CES 2020 Part 1

I’ve not missed the Consumer Electronics Show or “CES” in 17 years straight and I’m never disappointed by what I see, especially this year. I’ve also not added an article on my website since 2017, even though I write a summary every year without fail. In the last two years it was mostly focused on a specific client. I’m now going back to the old format.

CES is evolving along with the technology it showcases, and over time it is less about consumer electronics and more and more about new bleeding edge technology in general. This is why it’s so important to most companies.

Almost 180,000 people attend the four day show each year, and the logistics alone in one city are extraordinary. Think of the complexity of moving that many people into a city and out, not to mention all the cars, flights, hotels and busses. Yet only in Las Vegas can they do it with ease.

The only gripe we had this year had to do with the dismal hotel partner, OnPeak who was responsible for managing all hotel accommodations. They created a steady stream of mass confusion leading up to the show and we made sure to let them know what we thought about their management. It was the only area where the Consumer Technology Association showed any weakness in operations this year. This is otherwise the best run show anywhere.

Eureka Park

We thought we’d try something different this year so we began by starting at the Sands Convention Center and Eureka Park on the lower floor. We wanted to get a jump on the mass crowds that have become the norm in Eureka Park. Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea and it was immediately packed and difficult to move through the narrow halls between tiny booths.

Eureka Park is dedicated to those startups that are looking for exposure but don’t have the money to afford a large booth. Most are looking for investors and many of them are in a make-it-or-break-it situation. It’s either land that deal this time; find investors, or customers, or they are completely screwed.

Eureka Park has become one of the most popular subsections of CES because this is where these companies all start. It’s where VCs and angel investors flock. It’s where big companies send teams to find early acquisitions and it’s where entrepreneurs go to see how it’s done.

You see everything, from the clever to the silly. Some of the technologies as presented are good while others are not ready for prime time. Some are solutions looking for a problem to solve, while others are something that makes some sense, but the market may or may not exist. Do I really need a desktop pen and pencil sterilizer? Even if the solution is solid, the market may be so small that it doesn’t matter or it’s hard to capture.

All show floors of CES are filled with companies that are highly dependent on CES for their future and a high percentage disappear the following year and never seen again. Some of these names with large booths were companies I’ve never heard of before, yet throughout CES these obscure names were spending big money to make an impression.

I put up a post on Quora about what not to do if you’re a startup exhibitor for the first time. Too many Eureka Park booths didn’t say what they did or why they did it. People don’t have the time to figure it out at the show. There are too many other things to see. Here are some examples.

Notice the sign clearly says what the product does. They get a gold star for clear marketing.

In the next example, the company tries to make a clever tag line, and all that is fine as a punchline, but at CES with thousands of booths, you have to grab instant attention or the spectator moves on by.

While not the worst we saw, it still took too much time to understand

After a while, Eureka Park became so crowded that it was impossible to see much up close, so we moved to the upper floor, which was never well laid out for some reason. It makes it hard to figure out where you are and what you need to see and do so you don’t miss something important. We did our best to get around, but still became a challenge.

The first thing we noticed in the upstairs hall was that what I shall call, “personal pleasure devices” were well represented at CES this year. For years they were not allowed at the show, and the whole thing and the interaction with attendees was kind of amusing. Just in case you didn’t know, these devices can be controlled by your phone from anywhere. Oh. Ohhooooo….

We thought we were clever when we hit the Sands Convention Center first, but in the end, we may have fooled ourselves. It takes an entire day just to hit the Sands and Eureka Park and this was not the right day. There were the usual body monitors and they rarely last in the market place because they often require a change in personal habits away from convenience, which flies in the face of where technology goes.

As I write about it often, if you understand this one law of nature, it’s easier to predict a product’s success. Convenience is to technology what water is to gravity; it is always the direction everything flows. If the technology is not convenient, it will die in favor of something that is more convenient.

Because of the crowds, we decided to leave the Sands and dive right into Center Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center where about 70% of the entire show takes place. We did the usual quick pass through the big three halls before moving to the back to see Sony which had some impressive technologies this year. Center Hall has a completely different vibe from the Sands. I can’t place it, but it feels good to get out of that space and into the other buildings.

