David J.
Danto
Principal Consultant, Collaboration / AV /
Multimedia / Video / UC
Dimension Data
Director of Emerging Technology
Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative
Communications Alliance
eMail: David.Danto@DimensionData.com 
Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
(Read David’s Bio) (See David’s CV)
Notes From The 2015
International CES
This
is the microsite I will use for end of day notes from the 2015 International CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show.) The conference is taking place January 4th
through 9th 2015 in Las Vegas.
I’m there now with the perspective of an enterprise communications
specialist looking for the stories and products that the mainstream media
usually misses.
Many
of the note and photos I’ll add to this page will already have been sent as
tweets and will represent my raw thoughts.
To get this information in real time be sure to follow my Twitter feed
by clicking here: @NJDavidD .
2015
CES Day Three:
Today
I made it over to the Sands Expo center to see the exhibits there. As massive as the Las Vegas Convention Center
is, it’s no longer big enough to hold all of the exhibitors at this
conference. This second location isn’t just
holding a few of the exhibitors that couldn’t fit, it took up this entire
second expo location and also floors of private, invitation only meeting rooms. This location included 3D printing - which
has limited consumer applications but represents massive savings in time and
money in industrial applications – and other areas like smart watches,
connected home, and health and fitness.
It also included the start-up area Eureka Park.
My
first reaction to all of it was to the size of the “smart / connected home” area. There used to be a handful of exhibitors at CES showing universal remotes and connected technologies
and this year it took up a sizeable chunk of the this hall.
The
internet of things in the home will definitely become mainstream in the coming
year. We’ll soon be asking why aren’t you
monitoring the battery life of your smoke detectors, managing the output of
your lighting, answering your doorbell from your smart phone - as these will all
be the norm. In addition, products made
for such home applications will have applicability in many other areas. For example, take the Allie (…pronounced all-“E” - like a selfie of
everything…) from IC RealTech.
It’s
the clear leader in a new class of super-wide-angle, multiple imager cameras
that electronically stitch together the images and remove any fisheye distortion. This device with a camera on both sides
captures everything all around it – 360 degrees times two (I finally figured
out the math to get to 720.) While that makes
an awesome home monitoring camera, a little creativity in applications can have
this device hosting a virtual tour of anything.
Want to sell a house? Just drop
one of these puppies into every room.
Want to join a board meeting as if you were there? Put one of these in the center of the table
and look at whatever you want to – from a colleagues face to the slides being
shown – and move around independently of anyone else connected to the same
camera. Here is an Instagram video that briefly
shows this technology on a tablet. This
kind of live video imager can be a real game changer at about $3,000 US.
There
were a number of other product ideas I was particularly impressed with – like a
public storage or storage and charging station that uses your thumbprint to
assign and open your locker– no more losing those weird plastic keys…and connected
batteries, so you can make old, pre IoT devices aware
right along with their new peers. I’ll
include these in my full show wrap-up.
I’m
choosing not to report about the health and fitness products because I frankly
believe there is much more hype than substance there. It is hard to take a firm that is talking about
making people healthy seriously when they have a bowl of candy bars on their
display table or are giving out a neon colored plastic-collapsible water bottle
that just has to be as toxic as anything ever mass produced.
~~~~~~
Finally,
if Mashable can do a Best of CES awards then so can
I. Here are a couple I’m considering:
Best Booth Sign:
For
the life of me I don’t understand how firms can spend enormous amounts of money
to display at a conference and then put up a booth that gives passers-by
absolutely no clue what they do or make.
These guys got it absolutely right.
No doubt at all.
Best SmartWatch
Technology Display:
Speaking
personally, I believe a watch really can be smart if a blue glowing tube is
connected to it so you can pour gallons of intelligence right into it. No doubt in my mind at all…
~~~~~~
This
will be my last update of raw notes. I’ll
put these and other thoughts together in my complete “View From
The Road” on CES 2015 in the next couple of
days and include a link to it at the top of this page.
2015
CES Day Two:
First
of all, let me be clear that I didn’t try on 56
wearables today like this person did.
I also didn’t look at every 3D TV two years ago and shunned HD-DVD
players. I try to recognize and avoid
fads early. Time will tell if my nose
for a long-term lack of value was correct today.
What
I did do is take a picture of a few high-quality, Bluetooth music headphones
that seemed to have jumped into the market after the very successful launch of
Plantronics BackBeat Pro
In
other words – now that a respected audio firm has shown that “music-first”, superb
sounding, over the ear headphones that also support Bluetooth and the
occasional UC need are a product people want – everybody wants to make one.
Speaking
of Plantronics – I posted a video
today that shows their Concept Two headset controlling a
iPad robot called Kubi from Revolve robotics. This is still in the demonstration phase of
head tracking, but it is definitely a wow.
