CES Eclipses Comdex for OC Technology Companies
By ANDREW SIMONS
Wouldn’t it be cool to store your songs on a computer but play them on your stereo upstairs?
How about converting your handheld organizer into a remote control to work the TV at your in-laws? Maybe a cheap flat-panel TV rings your bell.
Big electronics makers,and several Orange County companies,converged on Las Vegas last week for the International Consumer Electronics Show, the annual gadget gala put on by the Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Electronics Association.
The trade show drew well more than the 125,000 people who were expected to attend. For many OC companies, CES has eclipsed the computer industry’s Comdex Las Vegas show as the place to be. CES now dwarfs Comdex, which was held in November and drew about 60,000 people.
CES offered a sneak-peek at futuristic gadgets that everyone might be using in three years or so. This year, that meant flat-panel TVs, Windows software for a car and a tiny disk drive the size of a quarter.
OC companies attended the show in force.
In the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s south hall, D-Link Systems Inc., a unit of Taiwan’s D-Link Corp. that moved its U.S. base to Fountain Valley from Irvine about a month ago, showed off its new videophone.
Dubbed “I-2-I,” the device sits on top of your TV and shows the person on the other end of the line on your TV.
D-Link’s Irvine-based rival, Linksys Group Inc., part of Cisco Systems Inc., took a different tack.
The maker of consumer networking devices took out a swanky suite in the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino to show off two new products.
The first allows a home stereo to receive music transmitted from a computer.
“That way, you don’t have to listen to music only on your PC,” Linksys spokeswoman Karen Sohl said. “You can listen to it anywhere in your house.”
The other product Linksys showed was a DVD and music player that can send video anywhere in the house.
Paul Arling, chief executive officer for Cypress-based remote maker Universal Electronics Inc., was on hand to show off the company’s “Kameleon” digital remote control.
The remote features a touch-screen display with menu options that change depending on what you want to control, be it a TV, DVD player or other device.
Universal, which was showing secret reference designs for its remotes behind closed doors at the show, unveiled Kameleon last year.
Universal also showed software, dubbed Nevo, that can turn a personal digital assistant into a remote.
Broadcom Corp. took out space on the show’s exhibition floor to tout its 54g wireless technology, which sends data at what Broadcom claims is five times the rate of ordinary wireless networks. The chipmaker’s offerings for digital TVs also were a big focus for the company.
A sign of CES’s importance for Broadcom: both Chief Executive Alan “Lanny” Ross and Henry Samueli, chairman and chief technical officer, were on hand for the show.
Other CES notes:
Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. displayed several external disk drives designed for consumers to back up music, photos and other data from their PCs. Irvine’s Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., part of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., used the show to promote its portable computers and video projectors. Toshiba’s storage division also showed off what it called the world’s smallest drive,the size of a quarter. ViewSonic Corp., based in Walnut, displayed its newest tablet PC.
The party scene swung at this year’s CES, with nearly 60 soir & #233;es in the five days of the show. Surprisingly, no OC companies threw a party.
A notable gala was Sony Corp.’s crowded party atop Palms Casino Resort in the swanky, sleek Rain nightclub.
Trade magazine publisher Ziff Davis Inc., always a decent convention party thrower, held the “1Up Awards” in the Venetian’s V Bar.
Then there was “the night before CES” party, held at Bellagio Hotel & Casino’s grand Penthouse. As always, Light, a chic club in Bellagio, went off with after-hours Comdex partiers.
