There was plenty of news concerning television and cable networks at CES this year, as there was a clear new emphasis on content and programming. But outside of the cable arena, there were several other trends that revealed themselves in consumer electronics. From a new focus on “green” technologies, to the electronic crusade to the car, to what may finally be the end of the war between Blu-Ray and HD DVD, CES 2008 will be one that may be remembered for influencing the electronics industry for years to come.

... a tradeshow booth with a Dish!

It's hard to ignore the TVs that are on display at CES, and until now I've been doing just that. However, there is some big news regarding television technology that debuted at CES this year. It's my final day on the show floor, and today I'm focusing on doing some technology wrap-ups.

The biggest news, literally, is the 11-foot, plasma prototype that joined Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto onstage for his keynote address Monday. Later, after seeing it in the Panasonic booth, it was clear that whatever was playing on the screen was hardly suitable for such a massive display. At a resolution of 4x 1080p, it's a very stunning display. Last year, Panasonic displayed a retail 103-inch plasma display. Since, they've managed to sell over 3,000 of the 103-inchers, at a price of $51,000 each.

Panasonic isn't the only company showing off its new tru2way-capable products; a quick trip around the show floor at CES along with a little bit of searching revealed many new components that are very close to hitting store shelves.

LG and Samsung each had a couple of televisions on display, all in the 40-57" range, much like Panasonic's offerings. Finding them proved to be a bit of a challenge, however, as none of the associates in the booths seemed to know anything about tru2way or OCAP. This is not completely unexepected at a show prone to 11th-hour announcements of emerging technologies.

The TV Guide booth had a display of its j-Guide, a rich java-based display that conforms to the OCAP standard. TV Guide also seems in need of the memo, as all of their signage still referred to Open Cable, rather than the rebranded tru2way.

On hand at Microsoft was a CableCard equipped device that interfaces with Media Center PCs. No tru2way capability was on-hand, but the associates were aware of the recent announcement and said products were currently in development.

by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri

Brian Roberts, CEO and President of Comcast, took the stage yesterday in the first keynote address to the assembly from a cable company chief in the entire 41-year history of the CES. Riding on the coattails of Monday's keynote by Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto in which the Roberts made a cameo to announce new tru2way devices, Roberts' Tuesday speech highlighted Comcast’s plans for implementation of DOCSIS 3.0 and delivery of more HD content.

"The age of the closed, proprietary set-top box is behind us," said Roberts, who, like others, says open source development must be a priority for the electronics industry. The new tru2way technology will allow consumers to go to a retail store, purchase a new component such as a DVR or set-top, bring it home and plug it in, "and expect it to support all cable interactive services," Roberts said. He reminded the audience that the cable industry learned a great deal about how open-source stimulates innovation and consumer adoption with the development of the cable modem, based on the old DOCSIS standards.

Yesterday morning's CES keynote with Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto brought big news to the world of cable with the announcement of Panasonic's new line of HDTVs and set-top boxes integrating tru2way technology. Joined onstage by Comcast's CEO, Brian Roberts, Sakamoto said, "Panasonic will not only deliver a Panasonic Viera Plasma HDTV with tru2way technology later this year, we are also announcing the first portable DVR and digital cable set-top boxes powered by tru2way technology, all of which truly allow consumers to maximize their enjoyment of digital cable television programming.”

The Viera televisions equipped with tru2way will eliminate the need for a set-top box and will eliminate clutter and confusion that stems from multiple components. The Viera Plasma HDTV is expected to be available at retail later this year.

Also announced was a portable DVR which will allow users to record programs at home and then watch them later, acting like a portable DVD player. The tru2way device has a fold-up 8.5" screen and speakers, and docks with a set-top box. Named the AnyPlay, it is expected in Comcast markets in early 2009.

I personally like the idea of the portable DVR, though I doubt people will choose a large portable DVD player-type device over the smaller pocket-sized digital media players they most likely already own. However, it's not hard to imagine the technology spurring a new movement in bridging the gap between those smaller media players and the home DVR.

by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri

Talk of open development was a hot topic today, with everyone from Jerry Yang of Yahoo! and Rob Stoddard of NCTA to the editors of CNET calling open source development and new industry standards the keys to creating more useful and marketable consumer electronics.

