CES 2010: Broken iPhones and Ankles
By Mary J. Somers, NBC Universal
I had never been to Las Vegas until now, but I was convinced that Lady Luck would shine on me for some strange reason. Maybe it was all the great headlines I envisioned circling the globe: "First time gambler hits jackpot- Now richest woman in the universe!!" Or "CES first-timer helps make NBC the most popular and exciting booth at the show - network ratings soar!!" I admit, these were lofty dreams, and would've been lucky breaks for sure. What I didn't know is that I'd experience plenty of breaks... just not quite so lucky.
It's funny that at the Consumer Electronics Show, the first thing to break would BE my consumer electronics. Actually, it's not really funny at all when you look at this picture.
Did you cringe? Most do. The response I normally get when showing this pic is one of physical pain, sorrow, and sympathy - as if I lost a loved one. And really, I did. My iPhone was a trooper, and didn't deserve such an untimely death. But on the morning of January 7, Lady Luck shone her evil, evil eye on me, and forced my phone to fall out of my pocket while I entered a cab in front of Caesars. We hadn't even fully pulled away before it was runover by another cab. It was devastating, it was damaging, and it was the end of the road for my little computer phone. Even as I type this blog on my loaner iPhone, I can feel the loaner-ness of it, and I mourn my loss anew. Unlucky break #1 hit me where it hurt, and the aftershocks are still being felt as I prepare to fight the crowds at the Apple Store in the Caesar's Forum Shops.
I actually bounced back pretty quickly from this broken iPhone incident. I vowed not to lose my optimistic attitude and refused to let it ruin my Vegas/CES experience. This was offensive to cruel, petty, witchy Lady Luck, so the next break REALLY hit where it hurt. As in, I'm still in physical pain.
So maybe "bouncing back" was the wrong thing to do after the iPhone incident, because as I literally bounced around the NBC booth in an attempt to engage passerbys in our display, I rolled my ankle. Break #2. I guess it isn't an ACTUAL break - thank God- but it's close enough.
So now I type on this loaner phone with an elevated ankle, and I wonder what Lady Luck is really trying to break about me. I mean WHAT IS IT that she wants?? Then I realize it must be this: I might be broken in body and technology, but I just can't be broken in spirit.
This CES experience has been amazing, and nothing that happened or will happen can change that. Our booth is filled with people interested in what we do and how we do it. When we broadcast live, I see how excited the crowd is to watch TV magic and i remember why I got into this business in the first place. My fellow brand ambassadors are hysterical and helpful and make me proud to be one of them. I could go on and on. It's been an AWESOME experience Lady Luck, so HA. Take that.
Tonight, I'm taking this optimistic unbroken spirit to a casino with my friends- my coworkers- and Ill tempt that Goddess of Fortune one last time at the craps tables. And you know what? If I walk away empty handed, it'll definitely "break the bank" as they say. But honestly, that's not Lady Luck, that's just Vegas.
Goodbye and Thank YOU from CES 2009!
By Mark Lukasiewicz, Jay Linden and Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
Wow! We just spent four phenomenal days surrounded by electronics claiming to be bigger, louder, thinner, smarter and faster than last year. Of course our NBC Universal booth was bigger, louder and smarter than last year as well.
How can we sum up the sights, sounds and sensations of CES 2009?
We produced hours and hours of live NBCU broadcasts, plus the great people from Revision3 shot Tekzilla, Hak5 and HackCollege on our stage and in our booth.
We gave away 12,000 San Disk 2GB Micro SD drives and the thousands of folks who came to our booth scored over 15,000 pieces of NBC Universal content from the Mediaport-powered download kiosks.
We hosted over 100 bloggers in our new and improved Sharp NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge.
Nancy O'Dell made the cover of Vegas Magazine.
Jimmy Fallon made us laugh.
We met countless fascinating new people and got to check out some incredible new consumer electronics.
We watched thousands of people crowd around the 4 Microsoft Surface tables with Vectorform software and interact with NBCU films and TV shows.
And it all came together with the creative, dedicated talent of people across every part of NBC Universal.
Here's to next year...CES 2010!
Thank You!
NBC Universal: Entertainment You Can Touch. Content That Touches You.