I
also stopped to see the team at Lenmar. You may not have heard of them, but if you
use an iPhone you should know them.
iPhones just don’t have enough battery life for
power users. Lenmar
makes battery cases for them. Why are
they special? Well, if you’ve ever owned
a battery case for an iPhone you’d know that the little connector port at the
bottom – usually a micro USB – typically lasts two months before getting
flaky. Lenmar’s
are the only ones that don’t have that problem – ever. Now that they have two cases that fit the
iPhone 6 I can safely upgrade from my 5.
~~~~~~
I
spent a lot of time today at the CES Fast Innovation:
Disrupt or be Disrupted panel. I felt this was more important than many of the
other keynotes because “disruption” is a buzzword thrown around by so many
without a true understanding of what it means.
Creating a product that becomes best in its space is not disruptive no
matter how many bloggers want to call it that to please interviewees. Disruption is when a product or concept
irrevocably changes the space that existed before its arrival.
The
panelists were John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO, Neil Smit,
president and CEO of Comcast Cable and Dr. Werner Struth,
member, board of management, Robert Bosch GmbH.
Their
points in the discussion were startling:
·
Only
40% of current Fortune 500 companies will exist in a meaningful way in10 years
– mostly due to lack of innovation.
·
Every
home, city, sporting event and device will be digital and connected in the near
future.
·
We
tend to think about change in terms of technology, but that’s the easy
part. The hard part is changing people
and culture. Firms that don’t innovate
in that area will be left behind.
·
The
pace of change is accelerating rapidly.
Long term planning at Cisco used to involve a five year look ahead. It now involves three years.
Dr.
Struth made the most important point in my opinion,
when he said that organizations must be willing to break their own paradigms to
innovate. That means we have to be
willing to stop doing something that may seem successful now to remain
successful into the future. Very few
industries and organizations truly get that idea, and often blame the messenger
when they are told they will need to change.
~~~~~~
The
early buzz of the day was supplied by Cisco as they hired a skywriting service
to promote their Intercloud.
The
wordplay lasted all day (Intercloud in-ter-cloud…Intercloudy sky…Cisco creating more clouds again…etc.)
~~~~~~
There
are two more days to CES and I still haven’t seen
half of what is being exhibited.
Tomorrow I’ll take my first trip to the Sands expo center and Venetian
to look at some of the smaller, innovative organizations and start-ups to see
if there are any true disruptions on the horizon.
Look
for the next update to this page (very) late Thursday night January 8th,
2015 – older entries below…
2015
CES Day One:
My
first reaction to the opening of the CES exhibit
floor was that the crowds are definitely back.
So much so that it’s difficult moving around.
I’ll
wait to hear the actual attendance numbers before I make a guess, but I’m
betting on another record high in attendance this year.
My
next reaction was, who? As CEA’s analysts mentioned there are a lot of firms producing
really-good knock-offs of well-known brands.
This
is NOT to imply that there is anything wrong with firms like the one pictured
above (that I personally don’t know.)
It’s just meant to point out that most of the world is buying technology
from firms other than Sony, Samsung,
LG, Panasonic etc.
~~~~~~~~~~
There
has been much talk of the death of 3D displays (even from me.)
it was apparent walking around the show floor that 3D displays aren’t dead.
There
were a number of 3D exhibits – it is just nobody cares about them so almost no
one stops to look.
~~~~~~~~~~
Some
other interesting observations include:
·
Has
anyone noticed the entire wearable phenomenon is just marketing wristwatches to
the millennial generation that had stopped wearing them…and by adding pseudo
words to their description like “fit-tracker” and “health monitor” they’re
pulling it off?
·
The
people flying the drones on the show floor are the same people that were flying
those rechargeable helicopters on the show floor a few years ago?
·
Even
consumer technology companies have realized they have to stop talking about
“bits and bytes” to enterprise manufactures, and instead discuss business cases
and outcomes desired. See the below from
Samsung as they mocked-up a number of scenarios in their (enormous) booth.
~~~~~~~~~~
Some items I’ll include in my full show
wrap-up over the weekend include:
·
Sony’s
really tiny new 4K ActionCam. Big wow factor holding a UHD
camera that is smaller than some microcassette recorders used to be.
·
Curved
desktop displays
·
Some
new innovations from Logitech, Smart and Kingston
Pre-Show
Day Two:
Monday
is press conference day at CES. Think of it in terms of running a
marathon. Unless you are a super-duper
VIP it is impossible to attend all the press conferences. The lines to get into the ones from major
manufacturers are so enormous that you’d need to get on the 10am conference
line as soon as the 9am conference starts.
It either has to be covered in teams, or one has to be very
selective. It makes one wonder why it
seems to be so hard for the organizers to get halls big enough to actually hold
all the attendees that want to be there.
