I had an incredible experience attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, which was a true convergence of tech innovation and discovery. Thanks to the CEO of TBE Media Corey "Tallboy" Sanders, I had the privilege of soaking in all the tech wonders scattered across Las Vegas through an invitation.
I'll say that the sheer scale of it all was overwhelming at first—it seems as though the entire trade show is split between 3 different venues scattered across Las Vegas (aptly named 'Campuses') and in order to get to each one you'd either have to take a shuttle bus or travel through car. Even though I arrived early in the week, I was totally caught off guard with how much walking I was going to be doing - the event has a lot of things happening at the same time.
The first half of the week was spent navigating through the maze of available programming/speeches as well as doing a ton of networking, so I quickly realized that I should just take the energy of it all in and enjoy myself. But after getting my bearings (and seeing that the team chose to record some content in the Venetian/C Space Campuses , I decided to record some of my own content at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There I found a few products from certain companies that I could see myself using in the near future.
The first company I came across was RadioShack - a company who I have fond memories as a young kid buying my first walkman from. I spoke with a representative about their plans to relaunch in the U.S., as the operations are still based overseas but they recently obtained permission to be able to use the brand in the states as well as in Canada. They had a shelf full of tech accessories and products with the Radio Shack name on it and it was great to see that the team understood the power of nostalgia for a generation that grew up with seeing stores in their neighborhood.
Another company I came across was Kodak - which on the outside seemed like the same situation as RadioShack, but I found out that their focus isn't on a physical brick-and-mortar return, it's on bringing an iconic brand product to the current era. They showed me a number of new digital cameras that are coming out with the option to connect to a wireless instant photo printer. They also showed me a new vintage camera that they're working on, which looked like something that was made in the early 1900s. The blend of digital convenience with photos that you could keep felt fresh, yet comfortingly familiar.
It was great to see Maono there, as I have had a fond experience supporting the company when it was on Kickstarter. Seems as though they're building upon their theme of affordable recording gear and creating a line of wireless mics for the smartphone market, which I am excited to see release later this year.
There was a company called Nuphy who's low-profile gaming keyboards seem to be a hit for those who like near-instant tactile responses during their gaming and regular work duties. They were showing me a new keyboard that had an innovative use of magnets within its keys, in which I wasn't able to get the full scope of what it could do - but I did come across this article on Medium that spoke to the keyboard in much more detail.
Hohem is a brand that makes camera gimbals, which for this year they were unveiling a new product that had AI-capabilities built into it, allowing the user to show certain hand gestures to track the person as they're recording. I also got a chance to meet with an incredible creative named Otto Julian who's a Photographer/Videographer himself and was helping explain the benefits of what a Hohem device could bring.
Finally I planned on walking out of the venue but I was stopped by Ting and the great people over at Jodio, a karaoke-equipment audio company that has created the world's first AI Headphones that can remove vocals. So you can use any audio source (from YouTube or your favorite CDs) and when you play them through the headphones, the tech in them filters a certain frequency to remove the voices. Witnessing this in action was a true sight to see and they informed me that they're looking for US partnerships/distributors for their product.
It's amazing to see how the past and future are blurring together, with iconic companies resurrecting and newer ones re-defining what consumers enjoy doing daily. I could definitely see myself utilizing these products and the more that I see how AI is being utilized in a practical sense, the more I warm up to the idea that this can be used as an aid rather than a replacement to my daily workflow.