Yang’s keynote address highlighted the release of Yahoo! Go 3.0, the site’s software offering for mobile phones. In it, he explained that leaving Yahoo! Go open sourced was imperative to the continued development of the software. “Having the ability for third party software to interact with Yahoo! Go makes it easier for users to receive relevant content,” Yang said.

Yahoo! Go offers widgets to perform many different tasks, including eBay, MySpace, and MTV News integration. The hope is that software developers and other websites will develop software to work with Yahoo! Go and ultimately make the Internet more efficient and useful to consumers on mobile phones.

In a CNET-hosted panel titled “The Next Big Thing in CE,” Stoddard, along with George Kliavkoff of NBCU agreed that open-sourcing and creation of (and conforming to) industry standards would allow consumers to integrate different technology components with ease. In a discussion about the future of content delivery, both agreed that portable devices must be able to connect to televisions, computers, and DVR set-tops and share content without limitation. One of the major current limitations of programming that is available online is that it is unable to be transferred to mobile devices, they said.

by Tony Brown, a junior at the University of Missouri

Bill Gates officially launched CES 2008 with a Guitar Hero duel against Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash, yet attendees were most likely more impressed with the product demos in the Microsoft front man’s keynote address. In his final of eight consecutive CES introductions, Gates spoke about how content and software will define what he calls “the Next Digital Decade,” and showed off new levels of device interconnectivity and user-centric experiences that always seemed to be just over the horizon. Yet suddenly they’ve arrived.

I came into this year’s show expecting Sync, the Ford Motors and Microsoft partnership in mobile integration, to be the buzz on the floor and a major part of Gates’ address. However, the Sync demonstration was merely a thread of Microsoft’s envisioned blanket of interactive interfaces and entertainment devices. From the web-based Silverlight interface that will help NBC provide the “most most comprehensive broadband coverage of any event, ever” during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to the continued development of the Xbox 360 platform as a central device in home entertainment and content delivery, Microsoft seems to have all bases covered.

One last topic before we officially stop talking about CES: TVs. At the show, it’s easy to get lost in the broad spectrum of products on display. Televisions, however, are impossible to miss. From the practical to the purely for show, screens of all resolutions, sizes, shapes and technologies were set up for viewing. Here’s a roundup of the television trends and innovations I saw this year:

If bigger is better, then the pair of Sharp 108” Aquos LCD displays at the entrance to the Sharp booth took the cake. The sets will ship this summer at a price yet unannounced. In light of a shifting market, Toshiba is dropping plasma technology in favor of the growing LCD market. Toshiba cites risk of burn-in and reflected light on retail floors for its weak sales in the plasma market. Meanwhile, Panasonic, the sales leader in plasma displays, hoped to restore some of the image of their screens with an expansive display highlighting the strengths of plasma over LCD.

At one point during CES, I was asked if I was tired yet of hearing about the “connected home” and the “next generation” of electronics. My reply was an exasperated “yes.” While I’m excited to experience the whole new world of media made possible by the marriage of television and the Internet, I’m troubled by the lack of innovation beyond the current HD obsession. It was exciting back when the products finally bridging the gap between TV and PC were merely ideas and sketches in the R&D departments of consumer electronics companies, but as the dreams of the consumer electronics idealist become more and more of a reality, it’s impossible to ignore the big question of “what’s next?”

Pat Esser
President, Cox Communications

It took a little while to decompress following the overwhelming spectacle of CES, but with the benefit of a couple of days of calm, here’s some reflection on the highlights and themes that resonated with me during and after last week’s show:

 For me CES began, surreally, in Barry Manilow’s green room at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater, site of the “Pipelines Power” session. The area is adorned with seemingly hundreds of photos of the star with other stars, which provided some light escapism and mood-calming before we were ushered onto the stage and into the spotlight before a large crowd wanting to hear how cable, telco and satellite execs view convergence. As I stated then, as service providers, we must deliver the benefits of convergence minus the “hassle factor” for our customers. Throughout the week, as I viewed thousands of gizmos, gadgets and random awe-inspiring products—most of which likely will never make it to market—I was even more convinced that while consumers may welcome “wow,” above all they just want it to work. It won’t matter how amazing these converged products are if they don’t interact properly.

