Live from CES 2012
Posted by Kevin McGuire on Friday, January 13, 2012 · 
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The following is a guest post from Kevin McGuire, vice president of wireless operations for Enhanced Telecommunications Corp., in Sunman, Indiana.
Another year, another CES is upon us. My sense is that it is much larger than last year’s event. The first day on the show floor I was unable to have a conversation with a vendor because so many people were there. Like in years past, I wanted to write a guest post to offer some insight into items I feel might be of importance to the rural telecom industry. Of course the show is so big that it is impossible to get to everything, so apologies if I missed something.
TVs and Video
I don’t even know where to begin here. There was so much going on in the way of TVs that I really question who’s buying all of these things. Here are a few key trends:
Attendees at CES evaluate Sharp's new 8K TV.
Ultra Definition TVs: Think HDTV was the end of resolution? Think again. Nearly every manufacturer had an Ultra Definition TV (UDTV) to showcase (although technically I think a UHDTV needs to have 8K resolution). Also known as 4K TVs , they are roughly 4,000 horizontal lines of definition, or 4x the resolution of current HDTV televisions. Sharp even had a prototype 8K TV, which is 16x the resolution of current HDTVs. I’ll tell you that they looked absolutely stunning next to a current 1080p set. I’d even go so far as to say it is nearly as impressive as going from SD to HD. Now, I’m guessing we’re still a year or two away from 4K becoming mainstream, but think of the bandwidth implications for providers.
3DTVs: I had hoped that 3D was going away, but alas, it was still in every manufacturer’s booth. There’s a movement away from active glasses, with most having both non-powered glasses and even glasses-free 3D. I’ll be honest though and admit that I couldn’t tell that the images were in 3D. Maybe it’s just my eyes, but I was not impressed. The best glasses-free TV I saw came from TCL (The Creative Life) and while it had limited content (just a few commercials), it was very obvious it was 3D, and it didn’t give me eye fatigue.
Set-Top Box Replacement: I have long suggested that I have a Sony PlayStation 3 at home, so there is no reason I should need another set-top box. I also have a GoogleTV, and would suggest the same thing. Looks like things are starting to happen to make that more of a reality. Samsung’s Smart TVs now have apps that work with DirecTV, Xfinity, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. While there was some effort around this last year, the DirecTV app is actually shipping with new smart sets.
Video Everywhere: Gone are the shackles of sharing video content between every device you own. Want to watch live TV on your IPad? Done. Want to stream a video you took on your phone to the TV? No problem. Want to wirelessly transfer content from your laptop to a large screen? Intel’s WiDi technology is now being built into TVs. The technology is there to do some really cool things. It’s now up to the content owners to allow it to happen.
Connected TVs: This was all the rage last year, and there’s no shortage of facebook, photo sharing or Web content on TVs. My big concern is that there doesn’t seem to be any standard (someone please correct me if I am wrong). Every manufacturer had their own way of doing/displaying things, all with their own UI and system. I can’t see app developers working with every nuance of disparate systems, and I can’t see manufacturers continuing to support and release their own middleware. There’s something to connected TVs, but I think we’re still a ways off from its potential. Regardless, I’m going to guess that about every new TV your consumers buy will be able to hook up to the Internet — so get those DSL packages updated.
Cameras and Microphones: Cameras and microphones now are being built into TVs. While video conferencing is an obvious application, some of the 3DTV manufacturers suggest that the TV will recognize where people are sitting and adjust the picture accordingly. Also, voice recognition is now on its way to TVs, allowing you to change channels with your voice. Finally, taking a note from Microsoft, some manufactures are working to enable gesture control on their sets.
Haier's transparent TV
The Future (maybe): TCL also had a holographic TV which I can’t even begin to describe. It looked like some heads-up display from a futuristic space ship or something. Maybe more on that next year. They also had a pretty cool set that displayed two programs at once. By using special glasses, each viewer could see only their program. I didn’t get a chance to ask how they handled audio. Also, Haier had a transparent TV. No kidding. I was able to look at my hand behind the display. I asked why anyone would want that and they said it was more for retail applications. Good thing I am not in retail because other than the coolness factor, I just don’t see it. Finally, there was a product called Brain Wave TV where you wore this headset type device and could change channels and control the TV. I didn’t get to try it out, but I have a hard enough keeping track of my remote, let alone this thing.
