Las Vegas: “Smart TVs” will be all over the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, although exactly what makes a TV “smart” will still be a vision in progress. Intel, which is pushing the “Smart TV” theme as its “inaugural venture outside the PC market” claims “smart” means “integrated, interactive TV that seamless maries the power of the Web to the television viewing experience.” The chip-maker’s first “smart TV” deal is for digital signage via Clear Channel Spectacolor, which will be displayed at a Las Vegas Strip shopping mall as well as at the CES convention hall. Intel’s booth will include a “Visibly Smart” interactive zone where the company will highlight its latest Core processors for TV sets.
Meanwhile, LG Electronics, which has been using the term “Smart TV” for nearly a year to describe its Internet-connected features, is introducing a new “Smart TV Upgrader,” a set-top box that expands the ‘net access options. Prices have not yet been revealed; LG expects the devices will roll out in Spring.
And TCL, the Chinese TV set manufacturer whose roots include the old Thomson and RCA brands, will unveil its “smart TV product line-up” using the Digital Interactive interface for Video and Audio (DiiVA), a newly established technology standard for next-generation home entertainment architecture, according to the TCL Group.
This deluge of “smart TVs” will be part of the annual electronics extravaganza’s focus on new ways to use digital TV. CES, which takes over Las Vegas from January 6 to 9, will also see new developments from mobile Digital TV promoters and a deluge of tablets – rivals to the Apple iPad – which are increasingly being marketed as mobile media display devices. “Apps” will be part of the tablet package.
Reflecting the broad sweep of CES activities is the annual appearance of the FCC Chairman who is expected to mull over issues from Net Neutrality to spectrum allocation. Julius Genachowski will sit down (on stage in front of hundreds of people) on Friday afternoon for a chat with Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro to discuss regulatory topics – and presumably such business issues as the Comcast-NBC merger.
The expected CES attendees – equaling or exceeding last year’s crowd of 126,000 people – will largely be in a good mood. The event’s temperament is usually governed by the results of holiday sales, and TV set sales in November-December were up at least 5% above the dismal 2009 levels. At the same time, the 3D TV frenzy seems to have cooled – although all of the big TV makers – Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Vizio, LG and others – will update their lineup of 3D equipment.
The bigger question surrounds Internet-connected TV sets, including the “smart TV” products. Forecasters continue to spout predictions that 50% or more of TV sets in the next few years will include technology to access Web video or video apps. Yet the sputtering of the Google TV launch this fall has raised warning flags, as did the modest embrace of Web-linked TV sets this season.
Sony, Toshiba, Sharp and other companies have announced plans to put the Google TV Chrome browser into TV displays, but reports continue to claim that Google has asked most of them to scale back such launch plans. (Sony’s first Google TV device went on sale in October.) One reason for the go-slow approach has been restrictions that Hulu and TV networks (including NBC, ABC and Fox) have put on allowing their dot.com content to appear on the Google TV browser. There’s also the confusing proposition of Apps-enabled TV sets (a walled garden) versus the browser-driven “smart” TVs. Customers are just learning the difference between these variations of Web-accessible TV sets.
More companies will also be showing set-top boxes for “over–the-top” access to Web-delivered video. Companies such Boxee, Sezmi and Roku are stepping up their campaigns to lure viewers to their approaches to ‘net video content.
Separately, the world of mobile TV will be visible on several fronts in Las Vegas. Despite the recent costly flop of Qualcomm’s “FloTV” mobile venture, two other major initiatives will be highly visible at CES.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition is coordinating an mDTV Tech Zone that will showcase products and services from 10 companies, including the two new broadcast business groups, the Mobile Content Venture and the Mobile500 Alliance, which are developing content for mobile handsets. OMVC will also release findings of its Washington-Baltimore marketing field trials conducted during the past 8 months. Samsung, LG and others will unveil new handsets and portable devices that can pick up the expanding broadcast TV stations’ mobile signals.
Meanwhile, mobility takes another form in the wireless Web world. At least 80 new tablet devices will be on display – with no guarantees about which ones will survive the market during the coming year. LG will show a prototype tablet that can display 3D images without the need for special viewing glasses. Again, price and rollout timetable are not yet available.
For CES-goers who get tired of the endless aisles of hardware, there are dozens of conferences, keynotes and “supersessions” where attendees can tune into thoughts and visions of where the converging industries are heading.
“Media Money Makers,” a high-level conference featuring top executives, focuses on how to monetize content in the cross-platform environment. Executives from NBC, CBS and Scripps Networks, among others, will offer strategic insights from their content development and marketing experiences. “Digital Hollywood” takes a more tactical look at programming, advertising and other business experiences. The new “Content in the Cloud” conference examines inventive ways to deliver digital content in the emerging Internet environment.
As the electronics business emerges from a couple low-growth years, the mood at CES is likely to be upbeat – fueled by an array of new products and categories (such as wireless home networking). For the past couple years, CES has been about marketing existing products – despite last year’s 3D frenzy.
The dizzying confluence of electronics merchants and manufacturers continues to become more daunting at CES. Of the 2,500 exhibitors at the Convention Center – not including the countless vendors showing their wares in hotel suites – include at least 166 companies with the word “Shenzhen” in their names. That’s 6% of the exhibit booths. Shenzhen is a city north of Hong Kong that is an electronics manufacturing hot spot.
Experts are expecting the 2011 CES to resemble shows during the booming mid-decade. This time sizzling new products and promising new categories – including interactive, immersive programming content for videogames and other platforms – lead the march into a new entertainment decade.
–Gary Arlen ([email protected]) is President of Arlen Communications LLC, a Bethesda, MD, research firm. He is a veteran CES-goer and is producing a conference at the upcoming CES.