What's Your iCue?
By Josh Holbreich, iCue
For the last two years, I've been working for NBC News on an education project called iCue.com, an interactive study aid for high school students, and its companion video trivia Facebook game, called "What's Your iCue?"
This trip to CES, however, is the first time I've really had the chance to see people - real people, i.e. people who are not co-workers or relatives - interact with both of these sites. And I've been blown away by the reception. I've been demonstrating both sites for the last two days. Between setting up trivia competitions where convention-goers try to beat each other's scores to win prizes and showing off the interactive learning capabilities of iCue.com, I've been doing a lot of talking and getting a lot of great reactions. We've had lines of people waiting to play the game and check out historic videos.
I don't want to be too sappy here, but the whole experience has added a third part to the NBC Universal booth's slogan (coined by our blogmaster Jon Accarrino), "Entertainment You Can Touch, Content that Touches You."
The first two parts are the sites themselves. You can dive deep into subjects that interest you - science, technology, history - by literally touching our videos, flipping the player over to see the keyword tags and sharing them with your friends.
The third part for me, the last mile of this whole process, is that I've been touched by seeing the people in the booth enjoying the entertainment and content that I've been toiling on for so long. It really has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I've had working for NBC.
Swag! Swag! Swag!
By Eliot Sakhartov, Gia Pace & Marisa Frongillo, NBC Universal
Swag! That's really what this show is about. Seriously, we've gotten almost a lifetime supply of breath mints just in the first 2 days. At the NBC Universal booth it's no different.
Our brand ambassadors are doing a lot of embassing while giving out 12,000 2GB micro SD cards, they gave away almost 5,000 the first day. Take the card over to one of the five Microsoft Surface tables, and you could win a prize like a Monk bobblehead, or a Battlestar Galactica toaster to an SNL script signed by the entire cast. Even if you don't win a signed Today Show mug, you can download free videos from the kiosks.
Our 12 brand ambassadors, dressed in all black with NBC logo shirts spend 10 hours working the crowds during the convention days. Their spirit and overall enthusiasm are quite commendable. Taryn Abrahamson, one of the brand ambassadors on loan from NBC Long Island City seems to always know exactly how to draw people in, answer their questions and lead them to all the booth hot spots. In fact, all the brand ambassadors are doing a fantastic job representing NBCU.
Taryn tells us that the smash hit of the booth is the Michael Scott "that's what she said" sound bite from The Office on the Surface DJ. Though she tells us that her favorite thing to do is add Mamma Mia to any mix.
NBCU at CES Sweepstakes Winners
1 Marvin Match