To conclude my visit to CES, I’ve made it a tradition to stop by the Innovations exhibit to end the show with a final look at what’s coming next. Tucked away at the Sands Expo center, the exhibit is nestled in among the much smaller companies peddling anything from virtual reality video games to tasers for personal security. Innovations is the showcase for the best products at CES, as voted by the Consumer Electronics Association. It’s a good way to make sure you haven’t missed anything big.

What I found were robots that sweep, vacuum and wet mop your floor; remote control moving wall mounts for flat panel televisions; surveillance cameras that monitor your home and report to you via IP; speakers disguised as tattered books and floor lamps; and a virtual keyboard that projects a full-sized laser keyboard onto any surface—perfect for entering data into a Blackberry or PDA. It turned out to be exactly what I expected: a lot of interesting stuff just waiting for the right marketing.

If there’s one thing I personally think the older generation of large corporate executives doesn’t understand, it’s the gaming sector of consumer electronics. With that in mind, I spent my morning exploring the latest wares from Intel, HP, Microsoft and Sony. By far the biggest trend I experienced is total immersion in gameplay. Since video games are all about escaping reality—or at least entering a different reality—it makes sense to try to completely envelop the user in lifelike graphics, audio, and aesthetic. The aesthetic, totally immersed experience goes far beyond the standard combo of console and TV. Sure, there’s the 40” HDTV and games rendered in full HD, but when you throw in vibrating controllers, scene-dependent lighting, fans to simulate movement, and mechanical gamer chairs, the experience becomes all the more real.

For the ultimate aesthetic setup, Philips’ amBX speaker system combines active peripheral lighting—imagine Ambilight for your PC—with rumble simulators and breeze fans to create the aesthetic. To experience the technology, I climbed aboard a full-scale mockup of a Formula 1 car. In the cockpit of the Intel-powered F1 simulator, I felt a real breeze as I sped around the track. For the times I was doing less speeding and a little more off-roading, a powerful subwoofer let me know I was busy tearing my beautiful car to pieces. And all the while, colors were changing in my peripheral vision to match the overall scene. The experience was exhilaratingly realistic; so much so that I demanded a second try.

As a follow up to Jay Rolls’ earlier post about “slinging” content around the home, I set out today to learn more about the different ways companies are bringing media into the home and the different options for sharing that media between interconnected peripherals. One approach is to implement a shared media vault—essentially storing all media on a centrally located hard drive shared over a network by any televisions and computers in the house. Maxtor, HP, and Microsoft all offer these solutions—and those are just the companies I stumbled across.

Another approach is to network between the digital set-top box and the home computer, allowing a two-way viaduct of television shows, movies, audio, and personal files. There are several ways to network, including the 802.11 wireless standards, powerline networking, and traditional hard-wired connections. Scientific Atlanta, Motorola, Apple, Microsoft, RCA, and Toshiba offer this type of sharing, and those are again just the companies I stumbled over.

The message here is that options abound for creating the ultimate media system, and many of the components are already in place. Where the consumer must make a decision is in how to implement such a network and how to tailor it to his individual needs.

CES is a swirling mass of sensory overload this year, as it has always been. We spent 10 hours on the floor visiting with 26 different companies yesterday. As has also become customary, HDTV was everywhere, and large displays dominate many of the large consumer electronics companies’ booths. Displays are more stunning, and on-screen navigation appears crisper and easier to read and use. I noticed examples of companies capitalizing on the buzz of High Definition, offering other Hi Def capabilities such as Hi Def voice. If there’s any overarching theme that I could detect thus far, it’s that companies are struggling to figure out more and diverse ways to get content to the home and then to “sling” it around the home once there. Of course, the Internet and IP are central to most mechanisms for shuttling content to the home. Many companies announced ways to do direct downloads to their devices off the Internet, Sony being one of the most notable.

