DIGDIA: CES 2012 overview whitepaper
Phil Lelyveld
Entertainment Technology Center
[DIGDIA]
CES 2012 – The Innovation Circus
The “Network” Circus
One of the circus rings is the “Network” – not as in Ethernet, but as in TV. … Problem is, you can’t just reach over to the dial to flip between networks anymore. Now you must swim through unique interfaces, depending upon which platform you happen to be using, to find what you want to watch. …
The App Circus
Now that phones, tablets, TVs, Blu-ray players, set top boxes, music players, books, computers, refrigerators, cars and just about anything else with access to a display has Apps, a second circus is the App. In fact, it could be said that everything is trying to be an iPad. …
The Remote Circus
One of the things one couldn’t help but notice was the number of booths with people jumping around and waving their arms about. … The confusing collection of remote controls we all like to muse about wasn’t enough for the industry – now we have to worry what we are talking to, and what we are saying, all while we accidently turn off the TV when we scratch our head.
The 3D Circus
Because 3D was such an over-hyped topic a couple of years ago, it is worth mentioning here. 3D has now shown up in just about every consumer electronics category. It is now about as “new” as saying “HD”.
But, look closely and 3D is beginning to mature – it is a bit less of a circus. Subtle improvements, like the ability to adjust the amount of parallax in 3D TV to improve viewer comfort are showing up. Behind the scenes the many loose end standards and interfaces are being worked out. Production and equipment companies are figuring out how to get costs down to the equivalent of standard HD production costs.
Mind you, there are still plenty of issues and challenges. The most important one is getting rid of the glasses for larger displays. To this end, as a hint of what might be possible in the future, a wall-sized 3D display has now been demonstrated that does not use glasses. No, it does not use lenticular lenses or parallax barriers.
The Cloud Circus
This year’s new buzz word was probably “Cloud”. Companies were attaching “Cloud” to all kinds of products and services. …
The Innovation Circus is Good
One can think of other circuses at CES, depending upon your focus – automotive, health, etc. While all this innovation may be exciting for the media to write about, it has obvious darks sides. Several issues have been pointed out above. In addition, the consumer is often left confused by all the new choices and disappointed when reality doesn’t match the hype. CES is, after all, about innovation and hype.
But, let us not close on a negative tone. The innovation circus that we are experiencing is a good thing. …
[You can download a complementary paper called “CES 2012 – The Innovation Circus” at www.digdia.com ]
