Should We All Have Been At CES?

You know our thoughts on how good we think InfoComm is ^[1], this week many of the big signage vendors will be at NRF in New York AND we would hope that all the industry ‘leaders’ will be at both DSE in Las Vegas and Screen Media Expo Europe in London respectively BUT wait a minute!!! Have we all missed a show?

CES is one of the few places in the world where you can stand on a balcony overlooking the trade show floor and yell “hey nerd” and everyone turns to look because they think that you are talking to them!!!

These are our people and it is like one giant class reunion for 100,000 members of your high school AV club. Everyone is older and fatter with at least 3 bluetooth enabled devices clipped to their belt, but you know that you are among friends.

The show traffic was way down from previous years; there is still a big crowd, but it is nowhere near as insane as it was in 2008 and 2007 -quick moving taxi queue lines bizarrely demonstrate the impact of the ‘economic downturn’

Anyway, the coolest things that were seen: –

1. OLED – the ultra thin display technology being shown by many of the major display manufacturers (LG and Samsung had the best demos) – absolutely unbelievable. The LG demo was 85mm thick (thinner than the piece of glass it was mounted on) and amazing quality. While still a few years away from mass production in larger size, this is clearly the technology to beat for future displays.
2. New generation Media Processors. While Intel has released Atom and it is very cool, the new ZiiLabs processor from Creative Labs ^[2] may be the one to watch. With a focus towards media and a parallel processing strategy that is amazingly forward thinking, this dime sized processor may well change the status quo for digital media players. Think of a media player the size of a matchbook for less than $100 which is capable of 1080p and you get the picture.
3. Interactivity between digital displays and mobile devices. Simple cool ideas like digital picture frames that automatically download your iPhone photos or allow you to use a picture frame sized display to stream live wireless video of your favorite sporting event bring an entirely new category of low cost, wireless media devices to the mainstream.
4. Audience Measurement and Camera Technology. Straight from the most advanced cold war R&D projects, facial tracking and audience measurement technology that can not only tell if you are watching, but who you are, if you are happy, sad or curious by facial posture. Lightyears ahead of anything we have seen currently in the Digital Signage world.

Bottom line, the growth of the visual media presence at CES probably makes this a ‘must attend’ show next year for anyone in the consumer facing digital media business !!