Just beyond the Intel and Microsoft booths where gaming is the major emphasis, little innovations are making a big splash at the LG and Panasonic booths. For the consumer too impatient to wait for the Blu-Ray/HD DVD dust to settle, LG’s Super Multi Blue player may strike just the right chord. It was only time before someone jumped on the dual-format wagon, and it seems LG has found a compromise worthy of the consumer market. Outside of listing specs, I can say the player performs exactly as it’s supposed to. Every disc put into the drive is treated the same way on the screen, offering care- and worry-free operation. LG accomplished the feat by producing a dual-laser read head; one for HD DVD and one for Blu-ray. The player automatically chooses the correct format of the disc after it is inserted. Also available is a combination drive for PCs, offering Blu-Ray rewritable capability as well as HD DVD playback. For televisions, LG and Panasonic are showcasing technologies that almost completely remove the motion blur most flat panel plasma and LCD screens are prone to showing. The resulting picture is cinematic and shockingly life-like—as close to a "perfect" picture as I’ve experienced thus far.

The 2007 International CES has just officially begun, but the buzz has been building for weeks, and the press releases and covers of the show dailies tell the story. This is the year of 1080p, of the final battle between Blu-Ray, HD DVD, and—finally—of mobile integration. For the past few years, each of the aforementioned technologies was nothing more than an idea or a not-so-distant pinnacle of development. Televisions capable of displaying the 1080p standard, a “full HD” picture, are just now becoming more affordable and moving toward market penetration. LCD is pushing plasma aside as companies such as Toshiba are dropping plasma production altogether.

Blu-Ray and HD DVD are in the midst of their format war, with the Sony PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 at the center of the battle. Blu-Ray backers are calling a premature victory based on sales of the Sony console, but it’s obvious the conflict is far from over as companies on both sides continue to debut disc players that constantly become less and less expensive.

In the realm of mobile electronics, the idea of a do-all device has been around for years but only now is it becoming a viable reality. Most progress has been centered around the cell phone, and coupling a music/video player with the already feature-rich modern mobile phone is the logical next step. There should be big news out of CES this year in this sector, especially in response to the rumored release of Apple’s own foray into the mobile phone market later this week during MacWorld in California.

Now, it’s showtime!

Stewart Schley, DST Correspondent

From the familiar iPod to the novel Slingbox, a parade of interesting new digital media devices marched its way through the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show. Most are variations on an increasingly familiar theme that industry people tend to think of (and sometimes fear) as a shift in the control over media consumption patterns away from corporations and toward individuals. Whether it’s an iPod that shuffles songs you love from a personal playlist, or a portable video player that lets you watch a recorded TV show while you’re jostling on the subway, new media gadgets represent an unmistakable, and irreversible, movement toward consumer control.

Working behind the scenes to enable these new devices is a common element that tends to be taken for granted: the presence of a high-speed, extremely reliable delivery network that is to new media what electricity is to the common household lamp.

High school student and DST correspondent Tony Brown made his first trip to the International Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas earlier this month and relayed the exciting sights in several DST posts. Here, in his concluding CES-related post, he highlights a few more hot CE devices and reveals what he sees as the secret for manufacturers and service providers racing to tap the lucrative 15-to-24 demographic: “If it doesn’t roam, it’s worthless.”

Imagine a world in which all of the electronics in your pocket are linked wirelessly in a grand share-all, play-all network. Better yet, imagine every gadget in your pocket integrated seamlessly into an intuitive and trendy yet sophisticated, powerful device. That future is upon us, on the verge of market integration.

Pat Esser
President, Cox Communications

A week after the International Consumer Electronics Show concluded, the coverage and discourse continue. One of my favorite comments likened CES to a Paris fashion show: Lots of flashy, extravagant items that won’t be hanging in any real people’s closets any time soon, if ever. True, over the coming months, the realities of economics and commerce will separate the bizarrely impractical from those products with true potential to capture consumer dollars.

