CES 2009: the hottest trends in tech
Posted on 01. May, 2009 by Rob in Grand Designs, Hi-Fi and AV, Technology
If staying in is the new going out, then you’re going to need to some cutting edge home tech to keep your entertained – and there was plenty of that on offer at CES 2009
Every January tech enthusiasts descend on the gaudy city of Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics Show – a vibrant, noisy and deliciously entertaining event which brings us the first glimpse of the new tech trends and hardware that we’ll all be enjoying this year.
This year’s event – just like its recent predecessors – focused on high definition vision and sound, enabling us to enjoy cinema-style sound and picture quality in our own front rooms, but there were also some novel new developments, the highlights of which we’ve outlined here:
1. 3D television
If you’ve been to the cinema recently you’ll have noticed that Hollywood has rediscovered its enthusiasm for presenting movies in 3D – a novel way to immerse cinema-goers in the events unfolding on-screen while also putting more bums on seats.
Tech-makers, of course, are keen to cash in on this trend with Panasonic proclaiming 2009 as the year of home 3DTV, persuading famed Hollywood director James Cameron to offer his next movie Avatar in high definition 3D for viewing at home. It also showed off a 103-inch 3D HDTV, smaller versions of which should available sometime in early 2010.
Panasonic says the next trick is to persuade both Hollywood studios and other tech makers to agree on a common standard – so you’ll be sure that the 3D Blu-ray movies and products you buy will all work with each other.
Other tech makers showing off their 3D wares were LG and Samsung, but the big catch is that you will still need to wear 3D glasses.
Thankfully these won’t be the red and green goggles of yore, but versions that are able to resolve the separate 3D images that are sent to each eye and then combine them to give you a realistic effect. Mitsubishi did wow the CES crowds with its a 3D PC monitor that you don’t need special glasses to view.
2. Blu-ray 3D
Consumer tech makers have tried – and failed – to offer us 3D TV before, but one of the biggest stumbling blocks has been in finding a video format that has enough storage capacity to hold two different video streams, especially in high definition.
The obvious answer, of course, is Blu-ray which has a maximum storage capacity of 50GB per disk. Panasonic showed off its 3D using a Blu-ray based home theatre system, while others such as LG and Samsung had compatible players too.
The problem for those of us that have Blu-ray players already, of course, is that our current machines won’t be capable of displaying 3D content, save for the Sony PlayStation 3 which is firmware upgradeable.
Sony certainly used CES 2009 to show off a 3D system, based around a 3D-toting PlayStation 3, but says that its interest is only at the concept stage – it has no idea when it will turn the technology and hardware into reality.
3. Dolby Volume
One of the worst things about watching TV these days is the wildly disparity in sound levels you get between your favourite programmes and the adverts that break them up. You forever seem to be cranking the volume up and down, something that gets very old, very quickly.
Aiming to solve that problem is Dolby Volume – a technology that’s been around for a while, but which is finally starting to appear in TVs and other products you can buy. Dolby Volume constantly monitors sound levels from whatever you’re watching, boosting sound levels where necessary while dampening others depending on the master volume you’ve set. The end result is a much more even and less annoying viewing experience.
Dolby Volume will appear in Toshiba Regza TVs this spring, but is already being used in the AVR 655 and AVR 755 home cinema receivers from Harman Kardon, as well as in the Arcam FMJ AVR600.
4. Ultra Thin TVs
Easily the biggest trend at CES 2009 was the rise and rise of ultra-thin TVs – flat-panel displays that are a shadow of their forebears. We noticed the trend last year, when TV makers from Philips to Samsung showed off their first super-skinny TV concepts, but they’re fast becoming something you can go out and buy.
These ’size zero’ TVs are able to be created thanks to three breakthroughs in TV technology: LED backlighting, OLED display technology and refinements in the way that TVs are made.
LED backlighting enables TV makers to get rid of the bulky fluorescent tubes they’ve been using in LCD TVs until now, while also offering much higher levels of colour fidelity, lower power consumption and much thinner displays.
Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology takes that one stage further by eliminating the backlight altogether – the display arrays naturally light up when an electrical current is passed through them.
The third is that TV makers are also steadily reducing bulk by removing components (such as TV tuners) from the set itself and placing them in a separate media box.
These three things enable TVs to be as little as 6.5mm deep from front to back, with even thinner sets coming online in future. Another development helping to fuel this trend is WirelessHD technology, which enables devices like Blu-ray players to send high definition video and audio data to your display completely cable-free.
Of the new TV technologies, OLED is perhaps the most exciting and, currently, the most expensive. It will enable future displays to be flexible, rollable and even to be printed using inkjet technology.
They can also easily be attached to other glass surfaces such as windows. Samsung demoed just such a display at CES 2009, while Philips is experimenting with OLED lighting to add illumination to windows – giving you bright, but natural lighting when it’s dark outside or in spaces that normally don’t receive much daylight at all. Philips has been experimenting with OLED wallpaper, enabling you to change your room’s decor and ambience at the press of a button.
But perhaps the most striking product of the year so far wasn’t displayed at CES 2009 at all. Making its debut in London at the end of January was Philips Cinema 21:9 TV – a 50-inch LCD set that has the same aspect ratio as a proper cinema screen.
This stunning TV enables you to watch movies at home without any unsightly letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the picture – something even regular 16:9 widescreen sets don’t manage. It goes on sale in June, price to be confirmed.
Originally published in the May 2009
edition of Grand Designs Magazine.
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