Here we go again...
     It was, and it is, the world's biggest trade show. Once eclipsed by Comdex (the computer show, also held annually in Las Vegas), the Consumer Electronics Show is once again King of the Hill. This annual four-day extravaganza is organized by the Consumer Electronics Association, of which most companies making electronic goods for consumers (that is, us folks, as opposed to steel plants and nuclear generating stations) are members.
     It brings together...well, a lot of people. In 2001 it drew some 122,000 visitors. A year ago, in the wake of 9/11, attendance dropped by some 20%. This year, CEA says pre-registration indicates this will be the biggest CES ever. That's perhaps true, though CEA has shown a talent for putting the best possible face on whatever happens.
     The rather generic "consumer electronics" name indicates that there's more at this giant show than audio, or even audio and video. There are pocket computers, cellular telephones, software (Bill Gates has been giving the keynote address for years), video games, Internet appliances, and much more. There are signs that the computer industry, still feeling the pain of the dot-com meltdown, has migrated from Comdex to CES. It may be a sign of the times that, last year, Sony's Memory Stick card had not only its own booth but its own pavilion!

The venues
     It's easy to guess that a show this big can't be held in just one place. Even the Las Vegas Convention Centre, which last year doubled in size especially for CES, can handle only a fraction of the exhibits, albeit a large fraction. The convention centre at the giant Hilton Hotel next door is always full of exhibits as well. Some well-known high end audio and video companies choose to exhibit there, even though there is no provision for real listening rooms...that is, enclosed spaces with tolerable acoustics and noise levels.
     Most of the high end, however, is far away from the Convention Center, at the Alexis Park. This recent-vintage complex is remarkable for not having a casino attached to it, as nearly all Las Vegas businesses do. That means there is no gambling to subsidize breakfast, whch costs noticeably more than elsewhere. Exhibitors were initially happy to be at the Alexis Park, instead of the old Sahara Bilevel Complex, where power was so unreliable that CEA had set up diesel generators, with a fat cable snaking in through every window. Since then, some have soured on the Alexis Park.
     The reason is that the Alexis Park is less a hotel than a motel. Rooms open to the outside, not to a corridor. This is all right when temperatures climb to levels where you have to run your car air conditioner, but the desert can be cold, windy and even rainy in January. The hotel's room numbering is baffling, which makes finding an exhibit a chore, despite the ubiquitous signs. Finally, some exhibitors wind up in rooms that are on the second floor, up a flight of outdoor steps. That's ironic, considering that the CEA contract requires that exhibitors make their rooms accessible to the disabled.
     Perhaps for that reason, some exhibitors in recent years have taken their business elsewhere.

The rebel alliance
     There have been rebellions against CEA for years, with alternative shows setting up elsewhere in town, and sometimes right next door. Sometimes they score victories: the alternative "adult video" show worked so well that CES actually dropped the category altogether. In recent years The Home Entertainment Show ("T.H.E. Show") has been getting CEA plenty worried.
     But for three years the rebels had an advantage: they set up in a hotel next door to the Alexis Park. Last year, though, the rebels got frozen out, and had to look for new digs. They first announced they would be at the Rio (way off the Strip, where the action is, and even farther from the Alexis Park). They switched at the last minute to the Tuscany, which however was unfinished. They ran shuttle buses to the Alexis Park, but Alexis Park security actually tried to arrest the shuttle driver for trespassing, and...it turned kind of ugly.
     Last summer, there were rumors that the Empire had triumphed over the Rebel Alliance. Not so. The show is moving to the San Remo, a so-so high-rise hotel-casino on Tropicana. As in previous years, show management is offering journalists inexpensive rooms, figuring it can draw more coverage that way. The San Remo is near the strip only if you have a car, however, and it's not near any other venues.
     (For what it's worth, there will also be a rebel show in Indianapolis in September, coinciding with the CEDIA show.)
     Is it true that CEA pays little attention to high end audio? CEA denies it, and indeed the new chair of CEA's board of directors is--for the first time--from the high end. She is Kathy Gornik of Thiel Audio.

Onward to Day Zero
     For most CES visitors this is a four-day show, and it's exhausting enough that way. For journalists it runs five days. January 8th is a special press day. We get special passes allowing us to trip over loose carpetting and dodge the cranes on the vast show floor. Among the press conferences already set up are those of Sirius (the satellite radio company), Pioneer, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba, Wireworld, plus dozens of companies in the digital business.
     Right here on the UHF site, you'll be able to visit CES without leaving home. You'll find the links at upper left.

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