One product that is clearly here, ready and real is HDTV – from small screens to the 100-inch-plus behemoths displayed in Vegas. To borrow from one of my favorite movies, when it comes to HDTV, “They built it and the content is coming.”

I always come away from CES with a fresh point of view on what the next several months and years will bring from a CE perspective. Usually, there’s a single device that stands out as the one “wow” thing. However, this year was more about trends, new participants in the CE revolution, future applications that can leverage our services and network (in the home or wherever our customers go), and some overarching themes – including portability, mobility, voice convergence and the digital home.

Stewart Schley, DST Correspondent

Ever stood at the lectern facing a room of stern faces, taken a deep breath…and realized you left your 27-slide PowerPoint presentation back at the hotel room? Then you still have only an inkling of what Yahoo Inc.’s COO, Dan Rosensweig, must have felt like at the Consumer Electronics Show when a technical gaffe halted what was supposed to be the public unveiling of a nifty new Internet-TV service.

Lisa Pickelsimer
Director, Video Product Development, Cox Communications

Judging by the plethora of similarly themed video products at this year's CES, we in the high-tech and video entertainment business are convinced that video/voice/data convergence, entertainment and communications home networking, and mobile video are the future. I think we're largely correct in this conviction, but only to the extent that we can figure out how to capture lasting consumer interest in the products that deliver this functionality.

Stewart Schley, DST Correspondent

Easily the best line uttered at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show was overheard by my colleague, Leslie Ellis, who listened in as two friends walked away from a dazzling high-definition TV display from the big electronics company Samsung. “Dude, except for your cheese dip, that’s the best thing ever,” gushed one of the admirers.

Hard to top that one for sheer color, but a quote from one of the industry executives appearing on a CES panel was memorable for another reason. The assembled executives were busy addressing interesting new developments in downloadable media, portable devices and TV signals delivered over the Internet when one of them, Ken Morse of cable TV industry manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta, remarked that, “It’s all very exciting right now, but the penetration of those is incredibly small.”

Dallas Clement
Senior VP, Strategy & Development, Cox Communications

Not surprisingly, the three-day CES featured seemingly several years worth of new-product announcements and technology developments. From my perspective, I doubt many of these products will be on the shelves of your neighborhood electronics store in the foreseeable future. But the show definitely showcased some advancements that have the potential to at least begin altering consumer entertainment and communications this year.

As I predicted in my CES wish list, among the biggest buzz-makers were Intel's Viiv technology and Microsoft's Vista operating system and Media Center PC. In fact, Microsoft's presentation was one of the two events at CES that solidified Cable's increasing role in the CE revolution. The second was the CableLabs-led announcement of commitment between the Cable and CE industries on the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) that will spur development of two-way interactive services.

Now the hard work begins to make both announcements reality.

For some good, comprehensive recaps of all the buzz from CES, here are a few good sites:
CNET
Engadget
paidContent.org
Yahoo!

Ray Starbird
Manager, Product Development, Cox Communications

For all the advances in digital photography, the objectives haven't changed much: make the picture quality equal or surpass film, and shrink the cameras as much as possible. Progress has been measured in megapixels of resolution, optical zoom levels, and storage capacity.

In their quest to duplicate film camera functionality, digital camera manufacturers haven't taken advantage of digital capabilities to truly differentiate new products. This is recognized, however. Here at CES Kodak's CEO Antonio Perez noted they've been too focused on swapping "silicon for silver."

Tony Brown, DST Correspondent

The easiest way to find the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center is to simply follow your ears. The low rumble of hundreds of subwoofers bumping to different beats creates a cacophony of sound so low it's almost impossible to hear. Nevertheless, once you finally make your way through the sea of people in the Grand Lobby and take your first step into the North Hall, it's easy to understand how most journalists get caught up here.

