Proof You Have Too Much Money, Part XXII

On a totally unrelated topic, here's a crazy video about a car elevator in Singapore. Proof, it seems, that you can have too much money.

CES 2013: Flotsam and Jetsam Edition

 CES 2013 has come to a close, and all that's left is take down the booths and take some Advil. The amount of work that is involved in putting together a trade show as big as CES or NAB is mind-boggling. And those nice fancy booths - well, they have to be designed, built and then shipped in. Here is a small, small section of crates that hide behind the convention centre. 

 And these little puppies help put those booths together. Again, just a small portion of the cherry pickers that are hiding out of sight at the convention centre. 

And no trade show blog entry series would be complete without a Darth Vader reference. This is for USB flash drives.

Final thoughts on CES? Well, it was a record-breaking CES. Exhibt space - 1.9 million square feet. Over 150,000 attendees. CES claims over 20,000 product announcements, but certainly in DV Dude's world nothing earth shattering. There is a couple of new camcorders coming - the Canon G20, the Panasonic X920. A bunch of new compact cameras. But mainly - zzzzzzzzzzzzz. All the big, exciting stuff was done at Photokina or earlier. Except for that beautiful Samsung 110" display.  

 

CES 2013: The Weird and Wonderful, Miscellaneous Edition

 One of the nice things about photo companies trade show booths are the mini-galleries they put up on the walls of their booths. They are always great pictures, and it turns a trade show into a gallery. Mr. Dude wishes he had taken this picture, which was hanging on the Nikon wall. But instead the photographer was Dave Black, using a Nikon D3S. Good stuff Dave.

 The Polaroid name was bought out in its bankruptcy proceedings, and the company has been re-launched selling everything from photo accessories to TVs to DVD players and much much more. But this caught DV Dude's eye - a re-vamped Polaroid instamatic camera, the Z2300. It can make 2x3" prints in about a minute. Not great image quality, but then again, neither was the original Polaroid.

 Technicolor had a booth, and they were demonstrating their new consumer colour correction software for video. Think of it as the iMovie version of DaVinci Resolve. A lot simpler to use than Resolve, but still very powerful, and can be more sophisticated if you want it to be. Asif Ahmed of Reel Engery Entertainment was demoing the software, and he did a great job. Mr. Dude was impressed with the ease of use, the real-time rendering, and the ability to grow with it.  

CES has a small section dedicated to robots (I did a couple of pictures for the last CES), and there is always something cool yet creepy at the same time about them. The robots on display at CES range from cute toys to massage to housekeeping bots. This little guy is just screaming "Take me to your leader!" Yes, they will rule us one day.  
 

CES 2013: The Wild And The Wonderful, Audio Edition

 

CES always has some wild things on display. The above was from Behringer - they claim it is the world's biggest boombox. The iNuke Boom has 10,000 watts, is about 4 feet tall, and thankfully has AirPlay. And just to make sure you realize how big it is, the iNuke is the big black box, not the little white box on top of the black box.  

 

This company last year was showing a Jack Daniel's guitar, and don't worry, it is still available. This year, they were showing a "Walking Dead" guitar. The Dude is a big fan of the AMC TV Series, but not sure I'd want one of these. 

 

But if you do go for the Walking Dead guitar, you might as well as get the matching Walking Dead guitar picks. 

From the same company, this bright pink guitar caught my eye. Don't tell him, but this is what Sean is getting for his birthday.  

CES 2013: 4K Everywhere!

As anticipated, there was a ton of 4K products on display. 4K TVs do look very nice, and up-rezed 1080 content looks surprising good - there is some engine in the TVs that up-rez it and somehow make it look better than the original 1080 footage. And there were demos of 4K playing off BluRay. So for the next 2 years we are going to hear a lot about 4K. Besides showing a lot of very nice (and very large) TVs, there were some technological previews shown. Sony showed a prototype 4K video camera under glass.

Not to be out-done, Panasonic also showed off a prototype 4K video camera, under glass as well, but at least it was functional. It was sending out a live signal to a 4K monitor that looked quite impressive.  

And just to make everyone feel inadequate, Sharp was showing off this 8K TV. So we are in the very very early days of 4K, and already it is obsolete. So that decides it - I'm going to skip 4K, and 8K, and wait for 16K.  

