11/01/2010 CES Las Vegas 2010.

Tagged under
Posted by Len | No Comments

CES Las Vegas 2010:

I have just spent the last few days at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. It has been a few years since I last attended this show, and it was obvious that the global financial problems of last year have had some impact, attendance numbers were slightly down, and there appeared to be fewer exhibitors. Even some of the audio heavyweights were no-where to be seen. The good news is that there were a record number of new exhibitors, so the tough times have obviously not deterred the entrepreneurial spirit of the hardy few.

As always most of the new products on show were evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but what did impress me was the speed at which this industry is moving.

There were a number of very obvious trends, and the one that was shouting (no, screaming) from the rooftops was 3-D TV. Almost all panel manufacturers had substantial areas devoted to 3-D. Some companies were even showing live 3-D broadcasts (most notably Panasonic.)
We have still not been able to ascertain any firm release dates in Australia for this technology, but it now looks like 2010 is going to be a far better bet than not. There is still a lot of speculation over whether 3-D in the lounge-room will be a success. Is the picture quality good enough, will people use the prerequisite glasses at home, is there going to be enough material available?
Personally I have some issues with the quality of the final result (keeping in mind that this is very early days), resolution is compromised, and the image tends to project backwards rather than forwards as we are used to in the movie theatres (which I prefer). However this is all irrelevant – there are a substantial number of very large companies out there who have committed a huge amount of money to convince you that it is a technology that you must have. Plus it will be driven by the gaming market – that is the one area where 3-D will be a standout winner.

3-D TV will definitely be the ‘next big thing’.

The other technology which is obviously coming of age is the computer ‘Tablet’ (if all the rumors are correct this will get a larger shot in the arm later this month if Apple make the expected announcement that they are about to enter this market). Most Tablets could also be used as e-readers, plus there were a multitude of stand-alone e-readers as well. Some were very good, many were downright awful.

The other interesting observation that I made was the variety of sources that the audio community used to demonstrate their products. Vinyl has never gone away, and as many, if not more, companies used vinyl in their demonstrations this year. CD was still a common source, but used to a lesser degree. The huge growth was in computer or hard-drive sources. Many rooms had all of their demo material digitally recorded, with a token CD player in case some on had a disc with them that they wished to hear. The other source which I found to be very surprising was reel-reel recorders. I must have seen at least a dozen demonstrations which had their material on reel-reel – and it sounded good!

Digital music is moving ahead at an astounding rate. It was only six months ago that we received our first 24/176.4 discs from Reference Recordings and then had to find a D/A converter capable of handing this resolution (coming up with the fabulous Berkeley Alpha DAC). At the show it appeared that most hi-end manufacturers were taking this level of resolution very seriously, with one company announcing a 32bit DAC. Pricing has already fallen dramatically; earlier today I listened to the new DAC from Music Hall (24/196 resolution) which also has a high quality headphone output, which should sell for less that $1,000 when released in the Australia during the second quarter of this year. The option of including hi-end DAC;s in amplifiers a-la-Peachtree has also become common-place. Manufacturers are now realising that integrated and pre-amplifiers in the future will need to cope with high resolution digital files as well as those traditional analogue ones.

My final observation was that as usual there are many, many new brands being launched onto the market. Most are surprisingly good, but unfortunately many will not survive. However it is those that do will have the opportunity to go on and become the Krell’s of tomorrow.

No Comments

Comment

* All fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory

Please enter a name.

Please enter your e-mail.

Please enter a comment.

Name*
Email*
Website
Comment*