David J. Danto
Business
Transformation Consultant
Collaboration / AV /
IoT / Multimedia / Video / UC
Dimension Data
Director of Emerging
Technology
Interactive
Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance
eMail:
David.Danto@DimensionData.com 
Follow Video &
Technology Industry News: @NJDavidD
(Read David’s Bio) (See
David’s CV) (Read David’s Other Blogs & Articles)
Notes From CES 2016
This is
the microsite I will use for end of day notes from CES 2016 (formerly known as
the Consumer Electronics Show and the International CES) presented by the CTA –
the Consumer Technology Association (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics
Association) as observed by me – a Business Transformation Consultant (formerly
known as a Principal Consultant.) The conference is taking place January 4th
through 8th 2016 in Las Vegas.
I’ll be there 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
.
January
7th, 2016 –CES day two
I spent today at the Sands Expo area – covering Wearables,
tech start-ups, 3D printing, Smart Homes and much more. I had some specific appointments I had to get
to at booths I had to find, but the CES iOS app was completely useless in
helping me find them. This has to be the
worst implementation of a trade-show app I’ve ever seen. The one thing we need them for – maps to
exhibitor locations – never loads or crashes; and if you are lucky enough to get
it to load, here’s a screen-capture what it looks like:
No booth numbers, no names, just a poor version of
Tetris. It’s time to bring back paper
maps if this can’t be done properly with offline maps that work.
When I did finally find my way around here are some
of the highlights I saw:
· The KlickRnext is an infrared (learning) transmitter that can
connect to your smart device via Bluetooth and lets you control just about
anything that uses a standard remote from your phone/tablet.
· United
Sciences showed their system of scanning the contours of an ear and then 3D printing
custom fit headphones. Here’s a great
example of technologies blending (advanced sensors, 3D printing) to disrupt a
process (making a wax mold of an ear) that’s been around for years. I’ll show video of the process on AVNation-TV next week.
· A company
called Kino Mo showed holographic 3D images seemingly floating in mid-air (using
a spinning disk.) It was one of the most
crowded demonstrations on the floor.
Click on the picture to see a twitter video of it:
Tomorrow will be my final day at the expo. I’ll put all my notes together and edit the
videos over the weekend, then update this page with the links.
January
6th, 2016 –CES day one
The expo floor officially opened today and with it
the 2016 CES was underway. However, even
before the opening this morning I met with the team from a great, inexpensive
new desktop videoconferencing product called ChatLight.
For US $30 you can have a precisely color balanced
LED light that attaches to your device or PC and vastly improves the images to
the far end. Click the photos above and
look at the difference yourself.
When I finally got to the show floor I observed
that most of the muscle car audio systems of past CESs
have been replaced by the actual automobile manufacturers themselves.
There is so much volatility in the automotive space
- with the overpowering buzz about autonomous and connected vehicles - that I’m
happy I don’t cover it. The exhibits –
even Volkswagen’s – were very popular.
As far as display manufacturers are concerned, LG
went over the top, creating a virtual planetarium with displays suspended from
the walls and ceiling of their entryway.
I was also floored to see their new ultra-thin OLEDs in person. Click the picture of the flower to see a
twitter video of me walking by it where it becomes almost invisible sideways.
This year’s themes / trends are turning out to be:
1.
The Internet of things is exploding – everything is
IoT or has an IoT angle
2.
Self-driving cars are being discussed as inevitable
– and discussed often – and they’ll be electric – and apparently have CarPlay and Android Audio compatibility…
3.
Practically every other exhibitor is showing a
stylish doodad that is tied to health and fitness.
4.
Vinyl records are back, with products from Sony,
Audio-Technica and Panasonic to name a few.
5.
There are more drones and in all shapes and sizes –
Parrot’s Disco
drone is shaped like a mini jet plane.
At a press conference here FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced
that as of this morning, 181,061 people haven registered as drone owners.
6.
Last year over the head headphones were all the
rage. This year, earbuds are making a comeback
with dozens of firms showing-off their wired and wireless versions. Tomorrow I’m scheduled to get my ear scanned
and have a custom 3D printed set made for me on the spot.
It was also great spending some time and
catching-up with the team from Logitech
for Business today (the guys that make the very popular Conference Cam
products.) They’ve got some great
announcements coming-up in the next quarter or two, showing they really
understand the desktop and huddle room collaboration space and are preparing
client agnostic products to meet the needs.
I’ve recorded video clips of about a couple of
dozen exhibitors describing their new device / system for my AVNation-TV webcast Connected! Everything IoT. I’ll be editing them together over the
weekend and should have that episode ready for viewing next week.
More tomorrow.
Keep in mind that you should be following me on Twitter (@NJDavidD ) to get these news updates and
more in real time.
