World’s biggest consumer electronics show CES 2021 to showcase revolutionary gadgets
The world’s biggest consumer electronics show will unveil a slew of new gadgets and discuss the future of technology as a virtual event.
CES aka “The Consumer Electronics Show” has undergone a major transformation due to COVID-19. It won’t take place in Las Vegas as it habitually does, but will be a virtual event starting on January 11. Up to 170,000 tech company employees, analysts and media normally descend on Vegas, the entertainment, gambling and fast-lane marriage capital of the US, to get up-close and hands-on with cutting edge tech.
CES is impossible to hold physically with the virus still raging in most of the world and roughly 3000 cases of COVID-19 reported in Nevada daily. But the show must go on and it will.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg will kick off the keynote program discussing 5G as the framework for the 21st century. General Motors CEO Mary Barra will talk about her company’s transformation to match a new age of transport and an all-electric future. General Motors’ recent innovations include the opening of a 3D printing factory at Michigan.
Chipmaker AMD CEO Lisa Su will reveal her company’s vision for computing at work, entertainment, gaming, research and education.
Others will follow. Expect the CEO’s of dozens of major technology companies to spruik at their company’s own CES event.
Digital healthcare, 5G, smart cities, artificial intelligence, transportation, and technologies arising from the pandemic will be key themes at the conference program comprising more than 100 sessions. CES has announced a special privacy discussion with Amazon and the chief privacy officers at Google and Twitter.
There’s the shiny new technologies by major exhibitors such as Samsung, LG Electronics, Hisense, Sony and Panasonic, and gadgets by the thousands of smaller exhibitors that you normally encounter as booths within the acres of exhibition space.
The TV manufacturers have announced some models ahead of the show and Samsung has announced an “Unpacked” event directly after it to announce new phones and health oriented technology. Second generation folding phones and phones with multiple screens are expected to be drawcards, and we’ll see more affordable 8K TVs and sets with microLED technology where multiple LEDs are used to display every pixel.
There’s the increasing presence of car manufacturers at CES; their presence is centred on self-driving and electric vehicles. That presence could be bigger albeit a virtual one, with the Detroit Auto Show normally also is in January pushed back to September 2021.
The president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the organisation that runs CES, Gary Shapiro, said the virtual format would still offer a way for attendees to do business and make deals through chat and collaboration tools.
“It‘s an opportunity to break loose, to talk about how the world innovates and to talk and focus on a better tomorrow.”
Without physical bodies at CES, the big losers are the Las Vegas resorts that habitually provide the conference venues, accommodation, food and transport.
The resort companies have experienced monumental losses. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wynn Resorts lost $US523m ($693m) in the quarter to June 30 and MGM Resorts reported a $US1bn ($1.32bn) operating loss in the same quarter. Larger strip hotels have lost up to $US700,000 ($927,000) a day in gaming revenue alone. The economic carnage is total.
With Las Vegas out of the equation for CES, the CTA has scheduled streaming events from 7am to 9pm eastern US time, or 11pm to 1pm AEDT for those participating from here in Australia. We’ll be up with the possums to enjoy it here.
The event remains closed: only the tech industry, media and analysts can register to watch proceedings online, but attendance could be huge with participants not paying accommodation and airfares. Media organisations, who register for free, can easily afford to increase their CES reporting.
Going digital has been a massive undertaking for the CTA which represents a $US398bn ($527bn) US consumer technology industry.
CTA senior vice president, marketing and communications Jean Foster said planning began in April 2020 when the association began looking at available digital platforms due to COVID. The platform had to be robust enough to manage “a few hundred thousand” users all on it together, she said.
After examining options, the CTA built a platform for CES in partnership with Microsoft based around its Teams and Azure offerings, with other providers supplying security and the registration system.
While it’s early days enrolment-wise, the association expects at least 150,000 attendees online, but Ms Foster says the attendance could exceed last year’s 170,000 participants. “We’ve been looking at some of the big global events that have happened out there and what they‘re seeing is typically many more attendees than they have in the physical event,” Ms Foster said, adding that registration costs for individuals had been cut from a minimum $US300 at the physical CES to $US149.
All keynotes and some conference sessions will also be streamed live on social media for all to view, she said.
Live sessions will be shorter to save people spending too many hours on their computers. This year, participants take part through the CES 2021 Digital Venue. The venue tool lets you create a profile, nominate categories of interest, plan to attend virtual events, schedule meetings with companies and other participants, and chat.
The software will recommend exhibitors, programming and connections based on your personal preferences. Without these, you’re likely to be overwhelmed by the possibilities.
For two days, a virtualised live anchor desk found on the venue home page will chaperone you through the experiences. Anchors (real life TV presenters) will explain how to set-up meetings and visit exhibitors. They’ll offer a recap of events and you’ll hear about announcements made at the show. Anchors will also conduct interviews.
This sounds well organised, but is there room at CES for ground breaking communications with everyone attending from home? What about holographic demonstrations?
Would, for example, companies hold supplementary CES local events in Australia where they let participants get hands on with their equipment and devices? That wouldn’t work in countries where the pandemic is raging, but it could work here.
Ms Foster said groups from France and The Netherlands had planned to do supplementary shows in their countries, but a resurgence in the pandemic ended the plan.
For tech giants such as Samsung and LG Electronics, a virtualised CES is a bigger challenge. These companies normally build big, sophisticated displays showcasing their new technology over a massive area of the conference floor. Not only do they face being reduced to a virtualised presence, the big tech firms this year can’t demonstrate the wonders of 8K resolution with participants viewing them using an old monitor at home.
Ms Foster said big tech firms could opt for an advanced digital experience where they could broadcast live presentations and product demonstrations to up to 25,000 people. They could instantly set up meetings with small groups or people interested in a specific technology. She said some companies would set up their own micro site. “There will be a lot of opportunities for collaboration.”
LG Electronics has given The Australian a taste of its plans for CES 2021. It will livestream their media conference on the company’s YouTube channel and a microsite built specially for CES. They will use these platforms for other presentations.
They will conduct virtual booth tours and a “business solutions digitour”, a 3D showroom and display platform where visitors interact with the company’s display technologies. “This includes a massive 3D display wall that encompasses an entire room, new innovations in the corporate boardroom, huge displays for control rooms such as airports or stock markets and rooms built for the future of education,” says LG.
LG business solutions USA spokesman Damaris Toma said the cancellation of in-person events this year challenged the company to build an interactive virtual event platform with a high-level of photorealism that immerses users in the environment.
Samsung also will stream its media conference online and has foreshadowed virtual briefings and live broadcasts.
Telstra is an enthusiastic participant at CES. It doesn’t exhibit there although it does make announcements about new technologies and services. A Telstra spokesman said representatives would speak to specific themes during the event.
CES is bullish about its virtual conference. Mr Shapiro said he aimed for CES to be the best digital trade event that has occurred globally. However, he could not wait for its return as a physical format in 2022.
“The silver lining to me in a pandemic is it‘s made us realise our ‘humanness’, how much we need each other, how much we need that five second experience of being with each other.
“(In 2021), I’m looking forward to seeing CES in a way I never have before. Having said that, we will all want to go back to seeing each other face-to-face and we will. The events industry will survive because we’re human beings and we need each other.”
CES 2021 kicks off on January 12 AEDT (Jan 11 -14 US time) with a media-only day of more than 20 press conferences, to be followed by two days of live product demonstrations and exhibitor presentations. Videos and exhibitor material will remain online until February 15.
The Australian will cover CES 2021 with fresh reports online in the mornings of overnight events.