2 Stewart Wright
3 Gary Paxinos
4 Owen Anthony
5 Ethan Arberman
6 Mike Cipriano
7 Gerry Grifiths
8 Jeffrey Ye
9 Cory Houston
10 John Christy
11 Keith Thode
12 Melody Mar
13 Randy Goldsby
14 Morten Felsvang
15 Ana Valenzuela
16 Linda Curtis
17 Fatih Senel
18 Bill Hunt
19 Mike Keith
20 Vicky Landin
21 Francisco Del Rosal
22 Jared Marino
23 Serge Fidlon
24 Hao Gip
25 Christian Perreault
26 Steve Ruesch
27 Kuntal Sampat
28 Tom Flournoy
29 Mike Ferguson
30 Scott Hirleman
31 Charlotte Li
32 Carlos Sena
33 Christian Monette
34 Shant Kalanjian
35 Jumnong Sangthongkum
36 Neil Rizzo
37 Edward Chi
38 David Kuepper
39 Ronald Porter
40 Larry Brown
41 Kelly Murphy
42 Eddie Texon
43 Tom Perica
44 Cameron Greig
45 Rob Sayers
46 Eduardo Esquera
47 Larry Pennington
48 Keizo Yamamoto
49 William Rothman
50 Tristan Fuel
51 Peter Keller
52 Tony Stewart
53 Joe Bogushefsky
54 Hassane Elannan
55 Michael Boshaw
56 Steven North
57 Michelle Skiba
58 David Bailey
59 Renee Miles
60 Devin Goodwin
61 Vlad Gurovich
62 Mike Berry
63 Scott Marcus
64 Jon Clark
65 Don Bristow
66 Lester Ngia
67 Jeremy Aisenberg
68 Michael Pool
69 Lance Craig
70 Scott Pattison
71 Louis Castelli
72 Paulicos Pastacos
73 David Quick
74 Dima Sokolov
75 Nils Patel
76 Garrett Potter
77 Akiyosh Inoue
78 Mike Ueland
79 George Iwanyc
80 Juan Carlos Alvarado
81 Ehfrain Rivera
82 Chris Sang
83 Jose Rodriguez
84 Dennis Pret
85 Alan Messer
86 Maria Gabriela
87 Jeff Powers
88 Guy Edri
89 Kevin Lum
90 Daryl Lee
91 Nancy Arihara
92 Armando Mola
93 Carlos Harris
94 Emilie Delisle
95 Radicca Yee-Fong
96 Leo Baray
97 Adrian Loaiza
98 Michael Bruno
99 Scott Yee
100 Paul Naraine
101 Gerald Heater
102 Douglas Hart
103 Derrick Johnson
104 Wayne Nakano
105 Daniel Garza
106 Ingrid Yaddo
107 Leslie Cohen
108 Jaeman Kim
109 Michael Chiang
110 Craig Moon
111 Ning Xu
112 Mark Knox
113 Tara Turak
114 Mike Lutz
115 Mordechai Snlomio
116 Suzy Au
117 Jason Holt
118 Walter Curaba
119 JJ Lee
120 Garnet Gates
121 Jeremiah Cox
122 Bill Tricarico
123 Damien Tran
124 Jonathan Duncan
125 Lynn Beveridge
126 Pete Ludolph
127 Edward Bond
128 Mike Hsu
129 David Trinh
130 Maria Loera
131 Donald Sabatine
132 Mark Chouinard
133 Jim Ferguson
134 Robert Lembree
135 Kresten Sondergaard
136 Lisa Inoue
137 Shashi Sachdev
138 Janet Gutierrez
139 Andy Wheeler
140 Makiko Shimada
141 Jay Taylor
142 Ryne Nelson
143 Neal Amodio
144 Rafael Ortiz
145 Peter Henricsson
146 Philip Arnold
147 Masayuki Nakayama
148 Hannah Stillman
149 Mayumi Mizukami
150 Jeongmin Yoon
151 Mark Hoskins
152 Ashoke Mukherji
153 Francisco Quintana
154 John Chute
155 JJ Roznowski
156 Chih-Yao Hsieh
157 Winston Hu
158 Chelsey Brooks
159 Tim Hall
160 Sheila Davis
161 Carlos Vargas Jr
162 Akmal Khan
163 Sandy Fukunaga
164 Ali Raofi
165 Teresa Stanley
166 George Smith
167 Vardges Arakelyan
168 Carl Landrum
169 Chris Norris
170 Mike Acton
171 Timothy Bennett
172 Scott Berger
173 Samuel Cox
174 Brent Murray
175 Bob McVoy
176 Heidi McGilvray
177 Bob Reents
178 Felicia Manos
179 Jim Post
180 Veronica Equiarte
181 Ben Hodge
182 Azarael Arzola
183 YP Fang
