Week Thirty-Nine In Which I Cross EVERYTHING!

In the USA, the electronics industry is measured in the way that tractor-pulling nitro methanol fuelled dragsters measure their horsepower. Yes, tractors by the thousand horsepower, like. ‘Three and a half’ for one with multiple 427 cube engines. And the retail value of the USA’s consumer electronics trade is measured in BILLIONS of Dollars like 1.4.
So the world’s biggest and most exciting electronics show is always the one in January in Las Vegas. The CES. I have been lucky enough to have been several times down the years and have a deeply complex relationship with the place as my mum hated gambling with a passion as she only ever got to see the problem end. Now, I have an old friend who works in the deep data end of online poker rooms and has worked extensively in Vegas. He told me of a group of friends for whom one big deal each year was to take a fixed amount of money, a whopping $20,000 each and use it to get the five of them comped royally at a casino hotel as they gamble the lot each year for the last twenty years. It sounds insane but is really about the money itself being the toy that and betting the lot on who will win the right to call the toss of the coin that starts Superbowl. (let alone who WINS the toss) That’s the event they gather for in Vegas to celebrate and holiday with. And that was one guy’s gambling over immediately!
And I have been spoiled rotten in getting there by Pioneer in particular, who in wealthier times have taken me to CES as well as SEMA too, (the more car parts oriented show also with car audio and electronics.) Also, Clarion and Kenwood and even Blaupunkt, gosh thinking about it, I am almost embarrassed at how jammy it seems. But I can tell you that for all the press lookee-after and stuff the CEA organisers give and coddle you with, the show is so intense and huge that any journalist worth their salt will work like a mad dervish, whirling the halls like an unstoppable reporting machine until they get kicked out at the end of the day. While the trade business gets done early, the reporters slave like nutters!
And this year I am off to CES Unveiled. An invitation only jaunt in London as also held in other vital-market cities worldwide and hoping to find out more about a way to get to Las Vegas, funded by a scholarship programme. Keep everything crossed for me as I hope to get on that bus and want to, so badly!
Meanwhile, I have pulled a huge stroke out in Sound Off Land, so look for an ALPINE news story. Behind, as ever.
Adam Rayner On Line Editor