Friday, January 11, 2008

CES 2008 - Three Crazy Days in Vegas, Peter Frampton Comes Alive, Tech Rants, and MORE

- It's been a long time, but I'm back here with an all-new addition of the blog for '08. So ... where've I been? Well, this week was pure insanity, as I spent Monday through Wednesday in LAS VEGAS at the Consumer Electronics Show. This was my first ever trip to CES, and it was certainly a lot to take in. NBC Universal sent a ton of its employees to the show this year, since we had a huge booth and a big overall presence. So for me, it was somewhat exhausting as, even though we were in Vegas, there was a lot of business to take care of on this trip. Myself and the rest of the NBCU Digital Distribution team had a number of meetings to attend, as well as lunches, dinners, and other such gatherings. Don't worry though, there was time for fun -- in addition to getting to check out all the gadgetry on the CES show floor, NBC co-sponsored a Peter Frampton concert (!), I got to hang out a bit at the show with my BU buddy Jules (representing G4), and some co-workers and I also managed to hit up some Vegas hot spots like the Hard Rock casino and Pure at Ceaser's Palace to boot.

- Whoah, back up a second, you say? Okay ... well, yes, I did just allude to the fact that I got to witness a live (and free!) PETER FRAMPTON concert, co-sponsored by NBC Universal and Gibson, held at the Gibson tent at CES. So yeah, let me talk about that for a second. I mean, for all I knew, the concert would be a washed-up rocker phoning it in for a corporate mega-event. But that was anything BUT the case - for a solid hour, Frampton came alive, igniting the packed-in crowd of tech-geeks with a number of vintage favorites as well as some newer material and even a random cover or two. Not to mention the fact that, due to the relatively small size of the standing-room only venue, I saw Frampton perform while standing mere feet away from the rock n' roll legend. Did I mention how awesome this concert was? We got great versions of "Baby I Love Your Way," "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and my personal favorite, "Show Me The Way" (complete with the classic wa-wah-wah electronic distortion). Frampton then broke out a surprisingly kickass, all-instrumental cover of Soundgarden's classic "Blackhole Sun" (random, I know), a few other instrumentals, and an absolutely blistering rendition of "(I'll Give You) Money", which 100% rocked, and had me, dressed in dress-shirt and tie from earlier in the day, flashing the devil-horns in admiration and banging my head in time to the throbbing guitar solos. Finally, Frampton and his excellent band (which included the fro'd-out, denim-vest-wearing guitarist of the Black Crowes!) brought it home with an extended version of Do You Feel Like We Do, complete with jam-session style solos, vocal interludes, and even some self-mocking humor from Frampton. Sure, the man was older and balder than the iconic image of 70's-rock that most people associate with him, but hot damn, he could still go. I mean, the guy twitches and convulses while playing his guitar and singing like a man possessed, and his voice pretty much sounded the same as ever. So yeah, seeing Frampton, live and up close, sincerely rocked, and was easily the highlight of my Vegas CES trip. I want you-ou-ou ... to show me the way-ay!

- As for the CES show itself ... well, it was a lot to take in, and in some ways I'd have to say a bit underwhelming. There was no one new piece of technology in particular that really stood out, and the booths from the major AV companies like Panasonic, LG, Samsung, and Phillips were mostly indistinguishable from one another. Sure, each expansive booth had a cool design created to impress, but the content of each company's offerings were nearly identical - big TV's, flat TV's, and this year, 3-D TV's (all of the 3D stuff this year was kind of cool, but ultimately somewhat gimmicky). Meanwhile, the rest of the CES show floor is littered with second-tier companies who stock up on booth-babes to draw the attention of overwhelmed show-goers - it makes for an oddball mix of buttoned-up tech execs, scruffy geek-journalists, and scantily-clad women intermingling on the vast show floor.

Honestly, it felt like CES at this point is pretty much living in the shadow of more buzz-worthy conventions, most especially E3. More than ever, right now, CONTENT is king, and to me it was clear that in the world of tech, the videogame biz is where the action is, and has been for a good while. It was no surprise to me then to see that some of CES' biggest crowds were the hordes of eager patrons who lined up to see the demo of Metal Gear Solid 4 at the Sony booth, or to play some of the newest X-Box MMO's at Microsoft's. I know that for myself, while it's impressive to see gaudy displays of consumerism like Panasonic's ridiculous 150" TV, the real excitement lies in CONTENT, in movies, TV, and games. MGS 4 to me WAS clearly the coolest thing at the show, because at some point a TV can only be so interesting without anything cool to take advantage of the 1080p resolution and HDMI outputs.

And part of it too is that games, in their own way, are a form of art. And yet, in most of the gadgets on display at CES, there is no real artistry to be found. You find either the same old products, rendered bigger, slimmer, etc., or else products that are such cheap knockoffs of slickly-designed gear like the iPhone that it makes you wonder how these Apple-wannabes live with themselves. I mean, seeing row after row of bland and soulless consumer product does tend to give one a newfound appreciation for a company like Apple or Nintendo that actually sets out and creates something with a unique and definitive vision. The fact that Apple, Nintendo, the gaming divisions of Sony and Microsoft, and any other third-party game developers like Sega or Capcom are almost wholly absent from the show to me leaves a gaping hole in what is viewable at CES. It's like this 3-D technology in TV's I mentioned earlier. As it was at the show, there was not much to really get excited about. But man, match up the right content to the right tech, and it's a whole other story. I mean, if I were to don some goofy glasses in order to see, say, Star Wars, remastered in eye-popping 3-D? Well, now we're talking.

And then, the other really disheartening thing about CES is that the "C' seems to be all but lost in the equation. In the race to have the biggest and best TV's and the slickest and most feature-packed gadgets like cell phones and mp3 players, the average consumer is ultimately forgotten about. Personally, I'd much rather see an emphasis on technology that is actually REASONABLY AFFORDABLE to the average person. HDTV's are still way too expensive as compared to what plain ol' SD TV's were going for a few years ago. Game consoles like the PS3 and XBox 360 are still way too expensive to compete with the technologically-inferior but more reasonably-priced Wii. Too many companies at CES seemed to be unveiling products aimed only at the highest of high-end consumers - I wish they would pool some of their resources into making products that the average joe can actually afford.

On the other hand, let me give credit to NBCU for being the one real CONTENT company with a huge presence at CES. As I've been saying, this new tech is more and more about delivering content in new and different ways, so it's becoming increasingly vital for content companies like NBCU to directly partner with hardware manufacturers. Seeing the NBCU booth become the center of attention at the show, it made me happy to be on the content side of things and not in hardware, where the business is so much more about one-upping the competition and trying to sell consumers on overpriced and overfeatured product that few actually want or need. At least I can look at NBCU and be proud of the fact that we're producing smart, funny, creative content like 30 Rock, The Office, etc. and that we indeed have that artistic and creative aspect to our business.

Anyways, that's my rant on CES ... overall, it was a fun but totally draining trip, one where I had to be "on" 24/7 with little sleep and lots of running around. But man, Peter Frampton live in concert, a hotel suite that was a few times larger than my entire LA apartment, and the chance to see a bunch of mostly pointless yet sporadically cool technology of tommorow in action? Not a bad deal.

- And finally, speaking of 30 ROCK, awesome to have a new episode last night of the show I dubbed TV's BEST OF 2007. I was a bit leery of some of the more sitcomish elements in last night's ep, but the hilariously random "Midnight Train to Georgia" number that concluded the show helped to remind me why 30 Rock rules it.

Anyways, thank the lord it's the weekend. I'll probably be asleep for most of it.

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