Ferraris, Lamborghinis, lifted Ford trucks, lowered Escalades, rare Shelbys, Toyotas glowing with neon underneath, and a few normal looking Ford Explorers. What they have in common isn't apparent on the outside, but once you take a look inside, you know. Subwoofers, amps, speakers, tweeters, TV monitors, in-dash DVD navigation, GPS receivers–all crammed into every available space. Back seats become amp racks, trunks become mobile theaters with 20-inch screens and a full range of speakers in a molded plastic shell. If it makes noise or has a display, these manufacturers have found a way to squeeze it into a car.

As Smartphone and PDA screens grow, keyboards typically shrink. Imagine using your PDA on an airplane table with a wireless full-sized keyboard. No worries if a pocket of turbulence spills your coffee on the keyboard -- just throw it in the washing machine. That's what a company called Eleksen offers with its fabric keyboard.

David Pugliese
VP, Product Marketing and Management, Cox Communications

After covering 1.6 million square feet of exhibits throughout the North, Central and South Halls and maneuvering through a maze of humans, I want to share some of the highlights of 2006 CES. What was “big” at CES? In the annual race among the CE manufacturers to produce the biggest TV, the trophy this year goes to Panasonic for their 103 inch plasma display. LG Electronics was just behind with their 102 inch plasma display. Neither of these is available for consumer purchase – just CES display ware. The biggest available at retail is a mere 82 inches Samsung model.

Thinking of buying a new big screen? Here’s a valuable tip that can save you hundreds of dollars: If you can, wait a few months. The prices of those great LCD panel displays have been kept high due to the limited production facilities. Thanks to two new factories coming on line sooner that anticipated, we can expect a pretty big drop in LCD sets this year.

Ray Starbird
Manager, Product Development, Cox Communications

Since a number of colleagues have asked about the Starz VONGO service, I figured a few comments are in order.

In short, VONGO is a service that downloads movies to a computer and synchronizes them with a portable player. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, I feel the fine print conspires with business realities to cripple a seemingly compelling service. Some issues:

Tony Brown, DST Correspondent

I spent the morning at the Sands Expo and Convention Center exploring the Innovations exhibit. A new venue to the CES this year, Sands played host to Innovations, as well as a home to lesser-known or up-and-coming CE companies.

The Innovations exhibit showcases CE products that have been recognized for their design and engineering. It's a good way to get a quick glimpse at overall technological advances, and get a feeling for the direction consumer electronics are headed.

It's becoming an annual tradition. As CES kicks off in Vegas, we're again treated to a smattering of news reports trumpeting Cable's impending demise. At least, that's what the headlines herald; down in the body of most of these articles lie the scores of caveats and conditions and the reality of the precise alignment of stars necessary for the predictions to materialize. Too bad those caveats aren't sexy enough to warrant headline or lead-paragraph treatment.

To be fair, the competitive pressure is on. And it's also fair to say that if Cable is going to survive and thrive, we must innovate. And, as technological barriers to entry diminish, there definitely have been recent announcements of many new ways to deliver video. Many of these are getting heavy attention this week in Vegas.

So, about those caveats...

To start with, there's a whole lot more to providing a quality video experience than technology.

By Stewart Schley, DST Correspondent

It's only mid-morning, but already the Consumer Electronics Show is in full swing at the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center. Sitting on an upraised stage in an elaborate black booth is Johnathan Wendel, an otherwise ordinary-looking young man who happens to be the five-time world champion PC game expert. Game geeks know him not as Johnathan but as "Fatal1ty," his alter-ego moniker. He's dueling away with a hapless opponent in a game of "Doom," part of a display cooked up by the PC devices company Creative Labs. Ignoring the virtual carnage from a booth scarcely 30 feet away, a slick-suited salesman from Excalibur Electronics shows off a new invention. It's a motorized inflatable pool lounger. Duel joysticks planted on both sides of the big blue raft control electronically propelled motors that maneuver the thing through the water.

From ever-shrinking MP3 players to cell phones that display TV to flash memory "photo albums" that blend your vacation snapshots with professional photographs, it's all here at CES. If it beeps, snaps, buzzes, records, displays, transmits or plugs in, it's part of the gargantuan orgy of electronics that's held annually here on the Las Vegas strip.