SONY

Sony displayed a concept car to give spectators a glimpse of how they see the future entertainment features in an autonomous environment. I’m not likely to get lost in a movie while riding, but they believe interactive media will play a key role.

I keep thinking about what the world will be like if we don’t have to pay attention to driving in our own cars. How distracted will we become? Also, will the commute then matter? I would care if I had a two hour commute if I could use the time to remain just as productive if I were sitting in an office. In fact, I’d want to be driven everywhere, just to be out of the office!

Sony had one of the most impressive booths this year, not because it was the biggest or the most creative, but because it had some of the best technology. I didn’t see every gadget they made, but I did see a few things that impressed me more than the others.

4K Upscaling to 8K via Object Based HDR

Sony demonstrated an upscaling method using their X1 processor from a 4K to an 8K image that corrected fine images from a database of all known objects. It doesn’t go online to get the objects. They are stored on the silicon itself. It’s called “Object Based HDR.” The TV then corrects the images with known characteristics giving leaves fine details they wouldn’t otherwise have. You’re then not looking at a real image, but you’d swear you were. It’s just enough correction to not look fake, but more like the TV has sharper focus.

Here is the important point and why this matters. We’re now accepting augmented reality as reality, and I found that interesting and I couldn’t help but think of the future implications.

Meanwhile, Sony is solving a real problem because they recognize that both 8K content and the ability to deliver it to the TV is still a long way off. Their solution was impressive and made me want an 8K TV right now.

3D Moving Image Perspective

Sony demonstrated a very high definition “Crystal Micro LED” display of a film set background that maintained a 3D perspective regardless of camera location called, “Atom View” . The technology was a part of their Nurulize, Inc. acquisition in July 2019. This technology had the audience completely captivated. Imagine the problem of a series of buildings on a green screen with a fixed image. As you move the camera across the image, the perspective wouldn’t change, and the image would look like a flat, fake background. What Nurulize created was an image that moves, so the background perspective remains in sync with the camera. When you look through the camera, you can not tell that the background image isn’t real, with three dimensional depth. I was so captivated, I watched the demonstration at least six times.

Sony also demonstrated their Master Series Z9G 98” 8K TV for a mere $70k that was so clear, you’d fixate on even the smallest detail, because you could. I didn’t see another TV that was anywhere near as clear or vibrant. What’s hard to know is if the Sony ecosystem, from camera, to processing to image, could be the reason for the extremely high quality image. Nothing from LG or Samsung looked as good. If you want to save some money, the 80” version was only $20k. It was a bargain by comparison.

I later came back with someone who’s very critical about images and all the errors he could find were related to the content and not the TVs. In other years, I thought LG or Samsung were better, but not this year. Sony stepped in front of everyone with it comes to 8K TVs.

8K

In studying the press releases and articles about 8K televisions, it’s all true that the content or delivery method isn’t there yet. In some cases, it doesn’t yet exist for even 4K. The problem is that all the margin is already gone for 4K TV producers so they have moved onto 8K while none of the content providers and pipeline are anywhere near ready. It’s hard to believe, but some 4K TVs are already $500.00

From what we heard on the show floor, 8K won’t be ready and mainstream for at least another four years or more. Meanwhile some 8K TVs are already getting into an affordable range and getting cheaper every month As I wrote, Sony’s ability to upscale from 4K is a terrific interim solution for those who are dying to get an 8K TV at home.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time writing about TVs this year. Yes, the Samsung “The Wall” was dazzling as ever, but that was last year. So what if it was bigger this year. It’s still not a product that’s shipping and while I love to see what’s new, once you’ve seen it, it loses some relevance until it’s available.

In Part 2, I’m going to talk about Automotive because that was the dominant theme this year. As cars become more and more autonomous, we will be using autos for our daily lives. This means we will have more stuff to do as we go from point A to B.

CES 2020 Part 2

My Flight on the Goodyear Airship!