We were thrilled to be at CES last year as the first-ever official broadcast partner of one of the biggest trade shows in the world.

In fact, we were so thrilled that we decided then and there to book our return trip.

So here we are again, eager to highlight our incredible range of content while surrounded by the technology that continues to transform how our audiences view and interact with our programming.

That's what CES is all about: the marriage of content and technology. Without our content, the latest cutting-edge television or hand-held device is, literally, an empty vessel. And without the creativity and innovation of the thousands of technology companies here at CES, our viewers would still be watching grainy pictures in black-and-white

Our participation is an acknowledgment that today, more than ever, content creators and technology companies need to be true collaborators. Because what we can accomplish together is nothing short of amazing. And CES is the best place in the world to get a glimpse at this remarkable future.

Like last year, the NBC Universal Media Center is an interactive space that will showcase the content and capabilities of our entire company. From there we will originate live and taped programming for many of our broadcast, cable and digital properties, including NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, "Access Hollywood," NBC Sports and others.

I encourage you to stop by.

The Consumer Electronics Show is just a month away, but the pre-show buzz is in full swing. Our parent company NBC Universal will be at CES 2009 with a huge interactive TV exhibit from the show floor that befits the role of "Official Broadcast Partner." You might even catch a glimpse of NBC Nightly News weekend anchor Lester Holt or Al Roker from the Today Show at the NBCU booth in the LVCC (Central Hall, Booth #12133). And of course, DVICE will be there too, bringing you only the best gadgetry to be found.

In advance of the big show we've been sniffing around, trying to get wind of the true groundbreaking items that will be at CES 2009. While details are few, some tidbits have leaked out. Peer along with us into our virtual crystal ball, and catch a glimpse of what we're seeing so far:

1. Samsung 50-inch OLED Display
There's a chance that this set won't be ready in time for the show, but the company's super-thin, ultra-sharp OLED screen would be ready by CES time, but just knowing that a home theater-sized OLED screen is just about to see the light of day is exciting enough.

2. Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite network media streamer
Netgear has an Apple TV killer it'll show first at CES. When the company put its Digital Entertainer Elite network media streamer into the FCC ringer for approval, word slipped out that the video-playing polyglot will debut at CES 2009.

3. Toshiba and Schwinn's Tailwind Hybrid Bicycle
The more practical $3,200 electric wonder means easy electric biking for the lazy among us is about to hit the mainstream. Its new lithium-ion batteries let you charge it up in a half hour, lots faster than any other electro-bike, and it'll ride 30 miles on a charge -- even farther if you help with the pedaling.

4. Minoru 3D Webcam
Touted as the world's first of its kind, the Minoru 3D Webcam was voted a fan favorite at the pre-CES "i-stage" event for smaller companies that are often overlooked. Just when we were getting used to the idea of HD webcams, this odd-looking scarlet goblin shows up atop our monitors? This we gotta see -- we'll even don those silly 3D glasses to enjoy Minoru's full effect.

5. Bigger, Thinner TVs
Expect Panasonic's 150-inch plasma display record to be broken, some company to roll out a super-high-res screen to beat Samsung's 4,096 x 2,160-pixel Ultra Fine Definition plasma panel, and even thinner LCD screens. For example, LG's LED-backlit 24-millimeter-thin 55-inch HDTV has already won a CES 2009 innovation award -- expect that to be eclipsed by the time CES doors open on January 8th.

See you at CES!

01:30 PM - 03:00 PM     Tekzilla with Patrick Norton & Veronica Belmont

03:30 PM - 04:00 PM     NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (remote)

04:30 PM - 05:30 PM     Tekzilla with Patrick Norton & Veronica Belmont

07:00 AM - 08:30 AM     CTAM Breakfast

09:00 AM - 11:00 AM     CNBC Power Lunch

09:00 AM - 11:00 AM     Access Hollywood with Nancy O'Dell

12:00 PM - 02:00 PM     CNBC Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo

12:00 PM - 02:30 PM     Tekzilla with Patrick Norton & Veronica Belmont

02:30 PM - 04:30 PM     MSNBC Your Business

04:00 PM - 05:30 PM     Tekzilla with Patrick Norton & Veronica Belmont

05:00 PM - 06:00 PM     CNBC Special

Please note: This schedule is subject to change.