January
5th, 2016 –CES Pre-show press day two
Tuesday is press conference day at
CES. Mind you it is impossible for one
person to attend all the press conferences as you have to line-up to get in to
one as a prior one is starting. I
attended a few today. I heard some
interesting announcements.
· Every
video firm announced they will be selling an Ultra HD BlueRay
player later this year. It was like
table stakes here in Vegas.
· LG showed
their new ultra-thin OLED TVs – “as thin as four credit cards stacked” they
said.
· Panasonic
debuted its Ora connected smart-home system.
They also resurrected the Technics name for a brand new vinyl LP
turntable due to what they claim is a resurgence of that audio format.
· Samsung
showed curved, bezel-free OLED TVs – up to 88”, and they showed smart menus
that aggregated all content from all sources (cable box, game console, over the
air, etc.) into a single menu that automatically provides control
compatibility.
It’s also becoming clear even before the exhibit
floor opens that cylinders are hot this year.
Blame Amazon Echo and our world of unoriginal thinkers, but if a manufacturer
could build their product in the shape of a Thermos then they did.
The day ended with my annual visit to Pepcom’s Digital Experience – a media and analyst only
event where one gets to chat with manufacturers in a less crowded, less formal
environment. I recorded a bunch of
videos for my AVNation-TV
show Connected – which I’ll hopefully have edited over the weekend and
ready to show next week. For now though
– as just a taste of things to come - here is one product I saw this evening
that I’ve been following for a while – The TouchJet
Wave – a $199 device that makes any flat display an interactive
whiteboard. Click the picture to see the
video. Let the demo speak for itself. If this functionality is available in a
reliable device for under $200 then we’re experiencing the digital disruption
of a whole range of products – some on the market, some not, some that are
apparently still somewhere in between.
The expo floor opens tomorrow and
I have lots of exciting appointments….
January
4th, 2016 –CES Pre-show press day one
This is the first day of CES
related gatherings in Las Vegas. My day
started with a private tour of all the new things Plantronics is working on,
including the release of their new Bluetooth dongle for UC.
This unit now has a physical pair
button, can pair to two devices simultaneously, lights-up to indicate use, mute
state, etc., and is backwards compatible to their entire Voyager series of
headsets. Just the ability to visually
see that you’re muted by itself is an industry breakthrough. It comes as standard with their Back Beat pro
plus and Voyager Focus units. I also saw
some of the latest in PLT Labs work, with their
latest Concept 2 headset supporting FIDO standards for two
factor authentication – allowing voice commands to lock and unlock doors, make
payments, etc.
Next it was The CTA’s turn to
present their look ahead at industry trends.
Shawn DuBravac, the CTA’s Chief Economist
walked the attendees through the numbers of this year’s CES (the largest ever)
and what he saw as his trends to watch.
Shawn’s key point this year was
that the conversation about technology at CES used to be around what’s
technically possible, but in the last year or two we have hit a turning point
where the conversation has turned to what is technologically meaningful. This separating the wheat from the chaff is
turning out to be a recurring theme in and off itself at CES this year. His full presentation is available here: https://prezi.com/yylpzufa0d8v/2016-ces-trends-to-watch/. After he and Steve Koenig gave their insights
on technology and the economy CES Unveiled Las Vegas began. Here’s where a number of firms showed their new
products to a press and analyst only audience.
There was the ili
wearable language translator, Sphero’s BB8 robot, and a whole lot more I’ll
cover over the next few days.
Much more to come as the big press
conferences are tomorrow…
December
31, 2015 – Four days till CES events begin:
Today I set-up this microsite. All my raw notes, photos and thoughts during
the expo will be aggregated here. As the
date gets closer there are already themes emerging that I’ll want to keep an
eye on.
· Home-Hubs Hot – The
Amazon Echo looks like it will be the start of a trend as many firms jump to
copy the concept (and in many cases even the form factor.) This apparently includes entries from LG
and MyXy,
as well as word that Samsung
wants their TVs to be your smart home hub.
·
Lego For
Technology – Much more than in years past I’m being contacted by firms and
developers exhibiting incomplete products.
In some cases these are software modules, in other cases they are
microprocessors and sensors. It
apparently no longer takes a working, completed product to come to CES and
show-off.
·
IoT is HoT – over 70% of the marketing and promotional
announcements I have received mention that they have something to do with the
Internet of Things. Look for this term
to burn-out as rapidly as “wearables” has.
·
Collaboration
Divorce – Just before CES and the start of the New Year Logitech (which has been
coming out with very innovative
collaboration products in recent years) divested
themselves of Lifesize – for a fraction of what
it paid just a few years ago. I look
forward to meeting with these firms at CES to see what their future plans are.
Much more
to come as we get closer….
This article was written by David Danto and
contains solely his own, personal opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.