CES 2016

Flashback: CES 1986

SV Staff  |  Jan 7, 2016

The consumer electronics landscape was a very different place 30 years ago. There was no Internet. The marriage of audio and video had yet to be consummated. Brick-size cellphones were a curiosity/status symbol.

Audio and video were the undisputed kings of CES 1986, a time when around 20 percent of U.S. households owned a VCR but less than 10 percent had a personal computer and only 2 percent had a CD player (a figure that would double to 5 percent by the end of the year).

What do you remember about CES 1986? And if you're too young to remember—or weren't born yet!—what intrigues you most about that era?


CES 1985…


Vegas 30 years ago.

COMMENTS
gnagus's picture
Submitted by gnagus on January 7, 2016 - 3:32pm

Color photography!

dnoonie's picture
Submitted by dnoonie on January 7, 2016 - 5:21pm

I don't remember CES that year but in 1986 I was purchasing CDs and excited about the format.

Other electronics stuff I was into at the time:
* Car stereo
* Radar detectors
* Just wetting my feet with Speaker building

It wasn't until the late 90s that I became interested in video.

Cheers,

Thomas J. Norton's picture
Submitted by Thomas J. Norton on January 7, 2016 - 7:28pm
In 1986 I had just started writing for Stereophile, was in the Air Force, and stationed at Nellis Air Force Base here in Las Vegas. I took leave so I could drive the half hour to CES in the morning and drive home again at night.

The strip was nothing like it is today; much of the land south of Tropicana Boulevard was open desert. $5.00 (or free!) buffets were common. I always spent the first day at the convention center (we called it the zoo) scoping out obscure audio stuff (I didn't even notice the video). The other three days were dedicated to either the Sahara or the Riviera, where the high end audio action was in that era. There was no home automation, custom installations, personal and wearable electronics, or home theater. Home Theater, if it existed (no one then used that term) consisted of a 25-inch standard definition CRT television, the TV sound, and a VHS tape or, more likely, a broadcast of a movie.

Without CD-ROMs, flash drives, the Internet, or home computers we all collected six-inch high stacks of brochures on everything of interest. With a smaller product mix, the crowds were half the size as today's nearly unmanageable throngs. But it was all just as exciting as it is now: We didn't know any better! I suspect the same will be aid in 2046. But by then we'll probably do everything on line. That would be all wrong; getting to meet new press colleagues andindustry friends and visit with old ones is a big part of the attraction of CES.

Good gravy, I sound like Ed Canby. And if you know that reference, you're just a bad off as I am!

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