The 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show begins for early birds on Monday night, January 9 with a showdown between Microsoft (News 
- Alert) CEO Steve Ballmer’s traditional keynote peek into his company’s new products at the Venetian Hotel verses the live 3D big-screen telecast of the Bowl Championship Series college football game being held at the Hilton Hotel Theater.
If that first decision isn’t hard enough, as the event continues January 10-13, more than 2,000 vendors and 140,000 visitors will have to continually decide how they will be spending their time during the CES (News - Alert).
CES will be packed with new product and distribution developments, such as the timetable for 21:9 display formats, new 3D TV configurations, and services from members of the Open Mobile (News - Alert) Video Coalition.
The exhibits will take up 1.7 million square feet of floor space, up slight from last year’s 1.68 million. The expansion means that CES will revert to its two-venue structure, which was previously consolidated about 10 years ago when the Las Vegas Convention Center added a new South Hall.
The 2012 CES even has many keynotes and featured presentations – including Genachowski’s- will take place at the Venetian Hotel (part of the Sands Exhibition conclave).
Karen Chupka, CEA’s senior vice president of Events and Conferences, said there is still a lot of interest from dealers trying to use the CES to determine what’s right for their consumers. “We are very excited about it…to push innovation,” Chupka said.
“Tablets will be a big play again this year. It’s all about how people can move content around to different devices. There’s been talk about it in the past; now we’re going to see a lot about how people are creating new business opportunities using content and technology,” said Chupka.
Some expectations at CES includes Vizio’s new extra-widescreen television set, displays showing the 21:9 format, Google (News - Alert) TV showing revamped capabilities of YouTube, and some announcements from Sony.
CES also plans to continue their annual award ceremony for video-related products. The Technical and Engineering Emmy Awards will be handed out at a Thursday, January 12th banquet.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
