pushing the envelope’, as such wonks like to say. Of course, it’s almost a cliché to point out that many of these concepts will never see the commercial light of day, much like Homer Simpson-style car designs at motor events and pilotless passenger helicopters at air shows, but it’s this heady mix of the rational and irrational that maintains the 175,000 people who descend on Las Vegas every year, along with 4,500 exhibitors from 160 countries for the self-styled “global stage for innovation”. And, secretly, I’m a tiny bit jealous I’m not amongst them. Even if it would mean losing measurable years of my life in taxi queues.
Firstly, for those who've never been, Las Vegas is far from the glamour harbour it is portrayed as being. True, once it started to clean up its grubby reputation in the 1980s, and the first mega-“resort” hotels installed minibars and large screen TVs in their rooms (allegedly, against the wishes of the Mob, who wanted punters down on the gambling floors, getting rid of their life savings at the blackjack tables and slot machines), Vegas became something of an anodised version of its former self. Fun for all the family and, initially, of great appeal to the conventioneers who poured into the city in the ‘high desert’ all year round. For those visiting in January for CES, it was usual to recognise rookies as those arriving without overcoats, freezing in the endless early morning taxi queues. Just because it’s set in the vast western desert does not make Las Vegas warm in winter. But once inside the Las Vegas Convention Center, warmth of a million watts of electricity takes over, as the vast venue dazzles the visitor with its endless aisles of new toys.
My involvement, as part of Philips’ PR team, was a combination of accompanying senior executives and facilitating the journalists who rush about the place, breathlessly attending press conferences and keynote speeches, desperate not to miss the next big thing or some CEO’s visionary statement about the future. When the chance allowed, however, it was fun to go off-stand and peruse the dazzling array of what the industry, then, had to offer. This was, however, a long, long time ago. When we launched the first hi-fi system to connect to the Internet, we were given much the same rebuke as the Wright Brothers being told that planes will never take off, so to speak. Now look at it: everything is connected.
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| Picture: CES® |
Reassuringly, this year’s CES hasn’t gone short of traditional introductions like TVs, with the big beasts like Panasonic, Samsung and Sony pushing the boundaries of both screen sizes and picture quality. This was pretty much the story in my day, 20 years ago, but then, when we thought we’d brought about the end of days by launching a 42-inch plasma TV, now we’re seeing 75-inch QLED sets offering 8K picture quality. Which I’m told is very good indeed. We've also seen a $60,000 TV from LG that rolls up and down like a blind. Indeed, thin displays are all the rage this year, with a glut of laptops at CES with foldable displays, the new groovy thing in screen-based devices.
I’m actually quite excited to see such developments. ‘Traditional’ consumer electronics, we keep being told, are supposed to be dying, as kids prefer to stay glued to TikTok on their mobile phones, Millennials opt for YouTube and even older punters prefer Spotify to actually owning their home entertainment. This sounds Luddite, I know, but I accept that as someone who still buys LPs and CDs, and is clinging desperately to the notion of owning hi-fi separates when my iPad, loosely, offers the same thing, entertainment consumption has shifted. I’m currently in the process of moving out of my flat and into my girlfriend’s house, which means making some choices - some hard, some easy - as to what I declutter. Apart from some dodgy record company promo copies, the vinyl LPs stay; the CDs can be reduced somewhat (I don’t really need two copies of the Heat soundtrack...); and the DVDs - some ‘first generation’ transfers - can go straight to the charity shop. Only a small handful of box sets and Blu-ray collections (Bond, The Sopranos, The Godfather, natch) need remain as everything else is mostly available to stream without taking up cupboard space. There will still be a market for the gear to play all this media on, but even the consumer electronics industry has wisely embraced online distribution, progressively and seamlessly incorporating streaming services into their audio and video boxes over the last decade or so (reminding me what pioneers Philips were with that first ‘Streamium’ hi-fi system in 2002...).
Health technology has been a growing part of CES for some time, too, with large tech companies shoe-horning Internet-enabled personal care this-and-thats into the Convention Center, but even cosmetics brands are getting in on the act. This year L’Oréal, Oral-B, Gillette and Neutrogena have been demonstrating gadgets. I’m not sure if, yet, the world needs lipstick that connects via Bluetooth to a mobile phone, or artificial intelligence that looks for imperfections in facial skin (my mirror does that job quite adequately), but they’re on display if that’s your thing. The spin is that this is innovation, and fair play to the wonks in these companies’ labs for ‘pushing the envelope’, as such wonks like to say. Of course, it’s almost a cliché to point out that many of these concepts will never see the commercial light of day, much like Homer Simpson-style car designs at motor events and pilotless passenger helicopters at air shows, but it’s this heady mix of the rational and irrational that maintains the 175,000 people who descend on Las Vegas every year, along with 4,500 exhibitors from 160 countries for the self-styled “global stage for innovation”. And, secretly, I’m a tiny bit jealous I’m not amongst them. Even if it would mean losing measurable years of my life in taxi queues.
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