For the first time in three years I attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) as well as the concurrent T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas. The CES has been the largest trade show for the consumer electronics industry in America for years. It used to alternate between the coasts and Chicago, but the main show has been in Las Vegas since at least the mid-1980s, when I first attended it. This posting will give my overall impression of these shows, with no guarantee of completeness, fairness, or impartiality.
The bulk of the show is in the huge convention center halls and in the Sands Convention Center - the size and crowds earned this part of the show the name “the zoo”. Showing off high-end audio requires acoustic separation between vendors, and the usual way to do this is to set up the equipment in hotel rooms that have had their beds removed. As a result, the high-end audio part of CES was always separate from “the zoo”. Over the years, dissatisfaction with the CES management plus the high cost of rooms caused an alternative show to be created: “T.H.E. Show” (The Home Entertainment Show). Up until 2007, the high-end audio part of CES was held at the Alexis Park Hotel, off the strip and quite far south of the convention centers. T.H.E. show was held in the adjacent St. Tropez hotel, so it was easy to walk between the two high-end shows. Both of these hotels are low-rise “garden”-style designs, spread-out, with no casino or slot machines (!). However, in 2007, the CES moved the high-end exhibits to the upper floors of the Venetian, a huge hotel/casino right on the strip, and part of the Sands complex. T.H.E. Show then moved into the Alexis Park, which, although nice, was a long shuttle bus ride from the Venetian. The slow economy has reduced the number of exhibitors, especially at T.H.E. Show, and lots of people I met at the Venetian didn’t even know of the existence of T.H.E. Show or didn’t spend the time to visit it. It’s too bad, since I found the Alexis Park much more relaxed and convenient than the Venetian.
One of the first things you see when approaching the Alexis Park is this remarkable steel sculpture that plays music and follows you around! It is the creation of Solar Sound Sculpture, basically two men from the San Francisco Bay Area who work in an old steel shop in Oakland along with other large-scale sculptors. I had a good talk with Justin Grant who built most of the sculpture and he explained that this had initially been shown at the 2008 Burning Man festival. The speakers on the top have infrared sensors and servos that make the speakers track the closest person. It is huge - at least 20 to 30 feet tall, and quite striking. It can be run off solar panels, but in this set-up was running off storage batteries. Very impressive!
