The International CES, Las Vegas 2015

I have learned a few things ‘˜pon the ‘˜net. And one thing I can rely upon is the public’s ever decreasing attention span. It is even kicking e-book readers in the bollocks! To my utter delight, despite getting a lot of my mum’s work digitised, the sales of Nooks, Kindles and other e-readers have ground to a halt as the adopters only need one while the sales of print books are increasing again. Waterstone’s booksellers have posh new shops and folks are using them. Thus, I am certain that very few of you will object to my re-iteration of some of the nuggets from my last trip’s report for I have used material again, shamelessly.
It begins with an odd relationship
I have long had the oddest relationship with the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. For in the far off dawn of my career, when I was working for the UK importer of StreetWires, it was legendary in the car audio business. A far off land of amazement and indulgence. Incredible awesomeness in all shapes and conditions of sin. Everything you had ever heard was TRUE(even if they made it up, I later learned.)

We had this sales rep, who was insufferably unpleasant and happily let me know how only the people that really mattered got out to Las Vegas in very early January to the Winter Consumer Electronics Show or CES. (Now properly titled ‘International CES’ The name was shortened by the loss of the ‘˜Winter’ bit and the word ‘˜International’ was tacked on the front, as this is a big deal for Americans. (For us Brits, it is just a ferry with wings, fins or wheels.) but each year I would see the news, hear from folks who had been and ache for not getting there. The sheer variety and size of amazing car audio brands was the thing. And they all had incredible installs to show it offway past what we had here at the time. I wanted to go so bad, I could taste it.
Now, in the 21st Century, things have really changed and many brands have gone, leaving only the great, the good and the slightly odd-to-British-eyes. ‘˜AudioPipe,’ anyone? Most all the funny little traders have gone from the North Halls, while some big players have gone remote by suite or even doing their own thing nearby (which truly irritates show management) and there are way fewer demo vehicles. They can be just as nutty, just fewer. This year, Polaris were the big trendy ATV to use, in all forms, even the new Slingshot.

My very first trip was back in the days when I was ICE Editor at Max Power. The bosses of both ProPlus Audio and Fusion UK paid half each to get me out there to report. I was ecstatic! It was 1996. The Luxor was brand new and the Hacienda in its last days. link
It was before the days of digital photography. I had to take pricey transparency filmkeep it OUT of damn X-Ray machines and do my level best to get the shots. Of course, you would not even know if you had won or failed until the buffoonery of chemical development had been done to your films. I was rubbish. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth or Professional Photographers. In later years I could take one.
Now, that old 35mm camera is in the hands of a lomography student and this year, I took a serious slice of kit with me. A Canon EOS-7D, which came with a 17mm to 85mm lens, a 50mm to 500mm ‘˜Bigma’ lens by Sigma, as well as a 10mm to 20mm wide-mouthed-frog lens ‘for tight swims’ and a funky 100mm Macro lens. That’s some glass. Lastly, an expedition grade backpack, a hench tripod that Spike is jealous of and an old EOS 30D body, all bought from an eminent angler. For ‘tight swim’ think ‘whole boot at once’. In the event, it helped fit in ALL the turrets of the Excalibur hotel that I could see from my room. But I admit that I left the full paparazzo lens at home as I am so green. It was gotten hold of VERY close to the trip, so I spent a lot of Christmas fighting with a learning curve-for-use-by-an-idiot. It was hilarious. I had a tugboat SX-10iS ‘˜Bridge’ camera and now I was given the helm of an offshore powerboat with Lamborghini engines!
Back at the time warp, I stayed in a low-rise hotel called the Hacienda. I recall a wedding couple in the sunshine outside the doors.and the beautifully mature tropical plants in the glass walkway areas between room blocks. But now it is gone and since I lay ill with food poisoning that first year and never felt quite so alone, in the pre-mobile era, I was actually happy when it was razed to the ground and a mighty resort grew in its place. It even made the city rename the road outside.

