As Sony announced yesterday, CBS is expanding its Las Vegas consumer research facility located at the MGM Grand.  CBS and Nielsen are partnering to add 3,000 square feet onto the existing facility.  The new section will provide for demonstration and consumer research of emerging CE products.  Sony has negotiated to build out and stock the facility with 3D gear for the first six months.

CBS Television City at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas

The facility will include a multi-room “condo” for observing consumer behavior in a home setting in addition to display areas, a theater, and the focus group rooms already in place.

David Wertheimer and Phil Lelyveld met with CBS’s chief research officer David Poltrack and Frank Stagliano from Nielsen to discuss how our organizations could work together to partner on consumer research projects surrounding 3D.

The ETC maintains a list of research projects suggested by people who have toured the Consumer 3D Experience Lab.  Partnering with the CBS facility will expedite the planning, budgeting, execution, and evaluation of the research projects.  The ETC could potentially benefit from CBS/Nielsen’s experience and reputation to ensure that the research methodology and execution is sound and defensible.  ETC member companies would get exclusive access to commissioned studies, and could benefit from early access to member-subsidized studies that are later published.  We’ll follow-up in late January.