According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), some 122,422 people from 120 countries came to the oasis in the desert to see and showcase the latest and greatest in digital technology. The show was spread out over 1.2 million net square feet of exhibit space. That's a whole lot of walking, so much so that even with the four days I had I was unable to meet and see everyone on my list. But I think we made a good impression as a team, and covered a lot of ground at CES.
After quite a few press conferences with the majors such as Sony, Xtant, Pioneer, JBL, Kenwood, JVC, Coustic, and MTX it was time to go see what the satellite buzz was all about at both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Their booths were filled with people who wanted to get the inside scoop. It was nice to see that "music" itself was the big ruckus of the show. We love music and these two new services for content delivery are going to help supply the demand for the information and entertainment which are so limited on regular radio. The second big buzz was about MP3. With all the major head unit manufacturers developing technology to compete with early-bird companies like Rio/ empeg it is clear that compressed music is here to stay. Obviously there is a lot of money to be made, as well as a lot of room for development in this nascent area. As of this writing Rio plans to drop a 10 gig, single DIN in-dash head unit come April. I actually met someone at the show with the UK version. The UK cats are so ahead of us when it comes to this whole music/MP3/Internet thing.
What you will read in our coverage of CES that follows is a survey of sorts of what the CA&E troopers thought about the show, what was the hot new gear or car audio vehicle, and what we thought of the technology that is on the horizon. Last year we were the first car audio-related magazine to break the MP3 story, thanks to Tim Kelly; so of course we asked him to follow up with this year's findings. If you did not read my opening letter please go back and do so before you read my CES picks.
* Satellite Radio from XM & Sirius: The revolution will not be televised, the revolution is in the air!* Blaupunkt "plastic" amp: compact and cool; keeping up with technology and fashion, it's a great new look for the car audio environment. I can't wait to try this new item!* Kenwood's satellite/MP3 head unit Z828: hot-looking and first on the market to combine all of what I want.* JBL Gti Subwoofers: 5,000 watts and sound quality integrity.* Radar plate from BLINDER: anything to fight the system.* Xtant octi'woofer: best new design; what a creative fashion move.* Sony's world's smallest 6-disc player: it's all about making things more compact while improving quality.* Sony's DJ bank: don't think turntables or CD mixers; this is a serious downloading machine.* Alpine's E30 M3 demo car: absolutely pure; pure sound and pure performance all in one package.* Pioneer's new DVD/Nav unit and advanced OEL screen: pioneers indeed.* JVC KDSH99 heat unit: for the budget-minded with some real beef with all metal face. People need to recognize...* Rainbow's Reference Line 260.30 / $7,000 separates: if I had Master P's money this would be it! Component speakers and crossover transported in a super deluxe aluminum carrying case with membership card; the sound has to be great with this much attention to detail!* Garmin's Street Pilot III GPS unit - I used last year's model on a trip from Florida to California driving the Intrax rig. It works like any military tracking device.
As you can see, I have not built a complete dream system or a budget system with all my picks, but these are a few major pieces that caught my attention. We will see how things go over the next few months. Review the directory well!