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CES^® Is the Global Stage for Innovation

CES is the world’s gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years — the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.

Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it attracts the world’s business leaders and pioneering thinkers.

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When our marketing department asked me to pick my five favorite technologies from the CES show, I have to admit I had to do a lot of thinking on which products really stood out for me.

After a full week at the CES show and trying to take in over 4,500 exhibiting companies, including manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems; plus, a conference program with more than 250 conference sessions and more than 180K attendees from 150 countries, getting my list to just five took some thinking.

So, without further ado, the top technologies that caught my attention are:

The Video Wall

Video walls were everywhere! It is almost surreal to stand in front of a screen that is floor to ceiling, and it is finally being priced for residential consumers. When video walls first made an appearance at the tech shows, you could only get a clear image if you put distance between you and the wall.  It used to be like walking up on a giant movie screen – one could only see the pixels, and nothing was recognizable about the image.  These huge video walls are showing crystal clear, high HD images that can be seen from various angles.

Plus, now consumers have options, such as a singular image across multiple screens, which is perfect for a family movie night in your custom home theater room or you could have as many unique channels displayed as you have screens.  Imagine, different sports, news or entertainment being shown at the same time across this massive show piece.

The video wall is a statement piece that will be showing up more and more custom homes, backyard entertainment schemes and even in a corporate office entry ways and conference rooms.

8 K TV Technologies

There is a special place in my heart for watching the evolution of the television. No matter what your age, for most of us, we grew up with this technology and it continues to deliver to us our favorite shows, documentaries and entertainment.

We just saw 4K TV’s hit the market in the past year or two and 8K TVs are being introduced.

Technically, both 4K 8K are the ultra-high definition television (UHDTV) resolution in digital television and digital cinematograph. They’re the advanced Super Hi-Vision (SHV) TV video technologies and remarked as the next generation TV video processing methods.

What is more exciting about these product lines is that the manufacturers are starting to embed artificial intelligence into the screens which will allow them to adjust picture color and quality for environmental factors like light. Wait, what? Automatic environmental picture optimization? With this technology advancement, moving a TV from indoor to outdoors will be easy – the TV will adjust to the bright light outside for a tailgate party and then will automatically recalibrate the color, contrast and brightness if it is installed in a soothing custom spa bathroom.

Short Throw Projectors

All the big manufacturers were showing short throw projectors.  This is a fantastic option if you want the emersion of a huge screen but simply don’t have the room or budget for a video wall or large TV.

For example, if you have PlayStation or XBox and want to have your gaming on big screen, short throw projectors are what you need. Whether you want to play games on full screen, or you want to watch movies on the bigger screen with powerful projection, the best short throw projectors will do the job. Some of projectors can be situated as close as 1 foot from the screen and still achieve over 100 inches of display in full 4K resolution! So, if you were wondering where the name “short throw” come from, there you go.

The Record Player!!!

Clearly, retro-crazed vinyl buyers wanted something suitably retro to spin their favorite records on.  Victrola borrowed some design touches from yesteryear, such as wooden cabinets and circular dials, and turned out compact home-audio systems that appeared to be plucked from a trendy antique store. These visually deceptive Record Players come equipped with two channel hi-fidelity audio, which is BACK.  Victrola had a HUGE booth showing all their vintage models. Many other industry veterans were also showing turntables and two channel audio configurations.

Sneak Peak:  iWired will be creating a new two channel room in summer of 2019!! You are invited to come by and take in this fine example of the beauty of a true two channel experience.

 5G Wireless

Get ready for 5G wireless services! 5G is the next generation of wireless networking technology and, in short, promises to deliver ultra-fast speeds and responsiveness to connect everything around us without interruption.

With 5G, you’ll see exponentially faster download and upload speeds. The time it takes one device to communicate with another device over a wireless network will also drastically decrease.

The technology for 5G is so fast, you will have another option for streaming content when a wired connection is not available.

However, like most advanced technologies 5G is not available in all areas and to be available in all areas, the broadband industry has to contend with the cable industry.  Watching how cable networks respond to this technology will be as interesting as the technology itself.

It is entirely possible we are facing the end of an era, the era of the buffering could soon be another urban legend from the past, like dial-up internet connection and keeping your music and movies on separate devices.

The Consumer Electronics show has technologies in a multitude of categories such as:

• 3D Printing
• Accessibility
• Advertising, Marketing, Content and Entertainment
• AR/VR and Gaming
• Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
• Audio and Video
• Baby Tech
• CES Sports Zone
• Country Pavilions
• Design & Source Showcase
• Digital Money
• Drones
• Enterprise Solutions
• Eureka Park
• Family and Kids Tech
• Fitness
• Health and Wellness
• High-Tech Retailing
• Home Cinema
• IoT Infrastructure
• iProducts
• Resilience
• Self-Driving Technology
• Sleep Tech
• Smart Cities
• Smart Home
• Sports Tech
• Tourism
• Vehicle Technology
• Wearables
• Wireless Devices and Services

iWired provides networked technology solutions that allow your home or office to perform for you. And it is in this spirit we attend these crazy shows to find the best technologies to bring to our customers.  If you would like to learn more about any of these technologies and how to incorporate them into your home, give us a call at 1-800-238-1774 or live chat with us at www.iwired.com

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Johnathan George is a home technology enthusiast and General Manager of iWired, with showrooms in Scottsdale and Denver. As an alumni of Thunderbird School of Global Management, Johnathan leads iWired with a commitment to service and innovation providing networked technology solutions that allow your home or office to perform for you. Connect with Johnathan at [email protected]

 

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