184 Julian Dos Santos
185 Carla Hasse
186 Kevin McConn
187 John Flynn
188 Yuji Nishiyama
189 Felicia Bruchhagen
190 Sheena Dornan
191 Jonathan Hazan
192 Thomas Levassor
193 Tricia Bannerman
194 Curt Austin
195 Dennis Bendeck
196 William Parks
197 Bert Easley
198 Gary Bohannon
199 Martin Heine
200 Gary Sato
201 Darlene Staniszewski
202 Melissa Boland
203 Albert Yamane
204 Erkan Riza
205 Diamond Lo
206 Bob Jensen
207 Al Nolan
208 Moshe Levin
209 Nick Alexakos
210 Robert Roy
211 Gregory Poilasne
212 John Newman
213 Frances Lieu
214 John Yuen
215 Brett Escott
216 Jeffrey Rogers
217 Michael Vosse
218 Brian Gorsky
219 Alan Chen
220 David Schiavo
221 Josef Cuencin
222 Chris Rose
223 Steve Curnew
224 David Ray
225 Cesar Sanchez
226 Richard Fiesta
227 Steve Zaroukian
228 Gregory Lee
229 Cameron Woodmauree
230 Nathaniel Cox
231 Matt Snyder
232 Michael Scully
233 Tom Bundy
234 Mike Rooney
235 Lynn Morrison
236 Judy Simpson
237 Samuel Griffiths
238 Bob Malkowski
239 Allen Wong
240 Francis Arches
241 Neo Seung
242 David Gidanian
243 Matthew Mandegar
244 Patrick Chen
245 Chiayong Ly
246 Tony Tsai
247 Bob Wexler
248 Anderson Cheon
249 Darren Kammer
250 Mohammed Abdelmonem
251 Rob Huie
252 Artie Mattor
253 Teri DeCastro
254 Keith Piper
255 Mike Thompson
256 Chris Sloan
257 Bronson Blum
258 Steve Lee
259 Ryan Shin
260 Rex Wren
261 Craig Shultz
262 Corey Hertz
263 Pat Holt
264 Tom Albers
265 Harpal Sandhu
266 Rich Barbre
267 David Hargreaves
268 Louis Aviha
269 Ryan Oster
270 Michael Berg
271 Tom Moran
272 Charles Kokinos
273 Ben Lai
274 John Capizzi
275 Ian Slotin
276 Gabe White
277 John Boezinger
278 Arthur Crecca
279 Bill Cassidy
280 Karsten Hoppe
281 Ron Poblete
282 John Gee
283 Brian Freedman
284 Kevin Schlabach
285 Mike Roberts
286 James Field
287 Adam Martin
288 Roger Reynolds
289 Anthony Jarvis
290 Terry Behm
291 Jim Belcher
292 Tuan Tien
293 Mike Gustafson
294 Christine English
295 Peter Liapis
296 Julie Cripe
297 Nicholas DeTrogoff
298 Mattan Griffel
299 Charles Shestack
300 Stepan Staunuk
301 Ali Karim
302 Joe Thompson
303 Brandon Kaplan
304 Rahul Bhanot
305 Steve Vickers
306 Josh Levin
307 Andrew Wilding
308 Mike Gong
309 Feng Jiang
310 Jim Fruit
311 Jordan Rost
312 Ernst Ginkel
313 Beau Oyler
314 Marri Lunquist
315 Ngniem Pham
316 Ben Gonzalez
317 Manish Khushani
318 Leonard Palmer
319 John Reynolds
320 Anna Cheney
321 Ron Rubin
322 Brian Verenkoff
323 Steve Short
324 Quinn Li
325 Carson May
326 Terry Anne Romero
327 Tanapon Chandavasu
328 Pete Donovan
329 Jhon Brandstetter
330 David Los
331 Donna Lum
332 Mark Heisey
333 Andy Clipsham
334 Patrick Poon
335 Joe Valcik
336 Ryan Anieiete
337 Jim Castler
338 Ryan Kell
339 Eric Lee
340 Steve Harvey
341 Crystal Hill
342 Frank McCabe
343 Bruce Toney
344 Yee Tso
345 Shekhar Parmar
346 Simon Fisher
347 Bruce Boelkens
348 Adam Goldman
349 Kara Peterson
350 Aubrey Beck
351 Tsuyoshi Souma
352 Gregory Barnes
353 Dennis Boddreau
354 Mary Leonard
355 Bruce Kaufman
356 Jules Comeyne
357 Maude Marois-Dumoulin
358 Ethan Shields
359 Kent Rippey
360 Roni Daz
361 Daniel Ahdout
