Archive for January, 2008

If you’ve never seen the t-shirt TV up close, it’s hard to fully appreciate it.  I first saw these in New York a couple of years ago, and they really do make you stop in your tracks.

Day two had me out wandering the show floor again. While Gizmodo and Engadget have been posting on everything from a pig shaped iPod dock to robot shaped iPod docks, I thought I’d look at stuff that I might actually buy or use (or play).

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin spoke today at CES and did a Q&A with Gary Shapiro, President & CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association. In his remarks, he talked about the coming Digital Transition, confirming that the “hard date” continues to be set in stone.

I neglected to mentioned that Brian Roberts had three guest appearances as part of his presentation. Toshihiro Sakamoto, President of Panasonic AVC Networks Company, came out to talk about the two tru2way-enabled HD sets that will be available later this year, as well as the AnyPlay device.

I’ve been to CES a few times over the last five years. On my first few trips, it did seem a little odd to notice cable’s absence.

Earlier this morning I attended the keynote address given by Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast. Paul did as well, and I suspect he’ll post himself, but it’s probably good to get two different perspectives.

In addition to the gadgets and tech discussions at CES, there is a lot of consumer education going on. It seems everywhere you look there are posters or ads for some public awareness campaign or another.

In a heated, often contentious, and exceedingly entertaining panel on the role of copyright in the face of a changing media landscape, panelists Fred Cannon (BMI), Ted Cohen (TAG Strategic), David M.

Today, there was a SuperSession run by CNET entitled “Next Big Thing,” in which CNET editors set out to reveal what’s coming in three key areas: automobiles, personal handhelds and television.

In addition to the earlier CES panel on the DTV Transition (which had focused on the coupon program and retailers), there was another session later that afternoon entitled “Goodbye Analog Hello DTV” which examined current educational efforts to get the public ready for the big change.

It’s official as of this morning. CableLabs announced that the “tru2way™” brand will replace use of the term “OpenCable Platform.” You may recall that the initiative, which began back in ’97 with the goal of helping the cable industry deploy interactive services, was previous known as OCAP.

As I mentioned earlier, I took a quick trip through the exhibit hall this morning to scope out the new tech toys on display.  If you are a gadget freak like me, this is truly nerd-vana.  My favorite so far has to be the MyVu personal video system.

With the DTV transition just over a year away, a lot of talk here at CES is focused on the impact of that change. Analog broadcasting ends on February 17, 2009.

I had hoped to live-blog the Television 2.0 panel, but unfortunately was running late getting in (I took a stroll through one of the exhibit halls first, more on that later).

In my first post, I thought I’d give you a little background on myself. I have worked in the cable industry for 16 years. I’ve always been around the film and television business; my father worked for a broadcast network for 20 years.