The
importance of those big press conferences is really in question now, due to the
startling contrast that has developed in the technology industry. The Samsungs,
Panasonics and LGs of the world hold the massive
press conferences I refer to above, but much smaller, start-up firms are taking
mindshare and market share in global technology. It’s truly shaping up to be a David and
Goliath type story. Do you really need
an iWatch or iPhone when you can get an off-brand
version of either for hundreds less? It
takes almost nothing to start a crowdfunding campaign, and social media is a
flat world, so start-ups can create and sell products directly to users without
the kind of marketing and distribution alliances that might have been needed
before. Some firms are also using
crowdfunding sites solely as an e-commerce engine. For an example, look at Lenmar
– who makes top of the line battery cases for smartphones. Their new product is being sold here
on IndieGoGo, but it will be sold in retail stores
once available regardless if they reach their desired funding total.
Here
are excerpts of the some of the product announcements that came out today. (Follow
me on Twitter to get these in real time.):
·
Sharp
showed “Free-Form” displays that can be configured for any application, and a
series of “Beyond 4K” displays that will be available later this year.
·
Both
LG and Sharp announce they’re nearly ready with 8K displays (even though
everyone is complaining that there isn’t enough 4K content)
·
A UHD alliance was formed by manufacturers, program providers
and other ecosystem members to set standards and bring out true 4K content
·
Panasonic
showed a personal 4K camcorder with dual imagers that records video from both
the subject and the operator’s reaction
·
Dish
announced an innovative new paradigm for the set top box remote that combines
voice commands and swipe gestures with traditional buttons.
·
Dish
also announced that they will offer “Sling TV” a OTT streaming service to reach
millennials and others amongst the “unplugged” class for $20/ month
·
And
with the first “these amps go to 11” moment of the show, Samsung announced
Super UHD displays using “nano
crystals” to make displays 2.5 times brighter and richer
I
also made some interesting product discoveries at one of the many off-site
events:
·
A
firm called Stirworks
showed their Stir Kinetic desk.
It
is a touch operated desk that changes from seated position to standard position
at-will or automatically (as set to improve health.)
·
The
Zolt is the “world’s smallest and lightest laptop
charger and can also charge other devices simultaneously.
·
While
I saw over a dozen drones today, the Zano stood out
as unique.
It’s
a palm-sized drone that can create an instant WiFi
Hot Spot wherever one is needed.
Pre-Show
Day One:
The
2015 International CES officially kicked-off today
with CEA’s market analysis and Unveiled Las
Vegas.
CEA’s Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac and their director of Industry Analysis Steve
Koenig gave detailed presentations on where they felt technology was
headed.
Some
interesting points included:
·
Everything
is getting digitized. The internet is
changing from 2 billion smart phones to 50 billion devices of all kinds.
·
Logic
is being applied to the data so that things can happen without user input (Like
cars that can analyze conditions or services that can personalize choices based
on requestor or situation.)
·
We
now have the ability to digitally customize everything down to a fine level
(where past customizations used to be analog in nature)
·
Technology
innovation is now inexpensive enough to come from anywhere and produce products
that we may not need – fragmenting future innovation
·
There
are expected to be over 100 different types of drones shown at this years
exposition
·
Smartphones
are the only major technology product expected to grow in sales in 2014
·
75%
of smartphone growth in in emerging markets (33% in China alone) and is a
by-product of low-cost, off-brand units which are driving these markets.
Shawn
DuBravac’s entire presentation is here. He announced this before his remarks to the
approximately 400 reporters and analysts covering the event – representing what
one would hope was the elite of the world’s “technology informed.” Yet instead of taking graphics right from
that link as I did for my tweets and references (from the Prezi app on my
iPhone) sadly ~80% were using their smartphones and cameras to take washed-out
pictures of the projection screen in the room.
Later
Sunday the CES Unveiled event took place. If you’ve never been to this one in Vegas let
me paint you an image. Picture an “L”
shaped room that can easily hold about a hundred manufactures in rows of
tabletops showing their latest innovations (~60% of which are new fitness
bands/trackers that will never survive six months.} Now add in tables between the rows with a
buffet filled with food – it gets a bit crowded to pass the tabletops without
messing-up the food, but the space can still effectively handle about 300
attendees. Now picture it with about
1,500 reporters – all with backpacks and other gear - elbowing anyone who gets in their way…and
they’re hungry…and they can smell manufacturers giving out free samples like
sharks smell blood in the water. It’s
basically feeding time at the zoo. I
stopped to see a few manufacturers there I told that I would, but it was not a
very useful event. There are a few more
private events like it over the next few days where I’ll be able to spend time
with the innovations worth reporting.
It did have two manufacturers boasting the “world’s first” panoramic
cameras – Giroptic showing the “first full HD 360
degree” camera, and IC Real Tech with the “Worlds
first 720 degree video monitoring system.”
I’ll work on the math, chat with them, and get back to you with some
more details.
I
also got to see the Zettaly Avy
in person for the first time:
This
is an approximately $100 combination android tablet and stereo speaker system
meant to be a communications and media hub (as well as an inexpensive
videoconferencing appliance.)