362 David Matney
363 Behzad Ilchi
364 Steven Cohen
365 Bill Haight
366 Ashad Nazari
367 Doris Sohn
368 Roy Calvert
369 Steve Recobs
370 Dan Preciado
371 Robert Dominix
372 Marissa Rafuse
373 Jane Clough
374 Ken Eltinge
375 George Scriban
376 Cheryl Tuckman
377 Jonathan Lozano
378 Manar Mahayuri
379 Frank Chang
380 Sangyul Ryu
381 Ji Hyun Park
382 Roger Fang
383 Jorge Pi
384 Usha Upadhyayula
385 Seth Needleman
386 David Krak
387 Jose Sool Tan
388 Dustin Huang
389 Danielle Van Lier
390 Michael Hidrosiollo
391 Daniel Ruder
392 Mark Austin
393 Kent Ferre
394 Dale Krendell
395 Richard Sisco
396 Julie Yong
397 John Vigil
398 Aaron Higley
399 Marci Zemen
400 Joe Rana
401 Gerard Gary
402 Michael Solgonick
403 John Kot
404 Scott Burger
405 Michael Austin
406 Gerrit Schoonhoven
407 Alan Hogan
408 Jeff Williamson
409 Isaias Delgado
410 Sarah Manganiello
411 Richard Boyce
412 John Silver
413 Amy Randall
414 Ron Cocanour
415 Dale Cheung
416 Michael Wu
417 Stew King
418 Karl Lewis-Lieber
419 Marty Shindler
420 Viriya Upatising
421 Robert Wong
422 Juli Black
423 Fred Hartson
424 Earnest DePass
425 Ronnie Kuchler
426 Sarah Boling
427 Carlos Curaca
428 Diana Ely
429 Tina Cipriano
430 David Kirsch
431 Soo Jang
432 Santiago Marquez
433 Pablo Salguero
434 Ozziel Loera
435 Esteban Jimenez
436 Max Corotts
437 Seema Sirivara
438 Elizabeth Riddington
439 Donald Conner
440 Jan Johnson
441 Samantha Ashhadi
442 Justin Massongill
443 Terri Brock
444 Jeffrey Ye
445 Vincent Contreras
446 Steven Baskin
447 Alex Schulga
448 Reggie Anderson
449 Idolina Walker
450 David Balsdon
451 Elinda Lubo Ariza
452 Kent Walker
453 Matt Boddreau
454 Shawn Shuter
455 Eddie Or
456 Zach Krapfl
457 Shehab Aly
458 Chantal Bolduc
459 Lance Revenaugh
460 Heather Studer
461 Emily Yagudin
462 Mike Vandemore
463 Vikas Moolchandani
464 Juan Janna
465 Darren Richer
466 Paulette Hernandez
467 Eduardo Sanguino
468 Craig Besnoy
469 Alex Nevelson
470 Joe Hayashi
471 Alan Mildwurm
472 Robert Delmonte
473 Shaine Grieshaber
474 Scott Taylor
475 Manual Mansour
476 Edward Demelo
477 Bob Robinson
478 Sean Quinonez
479 Ray Bacher
480 Bud Ente
481 Jeff Hoffman
482 Jet Shum
483 Norman Javier
484 Dan Curcio
485 Rolando Nakamire
486 Bud Korottin
487 Amaury Monsalve
488 Tanadet Itsarapakdetam
489 Melody Mandegar
490 Rob Winchell
491 Jeff Buettner
492 Victor Ward
493 Steve Yamamiya
494 Robern Guerin
495 Adam Glass
496 Victor Pizarro
497 Geoff Matthews
498 Greg Roberts
499 Barry Goodolf
500 Morten Haahr
501 Mike Conway
502 George Oms
503 Christian Kimberly-Bowen
504 Dan Fisher
505 Nicholas Kohut
506 Jesse Kissee
507 Alan Brill
508 Nicholas Lin
509 Alan Melvin
510 Chan Nguyen
511 David Gilmore
512 Feras Bakr
513 Ed Reardon
514 Robert Johnson
515 Hussein Abdallah
516 Clark Heiser
517 Shawn Rattai
518 Andrei Neimanis
519 Jianchun Zhang
520 Brian Crenshaw
521 Gino Gaudio
522 Sherry Wuthrich
523 Ray Seakan
524 Dalene Tharp
525 Bin Huang
526 Charles Roque
527 Dan Sternberg
528 Andrew Winne
529 Teresa Whitmore
530 Irene Fang
Official rules of the NBCU at CES Sweepstakes.
