Introduction to UHF’s show coverage

Covering the news another way...
     What’s new in high end audio and video and related matters? The usual way we let you know is to cover the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the simultaneous T.H.E. Show. We file live reports, with text and pictures.
     Didn’t happen this year, for the reason you can read about below.
     We are, however, bringing you lots of information you can read about over the next few days. Click here and check out the first two.

How I (nearly) covered CES
by Gerard Rejskind
     It would be the third year we would be doing daily Internet coverage of the doings in Vegas. Not that there’s a paucity of journalists attending CES, but our readers say they like our particular viewpoint, for what we presume to be the same reasons they read UHF despite the ubiquitous presence of countless other magazines. Doing these shows takes preparation. The five reports (for the four show days plus the press day) were done in advance, awaiting only their content. We has a fresh battery for the portable iBook computer, and a new Pentax digital camera that could capture images for both the Web site and the later print issue report. I was ready.
     Or at least I thought I was ready.
     On Sunday, January 2nd, at precisely 3 pm, I swung my car into the long-term parking lot at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Airport, and stopped as directed in a space in aisle 3. Bad choice! Aisle 3 had not been cleared, and could have been used as a skating rink. As I lifted the black bag containing the computer, my feet went out from under me, and I crashed onto hard ice on my back. Minutes went by before I could get up or even accept aid. The pain from my right shoulder was too intense.
     When I finally got to my feet, I had a quick decision to make. My injury might be serious, or it might not, but if I left the airport to seek medical aid the trip was scrubbed. Perhaps it was no more than a bad sprain, and I could be fixed up in Vegas. I decided to take the flight. It was possibly the worst flight I’ve ever been on, and I was grateful it was direct. In Vegas, I picked up my rental car and got it to the hotel, though that meant putting the transmission into "Drive" with my left hand.
     By the next morning my shoulder was swollen like the Fuji Film dirigible (in the same colors too), and I was pretty sure coming had been the wrong choice. I headed for a large Las Vegas clinic, where the X-rays told the tale: my shoulder was broken. I would require emergency surgery, but with the short US waiting lists that could be fixed. I could check into hospital by 9:30 Tuesday morning and be operated on before noon. All I needed was a pack of VISA and MasterCards.
     Instead I called Air Canada and got an emergency flight back (costly as well). By Wednesday morning I was at the hospital emergency ward near home, where the only card I needed to flash was my provincial health insurance card.
     The bad news is that I spent a whopping eight hours in the waiting room rather than the 20 minutes at the Vegas clinic. The good news is that the generalist and the orthopedic surgeon who saw me disagreed sharply with the US diagnosis, did not recommend surgery, removed my cast, and told me that the proposed treatment of the Vegas doctors might well have left me with a permanent handicap.
     After lots of rest and heavy-duty painkillers, I've been in a followup program of physiotherapy and injection of strange substances. The prognosis, I’m pleased to say, is for a complete recovery.


		Covering the news another way... What’s new in high end audio and video and related matters? The usual way we let you know is to cover the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the simultaneous T.H.E. Show. We file live reports, with text and pictures. Didn’t happen this year, for the reason you can read about below. We are, however, bringing you lots of information you can read about over the next few days. Click here and check out the first two. How I (nearly) covered CES by Gerard Rejskind It would be the third year we would be doing daily Internet coverage of the doings in Vegas. Not that there’s a paucity of journalists attending CES, but our readers say they like our particular viewpoint, for what we presume to be the same reasons they read UHF despite the ubiquitous presence of countless other magazines. Doing these shows takes preparation. The five reports (for the four show days plus the press day) were done in advance, awaiting only their content. We has a fresh battery for the portable iBook computer, and a new Pentax digital camera that could capture images for both the Web site and the later print issue report. I was ready. Or at least I thought I was ready. On Sunday, January 2nd, at precisely 3 pm, I swung my car into the long-term parking lot at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Airport, and stopped as directed in a space in aisle 3. Bad choice! Aisle 3 had not been cleared, and could have been used as a skating rink. As I lifted the black bag containing the computer, my feet went out from under me, and I crashed onto hard ice on my back. Minutes went by before I could get up or even accept aid. The pain from my right shoulder was too intense. When I finally got to my feet, I had a quick decision to make. My injury might be serious, or it might not, but if I left the airport to seek medical aid the trip was scrubbed. Perhaps it was no more than a bad sprain, and I could be fixed up in Vegas. I decided to take the flight. It was possibly the worst flight I’ve ever been on, and I was grateful it was direct. In Vegas, I picked up my rental car and got it to the hotel, though that meant putting the transmission into "Drive" with my left hand. By the next morning my shoulder was swollen like the Fuji Film dirigible (in the same colors too), and I was pretty sure coming had been the wrong choice. I headed for a large Las Vegas clinic, where the X-rays told the tale: my shoulder was broken. I would require emergency surgery, but with the short US waiting lists that could be fixed. I could check into hospital by 9:30 Tuesday morning and be operated on before noon. All I needed was a pack of VISA and MasterCards. Instead I called Air Canada and got an emergency flight back (costly as well). By Wednesday morning I was at the hospital emergency ward near home, where the only card I needed to flash was my provincial health insurance card. The bad news is that I spent a whopping eight hours in the waiting room rather than the 20 minutes at the Vegas clinic. The good news is that the generalist and the orthopedic surgeon who saw me disagreed sharply with the US diagnosis, did not recommend surgery, removed my cast, and told me that the proposed treatment of the Vegas doctors might well have left me with a permanent handicap. After lots of rest and heavy-duty painkillers, I've been in a followup program of physiotherapy and injection of strange substances. The prognosis, I’m pleased to say, is for a complete recovery. [BACK TO UHF HOME]
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