02:00 AM - 06:00 AM     Today Show - Al Roker

08:30 AM - 11:30 AM     Access Hollywood with Nancy O'Dell

12:00 PM - 02:00 PM     CNBC Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo

03:30 PM - 04:00 PM     NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (remote)

04:00 PM - 05:30 PM     Tekzilla with Patrick Norton & Veronica Belmont

05:00 PM - 06:00 PM     CNBC Special

Please note: This schedule is subject to change.

Its all over but the packing and shipping

So before we play the last hand and give out the last 2GB flash drive, let's re-cap a little, shall we?

• We saw some stars
  
  
• We produced a lot of content, turning our booth into a second home for our on-air and online brands.
  
  
• Our NBC Universal volunteer booth staff greeted thousands of attendees who visited our Jack Morton Worldwide designed booth (complete with a 100-foot peacock-themed mobile)
  
  
• Our visitors downloaded nearly ten-thousand pieces of NBCU content from the Mediaport-powered download kiosks.
  
  
• American Express Open (powered by Peacock Productions) shot every day and created some programming magic of their own last night.
  
  
• Our fuzzy-chaired blogging station made news every day.
  
  
• Peter Frampton played for us at the Gibson guitat tent.
  
  
• Maria Bartiromo made the cover of Vegas magazine.
  
  
• And, oh yes, we got to see some cool new consumer electronics.

All of it was the result of tremendous work from a best-in-the-business creative and production team drawn from every part of the company.

So until we meet again.

Remember....

NBC Universal

Consumers. Content. Connection

It all happens here

Frank Radice
Mark Lukasiewicz
Jay Linden

PS -- We want to leave you with this image of the future.  An early adopter who was one of the last visitors to our booth today.  Meet Sarah Elizabeth Foulke, age 5-1/2 months, downloading some NBCU content with a little help from mom, Heather Moler.

Everything comes to an end... even CES. The hordes of convention attendees have started to thin out. The lines for things like food, taxis, and bathrooms have all drastically shortened. And believe it or not I actually got a seat on the Las Vegas Monorail this morning.

On behalf of the blogger platform, I just wanted to say thank you to the "fans" of this blog who stopped by to say hi (people were really reading this), celebrities like Damon Wayans, Jessica Kumari and David Pogue who posed for photos here, and especially the the guest bloggers below who kept the fuzzy white Austin Powers chairs warm all week.

• Frank Radice, NBC Universal
• Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC Universal
• Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
• Staci D. Kramer, paidContent.org
• Peter Pachal, DVICE.com
• Aaron Broder, Scholastic
• Jeff Gralnick, NBC Universal
• Khalid and Doug, GizmosForGeeks.com
• S. E. Kramer, DVICE.com
• Chris Jones, DVICE.com
• Jennie Baird, iVillage
• Bonnie Optekman, NBC News
• Bob Sullivan, MSNBC.com
• Scott Leon, NBC Universal

And let's not forget Rosie, who showed up on the blogger platform again this morning!

Overall it was a great show. There were lots of great electronics here at CES and the exhibitor booths looked great.

I just have one suggestion for Jack Morton Worldwide, the people who made our booth. There was something missing from the wall behind the blogger platform. Nothing major. Just a little red arrow. I fixed it in Photoshop.

CES 2008 is winding down. Just 2 more hours to go until the convention floor closes and all the exhibitors start packing up their booths. Mark Lukasiewicz, the CES project leader for NBC Universal, is sitting with me on the blogger station right now in a white fuzzy chair. Mark is writing a blog post to sum up everything we did here at CES.