A Day in the Life of an NBCU Brand Ambassador
by Lynne Wisnefski, NBC UniversalI am TIRED, man. My feet HURT. I mean these dogs are BAR-KING. Why is this carpet so squishy? I feel like I've been walking around a house of bounce for the past 8 hours. But I should know that this comes with the territory. Such ailments are the repercussions of ambassadoring the HECK out of NBC Universal at CES '09. I'm an NBCU brand ambassador. And foot blisters and lower back pain aside, I'm stoked to be here.
What does a "brand ambassador" do, you ask? Well! I am one of 12 trained NBCU professionals that were asked to be representatives on the floor of the NBCU booth to tell the CES attendees about NBCU's many many many many many sources of content and even show them how they can take some of that content home for themselves and check it out. Try as I might I don't think I will ever be able to Identify all of NBCU's brands and even if I could, it all seems to be growing so rapidly that I'd have to study every day to keep up. (And if my boss is reading this, clearly I DO do that everyday...I was just being dramatic.) But, I still think I was able to field the numerous questions directed at me relatively well. I mean, visitors to the booth asked me everything from "Can you tell me about the DRM encoded on these WMV files I've downloaded from the kiosk into this Micro SD chip inside the USB adapter?" to "Where can we see Jeopardy? (Just in case you didn't know... We are NOT filming Jeopardy in our booth.) to "What do I do with myself?". That one was a toughie.
While I wasn't exactly sure what the gentlemen asking the last question should do, I think the coolest thing WE do (and the thing of most interest to CES attendees) is that we give away the free 2GB drives that people can load content to as well as show everyone how to use the Microsoft Surfaces located throughout the booth. All and all people have been very receptive. Sometimes they have been very very receptive to the point of around 20 - 30 people surrounding me and reaching out open hands to get free drives. People's excitement about NBCU content is so great!
When I haven't been handing out drives, showing Microsoft Surface technology, or helping people find direction in their lives, I've gotten to take in all the neat stuff going on around the booth. I was FREAKED OUT big time by the super spooky Unborn and The Last House on the Left trailers in the Universal screening area. I hope I'm never ever possessed by my identical twin that unexpectedly died in utero or that I never have to deal with a band of homicidal maniacs on a rampage in my family's guest house because, clearly, that would be scary. Thankfully, the Duplicity trailer ran right after and a trim looking Clive Owen turned my thoughts to other things.
Other things, like the USA Character Arcade! How great are those games? I have a special love in my heart for "Find Bunny". Man, that bunny is good at hiding in tricky places like the noodle shop of Manhattan's Chinatown. Vice Cream and Character Sudoku are other favorites. I could spend hours of life on characterarcade.com. Hours that are outside of the office, of course.
Most of all, the TV and podcast production has been amazing. It's so cool to see Live TV happening before your eyes. I love to see the monitors show what is happening in real life just a few feet away from me. I'm not gonna lie, the thought of what would happen if I ran in front of a camera and waved has crossed my mind...I mean, I could be broadcast across the country! That and I could be tackled by security guards.
The so called "fish bowl" that shows how the directors and production crew are making the TV magic happen is great too. It's basically a Plexiglass room housing the switcher and production computers. I'm not sure how much the crew enjoys the animal inside the zoo feeling that comes with people pressing their faces up against the glass to stare at them but I have enjoyed the staring. Only a few poor souls have actually face planted into the glass thinking it was open space. I was ready to bust out the Windex to clear up face grease when needed.
I can't believe how quickly the show has gone. I mean here we are heading into the final day already! Time flies when you're ambassing a great brand. Looking forward to day 4 tomorrow. I'm sure I'll discover something new and yet to be explored in the booth. For instance, how GREAT is this Sharp NBC Universal blogger lounge? I love the "sitting down" aspect of it. That and the dashing young blogger lounge host. Thank you, Mr. Accarrino!
A Handful of CES Musings....
By Jason Bergsman, NBC Universal Digital Media Strategy and Business Development
I could write for days about what I saw at CES 2009 and the implications of it all, but with the benefit of a healthy separation from Vegas, here are a few reasonably quick musings.....
Special thanks to Glenn Reitmeier and Peter Rosenberg of NBC Universal, whose illuminating tours of the CES exhibition floors were most helpful in separating the wheat from the chaff...