Until about five years ago, the annual CES revolved mainly around gadgets and devices that generally operated in isolation from each other: Stereos, TV sets and portable CD players, for example, were built to perform their functions ably enough on their own. But if there's a common thread that wove its way through the 2006 electronics show, it's the notion of interconnection – or the idea of networking entertainment and electronics components together so that they can allow users to do more things, more conveniently.

Tony Brown, DST Correspondent

The second half of Thursday took me through the booths of the biggest names in consumer electronics. Microsoft, LG, Intel, Texas Instruments and Belkin turned out to be the big winners of my attention.

Following Bill Gates' keynote Wednesday night, the Microsoft booth area was buzzing over the soon-to-be latest release of Windows: Windows Vista. During the "Gates Show" keynote, Microsoft demonstrated a CableCARD interface using a CableCARD supplied by Cox's Vegas system, highlighting further integration of cable and the PC. Very cool.

Tony Brown, DST Correspondent

The news reports are incapable of describing the sheer volume of the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas. With 2,500 exhibitors and over 130,000 attendees, it's the largest consumer electronics show in the world. It's no wonder, then, that the exhibitors tend to pull out the biggest guns in their arsenals for this show.

Ferraris, Lamborghinis and BMWs; the Goo Goo Dolls, Troy Aikman and Mad Mike of MTV's "Pimp My Ride;" flashing lights and curvy women litter the show floor. It's almost hard to believe at times that this is an electronics show, as the products on display often take a back seat to the showy presentations.

The neatest cable-related technologies I have seen so far deal with triple-play technologies, or products that stream VoIP, digital video content, and broadband Internet over a single broadband line.

Ray Starbird
Manager, Product Development, Cox Communications

Let the announcements begin. Here are three of the early mobile music devices unveiled yesterday, in no particular order:

Cable customers are more likely than satellite subscribers to be early adopters of cutting edge consumer electronics. That tidbit and other interesting insights into consumer behavior comes from some new research sponsored by CTAM (the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing). That study, plus ongoing coverage from CES, is at ThisIsCable.com.

Ray Starbird
Manager, Product Development, Cox Communications

Eager attendees were greeted with mostly cloudy skies this morning, with the temperature just under 50F. The forecast calls for it to climb to the mid-60s, today, so there's no chance of a repeat of last year's blizzard.

Mobility is a central theme, with manufacturers and content owners rushing to provide easy-to-consume, protected video content to phones and other portable players. My next post will include a number of early announcements in this area. Content and distribution might grab even more headlines than the gadgets this year, as indicated by the inclusion of keynote speeches from Terry Semel of Yahoo! and Larry Page of Google.

When not reading Digital Straight Talk, be sure to check out other CES coverage at PaidContent.org, CNET, Engadget, Gizmodo, and I4U.

David Pugliese
VP, Product Marketing and Management, Cox Communications

I, along with 130,000 others who are in some way connected with consumer electronics, am headed to the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later today. For those who have not been to CES, it is clearly a full assault on the eyes and ears of attendees. From its modest beginning in 1967 in New York City with almost 200 exhibitors, this year's Las Vegas show has grown to over 2500 exhibitors. That is not surprising given the industry has annual sales of over $135 billion!

The show may not have officially begun yet, but the flood of technology announcements certainly has. Here's a couple of the early ones that caught my attention:

Dallas Clement
Senior VP, Strategy & Development, Cox Communications

As usual, the new year will start with a bang, and I don't mean the falling ball in Times Square. For those of us in cable and telecom, the true celebration of what 2006 portends actually comes a few days later with the start of the Consumer Electronics Show.

The Vegas show has become required attendance for cable execs and their teams, and there certainly will be a bevy of reps from our industry looking for the latest and greatest on display at CES. Fortunately, my schedule and overall experience in Vegas are well managed by CableLabs, helping filter out some of the overwhelming sensory overload – but not so much so that I won't get at least a small dose of the raucous, madhouse atmosphere that makes CES… well, CES.

My “wish list” for the show is a long one, but here are four of the main devices, technologies, platforms and enablers of increased convergence that I look forward to seeing in action at CES: