Resistance Is Futile

Here it comes again: The convention-eating, association-crunching, satellite/cable/telco-converging entity known as CES.

AKA, The Consumer Electronic Borg.

Over the past decade or so, we've watched in amazement as Gary Shapiro's vision of "the big tent" (well, his big tent, anyway) has sucked the life from many an independent corner of the media choice. We've watched U.S. satellite platforms meld with digital pedometers from Korea, cuckoo clocks from Japan and remote sensors from who knows where. This week we expect to see more of the cable and telco universes slip into CES uniformity. But hey, when you're beat you're beat: We may not like the CE Borg, but we're definitely in awe of it ... we'll be there for sure ... and we expect that most, if not all, major players from the satellite/cable/broadcast/telco universes will be there as well. If not with full-fledged booths then at least as spies.

Just for starters, many of the cable majordomos will be there. Not in booths, of course. But shepherded by CTAM and CableLabs, both of whom will be keeping a wary, and proprietary, eye on their charges. Likewise the telco and broadcast folks are sending missions into CES ... some of them are even signed up for "meeting room" booths. Both the telcos and the cable guys will likely have hefty presences at the CES Consumer VoIP Summit, a day-long meet including six sessions, two keynotes and a luncheon set for Wednesday Jan. 5 (the day before the official opening).

For satellite folks, most of the major players will be there with the usual lavish booths. Should be some great parties too (ESPN and the Satellite Legends dos come to mind). In addition the SBCA will host Certification Courses with five sessions including Residential Installation Certification, Commercial Installation Certification (counting for two of the sessions), Advanced Set-Top Boxes and a Satellite Delivered Consumer Products Overview. Also of interest should be many, many booths featuring home theater and home networking products plus several sessions of the Digital Hollywood special program. These include a late Thursday meeting entitled "Digital Cable and Satellite Television Strategies: Channel Launches, SVOD-VOD, HDTV, International and Interactive" plus (for competitive info purposes) a Saturday meeting on "Everything-on-Demand: From the Server to the Set-Top Box - Movies, TV Programs, Games and More - Enhanced Content Opportunity Now in 50 Million Homes."

So okay ... those titles could put even a Borg to sleep. But at least we'll all be there together with a chance to preview the on-going assimilation. We'll be looking for you there. Let us know if you see any particularly interesting, um, deviations.

From: skyreport.com
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