 

CES 2013: Oh The Koreans Are Coming!

Maybe I'm behind the times, but this year I felt a disturbance in the Force. The Korean juggernaut of Samsung and LG have been making gains for years now. But for some reason, for me, I felt the torch has finally passed from the Japanese companies to the 2 Korean companies as the dominant forces in the TV market. The Japanese are no longer the King of the Hill. They are playing catch up. The Korean companies gained huge market share by suicide pricing on TVs. But now, I feel they are making the technological leaps that put them ahead of their Japanese competition. They are no longer selling because they are cheaper. They are now beating the Japanese at their own game - building a superior product. While I was too young to appreciate it, a similar occurrance would have occurred in the 1970s, when the torch passed from American companies (Zenith, RCA, etc) to Sony, Panasonic, JVC and Toshiba.

And this sense of change was bolstered by a few observations yesterday. One, the Panasonic booth was fairly quiet, especially compared to the Samsung and LG booths. And second, the tone in the Sony booth was one of quiet desperation. That defensive tone (We're better! Honest!) that comes from people on the wrong side of the slope. Sony was trying very hard to convince everyone they are the leader. But if you have to say it... then you've lost the mindshare game. 

And this is what made me have the epiphany yesterday morning. This insanely great, giant, totally impractical 110 inch television.

Oh. My. God.

I have seen a lot of amazing TVs and broadcast monitors over the years. I am a very picky TV owner. But never have I stood in front of a TV and was left speechless, jaw open in awe. Just pure awe. No picture or video clip can do justice to this work of art. The image quality just made you gasp. This TV is worth re-mortgaging your house for. This TV is worth buying a new house to fit this monster TV in. 

It is that amazing.  

 

CES 2013: Oh La La!

 The Audi booth was a hit last year, and it was a hit this year. And they were showing off this very cool car - the R18 e-tron quattro. A hybid with 510 hp.

Hyundai was showing off this Genesis Blue concept car.  

Wild interior of the Genesis. I didn't take a picture of it, but the front logo is very similiar to Aston Martin's. Can't anyone be original? That being said, Aston Martin licensed their name out for iPod cases - expensive, leather iPod cases mind you, but iPod cases just the same.  

 

CES 2013: Oh I Need More Cowbell

The Automotive section of CES is always a lot of fun, and here are some very practical car audio products that would fit very nicely in anyone's minivan.

Who needs an armrest when you have these puppies?

Everyone should drive around with one of these thermo-nuclear devices in the back of their car.  

 I like the fur.

Coming very soon to this blog - CES concept cars!  

CES 2013: Oh, The Glitter!

This booth says it all.

While CES has about a billion products on display, (3/4s of them iPhone cases and headphones), this year the sparkly glittery stuff caught my eye.

 These work for me. Really, they do.  

 I believe the glitter helps with the bass response levels and the tonal reproduction quality.  

 But my favourite Bling item I saw was these windshield wipers. They are so sick and rad!  

CES 2013: Oh, The Humanity!

Another record-breaking year for CES, as these pictures will attest to. They estimate there will be 150,000 attendees.

There has to be a better way. I'm getting too old and cranky for this crap. And it's only my first day.

This booth was hopping all day, as rapper 50 Cent was doing autographs at the SMS Audio booth - he was there launching headphones. How original. I bet Dr. Dre wished he had thought of that. These people are trying to take his picture. 50 Cent was a good sport though - he hung out there, with his entourage, signing away.  

For those who have never attended CES or NAB, this is how you eat lunch. You get some over-priced food that you wait in line 20 minutes for, then you grab some piece of ground or carpet to sit on. This is if you are lucky and can find a piece of ground or carpet. It is as glamourous as it looks.

But what about tables, Mr. Dude? Yes, there are tables - for about 23 people. When you have 150,000 people all eating lunch at the same time, well those 23 seats get taken up pretty quickly.

And if you want a latte from Starbucks? Minimum wait in line time - 30 minutes. Doesn't matter what time of day you go either. 2 Starbucks for 150,000 people.
 

Waiting At The Airport On The Way To CES 2013

I'm sitting in the San Diego airport, waiting for my flight to Vegas, so I thought I'd share some more pictures. Here's an early morning picture at the Balboa Park. For those film buffs with eagle eyes, this structure was used as an establishing shot in Citizen Kane for the Xanadu mansion.

