Another year, another CES. I’ve been doing them for so long you think they’d become second nature, or even boring. But they always surprise, and there’s always too much of interest to see in the show’s four short days, jostling through 175,000 of my closest friends.
What do Hunter S. Thomson, Philip K. Dick, and L. Ron Hubbard all have in common? For starters, they all use an initial in their names, and anyone who does that is obviously trying hard to appear to be intellectual. More important, I think they would all have enjoyed attending this year's CES.
Like many demos at CES 2016, this 2.35:1 (21x9) “scope” curved LCD widescreen Ultra HD design was likely brought in to test its commercial viability with the army of retailers who attend CES. According to the information I received, however, TCL (a Chinese company) does plan to distribute it in Hong Kong, at least initially.
Monitor Audio's Alan Hook (6'4") posed next to Monitor Audio's PL500II at CES 2016. The speaker is one of the models in the company's newly redesigned Platinum II speaker series.
Arcam has added Dirac Live to its new range of receivers. The headliner shown at CES 2016 was the AVR 850 with Dolby Atmos, HDMI 2.0a, HDCP 2.2, and 7 channels of Class G amplification at $6,000...
Wolf Cinema has upgraded its existing four projector platforms for 2016. It showcased the STC-15 ($15,000) at CES on a 10-foot wide, Seymour Screen Excellence 2.35:1 screen. It's images were truly spectacular...
It’s a few days after CES and I’m finally winding down from the relentless press events, press releases, and my feet have forgiven me for the miles of hiking the floors of the Convention Center. My waistline, however, may take a while to recover from the receptions and cocktail parties that manufacturers love to host during CES.
Sony showed one of the coolest audio innovations of the Consumer Electronics Show with the debut of the company’s new PS-HX500 turntable. While the HX500 is a fully functional, belt-driven turntable on its own with an analog output that can feed any audio system, it also features a USB output that can be connected to a computer to create ultra-high resolution, exact digital captures of the album including all of the vinyl's signature sound.
With TV makers focused on releasing 4K TVs with an expanded range of capabilities (HDR, wide color gamut, etc.) at CES 2016, the idea of a consumer 8K TV seems far off. Japanese broadcaster NHK has been demonstrating 8K for several years now at trade shows, however, and it plans to use the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as a platform to debut an 8K-res TV broadcast format.
Netgear’s Nighthawk X8 AC 5300 (model R8500) router is impressive at first look with an undulating case with antennas lit by blue LEDs. It won’t be long before we are streaming 4K to more than one TV while connecting to the internet on several mobile devices wirelessly. This router can handle the load