1. Internet connections pervade new TVs, with embedded chipsets to enable an application environment...
Though simplistic news/information widgets have for years been touted at CES, they've offered limited functionality and appeal. Now, however, OEMs are establishing relationships with key providers of high quality IP-delivered content, such as Amazon and Netflix, enabling far more expansive and desirable use cases to exploit the burgeoning TV-internet connectivity.
Look for OEMs to aggressively forge partnerships with IP-delivered content providers (especially in film video on demand), which the OEMs will promote heavily to encourage consumer adoption--and stimulate more upgrades to internet-enabled TVs. Arguably imperceptible picture quality improvements, or ever-bigger and ever-thinner screens won't be sufficient to spur upgrades for mainstream existing LCD/plasma owners for some time to come. The manufacturers must perfect the user interface, however, and ultimately must allow for a more open platform to allow consumer choice among applications.
The direct connection model, especially if Tru2Way enabled, may ultimately place pressure on set-top box manufacturers and renters (i.e., MSOs), which may increase the likelihood that MSOs and telco television providers will charge consumers for internet access based on variable data use volume. As for Roku/Vudu and other box-based providers of similar services, as innovative as their products may now be, it seems unlikely that they will prove to be an enduring presence on the consumer products landscape, unless their platforms are integrated into set-top boxes or televisions--as TiVO has come to do.
2. Internet connectivity and streaming content everywhere on every device...
Whether in televisions, picture frames, netbooks, etc., native wireless broadband/WiFi enabled devices could be seen at every turn. Though connectivity issues may constrain or frustrate any device conducive to use on the go or in varied locations, the default net connectivity will allow devices to transcend rather more limited use cases.
A digital picture frame is not just a picture frame; it's soon to be yet another screen onto which content of all types--including video--can be beamed and streamed. A digital camera is not just a receptacle for static images; it's soon to be a dynamic, continual broadcaster of geo-tagged user-generated content. A Blu-ray DVD is not just a mode for the physical storage of content; rather, in Sony's vision, it will be a key to access supplemental, dynamic, and interactive materials on the internet, when played on a BD Live device. It will take time, but consumer definitions of devices based on their primary historical functionality will become more expansive and flexible.
Effortless internet access on netbooks will create even more demand for high-quality streaming content, consumed to consumers' delight on high-quality (perhaps super-thin HD-quality organic LED), reasonably sized, portable screens.
In a parallel but distinctive development, the introduction of the broadcast industry's mobile television broadcast standard ATSC should figure to markedly hasten the adoption of mobile television, both on phones and smartphones and for the first time, on notebooks/netbooks. ATSC allows for the broadcast of television signals to mobile phones using existing broadcast spectrum delivered to devices equipped with an ATSC compatible chip with conditional access capabilities that could enable premium subscription services. Working with wireless carriers, the broadcasters that constitute the ATSC consortium could create robust unicast on-demand services to supplement over the air ATSC broadcast video.
The entertainment industry motto of content "anywhere, anytime" will become no less hackneyed, but all the more accurate.
3. Albeit perhaps reluctantly, manufacturers have embraced low-end disruptive devices following evolving consumer behavior/preferences--and consumers win...
Economic circumstances will compel consumers to perhaps 'trade down' for their next purchase, which over time will no doubt cannibalize higher-end, higher margin products. In the amateur video production realm, consumers' demonstrated behavior of tolerating--and enjoying--low quality (relative to professional content, at least, created/delivered at professional standards) video (on YouTube, etc.) has in part laid the foundation for mounting demand for 'low end' camcorders that was kicked of by Pure Digital's innovative and highly successful Flip video series--which now comes in HD. Sony and other 'high-end' OEMs unveiled ~$200 competitors, which we can expect will continue to move upmarket in image quality and storage as relevant input costs continue to decline.
In the computing realm, consumers' now-established behavior of comfortably using their cellphones/smartphones for far more than just telephony and for basic data services, though with device-imposed tradeoffs, sets the stage for adoption of small, low-cost, and lightweight (both literally and in terms of the product attributes) netbook computers. Though the form factor will not allow for integrated peripherals like DVD players/burners, the processor won't allow for sophisticated graphics processing, and the screen size may not be conducive for all purposes, for most mainstream uses, the netbooks will prove to be more than sufficient for many consumers.