 A different building in Balboa Park.  

Taken in Old Town in San Diego.  

A pretty little church in La Jolla.  

San Diego is a big military town, and it has a huge military graveyard on Point Loma. I have taken pictures in Arlington, and this cemetery is very similar. A lot less tourists though.

All photos taken with the Nikon D600, mainly with the 24-120 f/4 VR Lens.  

Touch The Sky - Highly Recommended

Your Dudeness of DV has a tradition of watching Canadian documentaries while flying Air Canada, and has seen a number of great films over the years. I just had the pleasure of watching "Touch The Sky", an excellent documentary about the founder of Cirque Du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, and his trip to the International Space Station. The doc nicely combines the personal story of Guy, his life, and his dream, with the historical arc of space exploration, and the range of emotions that come with going up in space. The footage of re-entering the earth's atmosphere is worth the price of admission all by itself. It manages to be beautiful and terrifiying at the same time. An awe-inspiring film, and DV Dude gives two enthusiastic thumbs up.

A big shout out to Air Canada for putting Canadian films on their entertainment system! In terms of goodness, this rivals the fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and ice cream you get in business class!

Sean's Psychic Predictions - 2013 Edition

We've been known to make the odd prediction here and there about cameras and new technology that will be coming in the not so distant future.

This year I thought it would be funny to list some of the things I think will be released this year.

One of the main buzz words going around now is 4K. It's been around for quite some time but not many people were really aware of it. We think that this year will be the year that 4K becomes a mainstream technology. There will be more 4K cameras that are affordable and we may even start to see 4K TV sets in consumers homes. Not many homes, but they'll exist.

2012 saw the announcement of the most hyped and pre-ordered video cameras in history, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. With all the delays and hurdles that the Blackmagic has had to overcome, we predict that Blackmagic will ship a camera this year. Another one of our Blackmagic Cinema Camera predictions is the 8K, full frame, EF & PL mount, removable battery Ultra Cinema Camera Extreme (based on current BMD naming scheme).

The other major prediction we have for 2013 is the Canon XDC Full Frame 4K Cinema DSLR (X for whatever number Canon chooses), unlike the impending 1DC, we think that this sub $5000 body will be Canon's attempt at smoking out the BMD Cinema Camera. So many people want 4K video with out the price tag that comes along with it. I somewhat agree, I mean, how hard can it be to make a camera shoot 4K when GoPro did it in the Hero 3 Black Edition?

As for the fate of the Mac Pro tower. Tim Cook, somewhere on the internets, said that a new Mac Pro will come out in 2013. It's one of the most frequently asked questions here at the store. We hope that Apple will refresh the Mac Pro, not just with a new set of aging processors, but a complete over haul. Since we're all over the place with our predictions, we'll just go ahead and list what we want to see in the next Mac Pro and call it a prediction.

2013 Mac Pro Tower:
New, more compact form factor ( Similar to that of the G4 Cube but meets Mac mini)
2 x 10-Core E7-8870 2.4GHz Processors
48GB DDR4 Memory
nVidia Quadro K5000 Graphics Card
Dual Blu Ray SuperDrives (BD-XL)
512GB SSD (With room for 4 more 2.5" Notebook Sized HDD/SSD)
3 ThunderBolt Ports
1 HDMI
USB3
FW800
1 PCIe expansion Slot
User Accessible Upgrades (RAM/HDD/PCIe)
Sub $4000 price tag

The Panasonic AF100 was a highly anticipated camera in 2010. The times have changed and it's been left behind. 2013 will hopefully bring about the AF200 (or 300 or whatever hundred) that will put Panasonic back in the game! 8K (with 4K, 2K and 1080 options) that records 4:4:4 200mbps on MicroP2 Cards! Sub $10,000 for the body and a Panasonic made PL mount.

We think that Canon will make a T5i and Nikon will make a D3300. Apple will make Retina everything, maybe even a Retina TV (4K actually, but Retina will be they're name for it in a TV set).

Now just remember, these are predictions, not facts or good rumors. They are things we think we'll see and things we'd like to see in 2013. These are just guesses not anything solid enough to take to the bank. But if the Mayans could make 1 prediction and get the whole world talking, what's the harm in doing the same. Take them with a huge grain of salt. We're not psychic or privy to any insider information.