Day zero...
     For exhibitors at this largest of all the world's trade shows, January 8th is setup day. For journalists it's press day...or day Zero if you like. The day is filled with press conferences, interviews, and other events. Plus free food and drink--we don’t think we’re fooling anybody.
     
     Press day usually opens with press conferences by two of the biggies: Pioneer and Panasonic, and closes with the other 400-pound gorilla, Sony. It's rare for an actual high end company to call a day zero meeting, but as we shall see one did this year.
     First to Pioneer, which is building on its promotion of the DVD as a recordable medium, ultimately "replacing the VCR," according to Pioneer executive Craig McManis (in our photo). Will the content providers allow that? The company admits that it has a fine balancing act to maintain. In the meantime, Pioneer sponsored a project, in conjunction with nine film schools, challenging film students to use Pioneer products to go from script to finished DVD in just 48 hours.
     Like some other companies, Pioneer announced a central system for home entertainment, at US$1000 for the central unit, and $600 for satellite units. Perhaps more startling is the "sound projector," a 264-driver speaker that looks like a large honeycomb and fits under a TV to provide surround sound. It will cost an eye-popping US$40K!
     Panasonic was also showing a central home entertainment system, and had something different to announce: a deal with the cable TV industry, allowing reception of digital television without a set-top box, and therefore without an extra cycle of analog/digital conversion.
     Do we need yet another incompatible disc recording system? Panasonic’s answer is yes. Its Blu-Ray disc looks like the usual CD or DVD but can hold a whopping 50 Mb of data...as much as a dozen recordable DVDs or 70 CDs. The rewritable version is already in existence, with a "permanent" version scheduled for later this year. Will there be a format war? Groan! Another one!
     Panasonic believes in convergence between computers and home entertainment. This places it in a not very exclusive club, but it has backed up its belief with something to announce, namely an alliance with Microsoft to bring a new standard to market.
     The company demonstrated a number of eye-poppingly small appliances, including a palmtop video recorder (with display) that records on a tiny Secure Digital card. Budding cinéastes may be interestede in the MDR-M30 camcorder, which records directly to DVD-RAM, and allows editing right in the unit. It's shown in the picture below.
     Each year, CES gives out design and engineering awards to consumer electronics products in a broad variety of categories. Some familiar names were among the winners this year. Aragon, now a division of Klipsch, won for its new line of home theatre-oriented audio products. In the same category, JMLabs got an award for its gorgeous set of small Sib surround speakers (see the picture). We were also struck by BT’s "everything radio," which can tune in FM, and (with the help of a nearby PC) MP3, CD, and Internet radio. the BT itself is wireless, and talks as it acknowledges commands The truth is that we have seen a lot of Internet appliances over the past couple of years. The next big thing was to be music from everywhere...including the Net. These devices come and go, but the BT loooks like one that deserves to stick around.
      Oh yes...the high end company we mentioned at the start of this report. It was Wireworld. Some years ago, Wireworld launched its Cable Comparator Box, which allows quick and easy blind testing of one cable against another, or even one cable against a very short length of copper. We've written about the box before. Now the company has done something even more daring: its Cable Comparator Disc. On a CD (available to dealers, though not yet to consumers), you can hear the sound of seven of Wireworld’s own cables, and several competitors too, including Monster, Audioquest, Nordost, and even Belden. That should make Dave Salz lots of friends!
    Rats! Missed Sony! Oh well, we'll catch them on Day Two. As we file this report, we’re off to "The Digital Experience," a showcase of...well, you figure it out. Rumor is they plan to feed us too. And if that’s true we’ll be "live" tomorrow from the Alexis Park, heart of the CES high end exhibits.

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