Special Order by Larry Thomas

Live from CES: Complaints sound familiar

Will show be leaving Las Vegas?

By Larry Thomas

LAS VEGAS — Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Attendees at a major trade show are upset about hotel owners jacking up rates during the show, and there’s a chance the show may move out of the offending city.

No, I’m not talking about the High Point furniture market, but about CES. And, of course, the city in question is Las Vegas — the same city that, of course, is the site of a furniture market that many see as a threat to High Point.

A spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Assn., the organizer of CES, told msnbc.com earlier this week that the group is considering moving the massive show to another city because of the increasing costs of conducting the event in Vegas.

“We’ve heard from our attendees, from our exhibitors … that the rates of hotels during the International CES are increasing out of proportion from what they think it should be,” Jason Oxman, chief spokesman for the association, was quoted as saying.

The show, which has been in Las Vegas for 31 years, will be back here next year, (Jan. 8-11), but Oxman made no commitments beyond 2009.

If group decides to pull out of Vegas, it will be a struggle to find a city with sufficient convention center space. This year, CES occupied about 1.8 million square feet by using the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, about half the Sands Expo Center, all of the Las Vegas Hilton’s convention center and a number of ballrooms at the Venetian Hotel, which is adjacent to the Sands.

Live from CES: Innovative furniture wins awards

Chairs offer booming sound, back massage

By Larry Thomas

LAS VEGAS — At last! I can use the words “furniture” and innovation” in the same sentence because two furniture companies were among the winners of the prestigious CES “Innovations Award” that are handed out at each show to spotlight cutting-edge products.

Repose, a company that distributes chairs for gaming enthusiasts, was honored for a new model called the Bonerattler that has built-in speakers and a subwoofer, and employs a wireless technology so the chair doesn’t have to be connected to the gamer’s monitor.

And Human Touch (formerly known as Interactive Health) won the award for its new zero-gravity massage chair. Judges were especially impressed with the chair’s Accupoint Detection System that scans the entire length of the user’s back and creates a map of key pressure points to target during the massage.

I tried out both award-winners — I know it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it — and came away favorably impressed. Too bad I don’t have room for either one in my house.

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Although the 140,000 CES attendees (including more than 4,000 with press credentials) generate untold tons of garbage each day, the show is billing itself as a “green” event because 75% of the food containers and utensils used by the Las Vegas Convention Center are fully biodegradable. Plus, all of the surplus food is donated to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission.

In addition, literature for marketgoers is printed on post-consumer recycled paper with soy ink, and the Convention Center staff uses only non-hazardous cleaning solvents and soaps.

A group called Carbonfund.org has lauded the show’s efforts for making a significant reduction in its “carbon footprint.”

The green theme is found throughout the show floor itself, as well, with numerous exhibitors touting a variety of energy-saving products. Just one example is a new plasma TV from Panasonic that uses half the power of earlier Panasonic plasmas.

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As if consumers aren’t already confused by the competing flat-panel technologies — plasma, LCD (liquid crystal display) and DLP (digital light processing) — Sony has unveiled the first OLED television for the U.S. market.

For those of you who aren’t techno-geeks, that stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. Don’t ask me to explain how OLED differs from the other three. I still haven’t figured out how to use my teen-age daughter’s iPod.

Live from CES: Choose a format, DVD makers!

Blu-ray, HD war has retail casualties

By Larry Thomas

LAS VEGAS — One sure way to raise the ire of Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson is to ask him about the format war among the makers of next-generation DVD players. 

During a panel discussion here Tuesday, Anderson made it clear he’s sick of the sniping between purveyors of the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats — one of which will eventually replace the standard DVD format in use today. 

“It’s time to get that solved,” he said sternly. “It’s one of the most frustrating things my employees have to deal with.”

He said Best Buy employees don’t like to recommend a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD player because many of the latest movies are available in only one of the new formats. As a result, many consumers have said they’re simply not going to buy any DVD player until industry can agree on a single format, he told the audience.

Last weekend, Warner Bros. shocked the industry by announcing it would no longer release new movies on in HD-DVD, opting to use Blu-ray as its exclusive next-generation format.

“That probably moved the needle a little bit, but by no means are we going to declare a winner,” added panel member Steve Eastman, general merchandise manager for consumer electronics at Target.

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The 20 World Market Center home furnishings showrooms open during CES haven’t been overwhelmed with buyers, but exhibitors who worked hard to secure appointments prior to the show seem pleased with the results.

“The quality of the buyers we are seeing is excellent,” said Karl Eulberg, vice president of sales and marketing at Kathy Ireland Home by Martin. “We’ve had a lot of interest in our line from (the consumer electronics) channel.”

Spurred largely by ready-to-assemble major Bush Inds., which opened its showroom during last year’s CES with little support, the WMC marketed the event heavily this time and operated a shuttle for buyers.

“I was very pleased with the way the World Market Center handled this,” added Linda Owen, national sales manager at Riverside. “It makes so much sense for these showrooms to be open.”

Most of the showrooms that are open sell entertainment furniture, but a few decorative accessories and lighting spaces also are welcoming CES buyers. 

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If you want to check out some on-scene reporting from real CES experts, take a look at the stories and video blogs from our sister publication TWICE (short for This Week in Consumer Electronics.) The site is at www.twice.com. Click the “CES Daily” box for all the scoops.