And Gia Pace is doing her best to keep the booth staff hydrated until the very end. Hey, we are in the middle of the desert right?

While I was blogging away yesterday, consulting my notes, checking my facts, my friend Jon Accarrino, I see, was blogging about me blogging!

First off, I promised to clean up the blogging station when I was done. It wasn't that bad!!!

Second, geez – did the picture HAVE to go to the floor? I mean, not just my papers, but my sneakers!

Ok – onto business – what’s worse than your Blackberry not working? Having it not work when you’re at CES and it’s your lifeline! While my technology friends got it sorted out, I relied on text messages (see my earlier blog). Other people may want to just carry around one device. I find that to be a gamble and need a backup!

One big message that comes through loud and clear here is that "Open" is the new "Black" as I heard at one of the CES sessions. Software and hardware companies and cellphone carriers must be able to talk to each other with open standards on every platform and in every technology to make life easier for us.

I bought a micro SD card and carrier software for my nephew Craig so he could download his songs to his phone. Needless to say – conflicts with proprietary carrier software as well as Macs and PCs made that fruitless and we’re still trying to figure out the easiest way to do it, if there is an easy way.

In social networking sites, Facebook led the way by making its code public and open to third party applications.

And speaking of social networking, I was astonished to see my 5-year-old nephew flying around the Webkinz site. That stuff about digital natives is really true.

Here’s Benjamin with a little entertainment.

And after several days of criss-crossing the display floors, you keep running into things that make you think what WERE they thinking?

Case in point: The company that decided to hawk its service with perky young women wearing t-shirts that said: What's In Your Cardslot?

Yes. It's all about marketing here and it's all about getting noticed in this sea of next big things, but really.

Then there was the young woman playing the harp which was a nice touch in this sea of noise but what were THEY thinking?

Harp. Camcorders. Of course. How silly of me.

But wait, there's more.

Whoever dreamed up those three young women dressed in skimpy outfits that glittered like disco balls as they ran through an overly-choreographed dance routine while playing new wave music on digital violins as one company's latest and greatest in cell phones was being pitched?

And they were thinking?

Sex sells cell phones. How could I have missed THAT?

But did anybody hear a word of it?

So if they've thought all this up for this year, whatever will they do for next year?

One can hardly wait.

Almost every booth here at CES is giving away some cool promotional item or "swag" as we like to call it. I've seen flashlight pens, t-shirts, luggage tags, and even inflatable pool rafts.

But here in the NBC Universal booth, we aren't just giving away 15,000 SanDisk USB memory sticks, but free downloadable content (like TV shows and games) from any of the 10 Mediaport kiosks located in and around our booth. Nearly 10,000 downloads have taken place already.

Lynne Wisnefski, from The NBC Agency, has been handing out these 2GB SanDisk USB flash drives all week. She was kind enough to do a video demonstration on how to use the Mediaport kiosks.

Enjoy.

04:00 AM - 07:00 AM     NBC News Channel

04:00 AM - 07:30 AM     Today Show - Paul Hochman

02:00 PM - 03:00 PM     Telemundo

CES is what NAB was.

Millions of square feet of what the developers and sellers hope are the next big idea. It's psychic, sensory and selling overload on the grandest of scales. It's every bit a carnival midway where all those barkers want to do is get you into the tent.

At NAB it was virtual studios and techless control rooms that were being pitched along with next generation minicams and the newest in transmission portability.

And what's changed? Not much. Now it is virtual everything that is on offer along with next generation DV cameras and camcorders and the total portability that current and next generation wireless technologies are producing.

21st century CES, like 20th century NAB before it, is an open door on the future of our business. Smaller. Faster. Lighter. Cheaper. Those were the hallmarks of what we looked for at NAB and are the hallmarks of what all 140,000 of us are looking for now.

It's the future we're finding ways to hurry into and that's why we're here.