It is the Mandalay Bay ‘˜Resort Hotel & Casino’, as they grandly call these vast edifices. The hugest hotels have their own extensive convention centres attached. And this one was put up in record time, with full size palm trees planted in the gardens out front. And this was to be my first location on this trip, again in 2015 for CES Unveiled. That’s already published, with less words and more video, from the Emerald press room.
But I still like to relate the Art Of The Schmooze, as in, ‘How in heck do you pull a swag like flight and board to Vegas, you lucky fat Herbert?’. Now, the Urban Dictionary defines schmooze as: ‘Making ingratiating small talk talk that is business oriented, designed to both provide and solicit personal information but avoids overt pitching. Most often an artefact of ‘˜networking.’ It is more art than science but can be learned.’ and I had a fine tutor who as well as being a writer and broadcaster could schmooze with the best. My mum.
Two years back, I learned of this wonderful concept. The CES Scholarship Journalist. These are the exalted few, who get selected to go to the CES as guests of the CEA. That’s the trade organisation that owns and runs the show, called the Consumer Electronics Association of America. It is also the source of the world-recognised truth-in-rating system of CEA-approved wattage ratings on amplifiers for cars. This was awesome news and to my shame I cannot recall who told me about it. But I was filled with deadly purpose. I had not been since 2009, in the depths of the US housing crisis when it was depressingly quiet. It even rained. I needed to go again, to exorcise the last trip! And by Newton, I did! That I managed to do it again this year is probably because my old Home Cinema Choice editor Steve May was offered a scholarship place but was already under Panasonic’s wing for the trip! I am sure it was HIS place that I swagged! But I schmoozed like hell and was lucky enough to get invited to the Groucho Club in London for CES Unveiled London. Very exclusive this year
1) I told the CEA top boss Gary Shapiro, JUST how exclusive and cool and what a stroke had been pulled by the PR agency for getting a private room at the Groucho.
2) Becky Maurice-Cohen of the agency, actually named ‘˜PRPR’, told the right CEA executive, ‘Adam was so prolific, there was so much stuff last time, that it actually got annoying.’
I could have kissed her.
I was again, spoiled rotten and in a show that saw a lot of people, some 170,000 and a new record at that, where 10,000 steps had just been recorded on Gary Shapiro’s fitness wearable wristband and 27 miles walked on carpets in three days was one record I heard of, my longest walk was really from my room to the bus rotunda out the back of the Excalibur hotel. Route 2, Mandalay Bay, Excalibur and Luxor to LVCC.

My Route 2 bus stopped just outside the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the first of 200 yards of herring-boned bus stops. Just inside, a tiny lift, (heaven forefend I should walk to the escalator) and upstairs a tiny press room called Emerald.
Whereas the main concourse is mayhem, the main press room a quarter mile distant or more is merely hectic. Think of that crossroads crossing in Japan that everyone films, then a really busy club with no dancing and finally, a village hall. Small and perfectly-formed, the Emerald Press Room is for the use of the top end and the scholarship journalists. I even did a video of the staff as they were so sweet.
I can tell you that sitting in a comfy low sofa, supping coffee, noshing bagels and putting away my ham and cheese Kaiser roll for lunch, all provided by the CEA, while it is crazy downstairs, is like first class on an aeroplane, for the staff and real estate is like gold! The victuals provided in the main press room go like locusts visited. You gotta get in early!
My area of enterprise was just downstairs and into the North Hall where Pioneer, JVC, Kenwood and more were. My feet hurt but my miles were low, really.
I am one very lucky and grateful journalist.

I made video material with my target companies this year. Over and over again, I would have to invade and ingratiate and it worked. Of course, my old buds at the Orion, MMats, Cerwin Vega and MTX booths alike, greeted me like an old git they have been seeing on and off for twenty years. Funny that!
Also, I met and worked again with the chaps at Pioneer, Alpine, (where I bask in the delight of shaking hands with Steve Crawford, the coolest top noggin at any car audio company anywhere, all time, worldwide) and JVC and Kenwood. I also went off to the Hotel That Is No Longer Called The Hilton to find Clarion who were lovely. Their suite is part of the CES but ‘˜private’ or by invitation-only, so it was cool of them to hit the deck running and let me interview an executive named Jubal Leierer (pronounce that.. ‘˜leer’) who was a seasoned expert video star and was a cool dude to boot.

I also spent an evening each after show hours at the Palms, to see JL Audio and then the Hard Rock to see Rockford Fosgate and to interview Steve Meade for Fast Car magazine. I am to do a feature on his legendary Tahoe and also to run a four page interview.

OK, as Rifiki the Wise Old Baboon used to say. It is tiiime!
I have not so much as plugged in a Compact Flash card before so as I type, I feel the mild adrenaline of being an old dog about to learn a new trick kicking in. I shall go and see how my pictures worked.
Wish me luck!
WOW! I am definitely in love with my new EOS 7D kit and the serious power of Talk Audio. I plugged in the 32Giggflop CF card to the old reader in a slot I never used before and POW!
Grab a cuppa, or go off to the loo and be ready to let yer bum go dry as this is the biggest captioned gallery I ever created. I hope you like it.
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