Ultrabooks
Ultrabooks on display at CES.
With all of the hype over Ultrabooks, I have to say that while much needed in the laptop space (as I type on my beefy Dell laptop), I am not overwhelmed by something that Apple did back in 2008. By definition, they are half the weight and width of existing laptops. And with most base models coming in at 4G of RAM and a 128G SSD, it’s likely more than enough power to do what you need on the road.
Don’t get me wrong — I think they are going to sell like crazy (who wants to lug around a heavy laptop if they don’t have to), but nothing earth shattering to see here, IMHO. If I were in the market for a laptop, I’d probably wait a bit for the release of Intel’s Ivy Bridge and Windows 8.
Connected Vehicles
As if smartphones aren’t putting enough bandwidth pressure on mobile networks, soon all cars will be connected as well. Why? In the labs there are a whole bunch of ideas.
With embedded chips, they can act as WiFi hotspots for passengers, provide more accurate mapping and location information, and even stream media. In the near term, it appears that the old radio will look and act more like a tablet or smartphone. More futuristic will be the sending of live traffic data between vehicles, braking information to warn drivers of potential issues ahead, and even vehicles that drive and park themselves, the latter of which can happen with the driver outside of the car.
The new Audi connected dashboard.
Heads up displays are also making a resurgence, enabling drivers to place a phone call and receive information about traffic and other items without needing to look away from the road. Couple that with advances in voice recognition and I’m anxious to see new products and services in this field.
There was no indication as to how much bandwidth the media streaming would take. One nice thing is that since it appears that your car will be a network hotspot, you will be able to share media between devices. So if you have a movie on your iPad, you can now send it to the vehicle’s screen to share with everyone. That may help cut down on some of the bandwidth, but I think it’s safe to say that we’re talking about a pretty monumental shift in mobile data usage.
Connected Home
Once again, companies were showcasing ways to unlock doors remotely, monitor security cameras from your smartphone, smart thermostats, etc. But to be honest, I felt like I walked through the exact same booths in this category as last year.
I was unable to locate a fully-integrated system that could handle everything from A-Z. There are different protocols, different implementations and I just don’t know that the average consumer is going to want to install and maintain their own system. I think what is honestly going to take the connected home to the next level is service provider support, and that starts with AT&T and Verizon.
Verizon was the only one I saw at CES, and I think they have something. Working with Motorola, there will be a gateway that bridges all of the connected devices in your home (appliances, IP cameras, TVs, lighting) and provides control of them via browsers or tablets and smartphone apps. I may be wrong, but if you offer security monitoring as a service today, this concept is something that you should really be looking into.
Health Tech
Similar to the connected home, there was a whole section of the exhibits devoted to health technology. From a service provider perspective, there is a movement to place a home health gateway in the home. This device will connect to blood pressure monitors, scales and a whole host of other devices. This information can then be sent securely to a doctor’s office where they can monitor a patient’s progress. I’m unclear how this will all shake out, but again we’re talking more bandwidth, and perhaps a reason for an older demographic to get broadband. I wonder if broadband will be covered by health insurance?
So that about wraps it up. If you were there, I’d be interested in your comments.
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Mr. McGuire – Thanks for the outstanding report from CES. There is something from the very basic novice user to the technophile. I wish the softswitch providers would start developing “apps” that would be added to the home or business like the wireless business.
CES had a lot of interesting releases and gadgets, as they do every year, but I was the most excited for the Hopper that was unveiled by DISH. Now compared to what DirecTV offered, this just makes a ton more sense. The new DirecTV “boxless” solution seems to be lacking in plenty of areas; yes it sounds cool to not have a receiver in the room, but if that means I can’t have live TV and only limited recordings, it wouldn’t be worth it to me. The Hopper allows for up to 6 shows to be recorded at once, and working for DISH I know that you can watch those in any of the rooms. What’s another great perk is that if esthetics is a concern for you, the secondary receivers for the other rooms can be mounted behind the TVs.