We've already seen screen sizes increase to the level of smaller notebooks, so it's certainly conceivable that consumers who need no more than word processing and presentation software (Microsoft-based or otherwise), web browsing, and email will look to netbooks as laptop replacements. The magnitude of this cannibalistic behavior perhaps has not been fully anticipated by computer manufacturers. For other individuals, netbooks will serve as supplemental mobile devices so long as connectivity is assured, battery life is reasonable, and startup is quick.
With ready internet access, the netbooks will continue to propel the propagation of cloud-based computing, through which the aforementioned applications--and the files they create--will need not reside locally, but rather will be stored centrally.
With good screens, streaming video, ATSC chips, and shrinking SD cards and USB storage devices that hold up to 64GB of data today and terabytes in the future, these low-cost portable devices will serve as powerful consoles for the consumption of stored and streaming video content on demand, and via terrestrial broadcast.
4. Though OEMs are pushing consumer 3D, adoption will remain limited regardless of the volume of 3D enabled programming delivered...
Early adopters and gamers may embrace the 3D TVs, but the need for glasses in most cases and the somewhat unsettling and uncomfortable nature of the viewing experience will most likely not spur the purchase of a dedicated 3D device. However, the ability to turn on/off the 3D functionality may increase adoption by cinephiles or by big sports fans in the home, or at the least by establishments that cater to such crowds (e.g., sports bars.)
In the chicken and egg conundrum, however, the need to have a dedicated production effort for such events will further confine 3D to the periphery for some time to come. Most consumers will dismiss it as a frivolous gimmick, especially in these market circumstances, which may turn the industry off of the notion altogether based on broadband volume. 3D will have more of an allure for occasion-based viewing in theaters however, primarily for blockbuster films. Home adoption may follow, but don't hold your breath.
5. Simplicity arrives. . .
The consumer electronics industry seems to have finally acknowledged that complexity in setting up, connecting, and navigating the controls of advanced devices has constrained their adoption and resonance.
Many manufacturers unveiled wireless-enabled products that can readily network with each other, making the prospect of the digital home ever more achievable--Samsung unveiled full wireless HD video transfer technology between living room devices that will be governed by a common user interface across all the networked devices. The user interface of the Palm Pre elegantly embodies the notion of intuitive simplicity, which was a focus of Steve Ballmer's keynote remarks about Windows 7. Toshiba demoed a television programming guide that groups content visually and spatially on an axis according to relevance of title, genre, person, and keyword. It's a ways away from a rollout, but represented advanced, experimental thinking around the organization of metadata relevant to consumer choice and preferences.
Simplicity was manifest in form factors as well, with Panasonic displaying a touch-based remote control that seeks to resist the button-based oppression of the complicated home entertainment center remote control. Apple has no doubt served as an inspiration to device designers and it shouldn't be long until a remote control emerges that's directly akin to the touch and motion-dependent controls of the iPhone/iPod touch itself.
Tekzilla and NBC Universal Hanging Out at CES
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Melissa Kondak from NBC Universal In Focus sat down with Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont from Tekzilla to talk technology, television and podcasting.
HackCollege Live 3pm PST
By Kelly Sutton, HackCollegeHak5 just finished doing their show on the main stage here in the NBC Universal CES booth. HackCollege is up next. We're busy preparing for our show in the Sharp NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge.
If you are unfamiliar with HackCollege, it's a lifehacking show for and by college students. Every week, Chris and I hack anything from beer opening methods to study techniques. HackCollege is educating the students of the world about effective, open source software, putting techno-political arguments in everyday language, and creating a cult of "Students 2.0."
Please tune in and check us out! You can watch us at any of these links:
http://ces.revision3.com
http://ustream.tv/channel/hackcollege
We're on at 3 pm PST!
Hak5 Live from NBCU's Stage #1
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Right now Hak5 is doing a live streaming show on Stage #1 here in the NBC Universal CES booth. I'm trapped coordinating all the bloggers here in the Sharp NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge, but I'm watching Hak5's live show online and spying on them using our network camera in the lighting truss. But why should I have all the fun? If you want to get in queue to take control of the camera, just click here.
