OK, the Amazon drone story was a publicity stunt, but 62% of Internet traffic is now robots.
Your consultant was among 150,000 tech-followers attending the 2014 International CES.
How dizzying is the-pace-of-change? Media attending are now asked NOT to refer to this massive, mind-boggling event as “the Consumer Electronics Show,” because whassup there has transcended hardware.
Yes-there-were gadgets aplenty in a 2 MILLION square foot Exhibit Hall, many ’em obsoleting whatever seemed so-cutting-edge last year.
But many of the ways technology is changing our everyday lives are…invisible, “The Internet of Things.”
Maybe your refrigerator isn’t (yet) auto-ordering milk…
…and none of us are riding driver-less cars. But, already, patients can enable doctors to monitor real-time vital signs.
Soon, your alarm clock could wake you earlier if the-route-you-commute has a traffic tangle. And your thermostat can auto-adjust, based on the changing weather forecast. Traditional radio information hooks are becoming lesser “franchises.” If you think I’m exaggerating, look at your iPhone.
Interactive Press Briefing: 2014 Trends-to-Watch
Scroll-down to see my CES notes & photos.
On Twitter, see other attendees’ notes at #CES.
My Talkers coverage: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur.
Also below, hear reports I sent to client stations.
And it was a ‘Vegas convention two-fer.
Again this year, I also covered NMX, the New Media Expo, formerly “Blogworld,” before-that “The Podcast & New Media Expo,” which, a decade ago, already drew twice-as-many attendees as radio conventions. Read: my notes.
PodcastOne founder Norm Pattiz at NMX:
Radio should fear of staying-the-course.
He can’t understand why broadcasters aren’t doing more on-demand.
“Podcasting is the future of audio.”
iHeartRadio and satellite radio are “failed business models.” Read: more.
Not a misprint: PodcastOne’s 200-act stable is getting 100 million downloads a month.
Want-in, but don’t know how? Peruse NMX presenter Cliff Ravenscraft’s acclaimed, FREE LearnHowToPodcast.com.
No time for fun?
In Las Vegas???
When you read a meaty February newsletter, you’ll see that this trip was almost all-work!
Here, your consultant is pictured with college chum Larry Jamieson, the world’s foremost research expert on why-you-don’t-like-your-printer.
CES week, we were roommates again, as he took-a-break-from doing PowerPoint presentations about ink cartridges in China, to share hotel expense with yours truly.
“It’s all in the wrist,”
says radio’s top gadget guru Dave Graveline, as he kicked off the CES Unveiled event.
Dave’s show is among my “Solid Gold Weekend” picks.
And convention-goers thought New Orleans was “a ten-pound town?” Here, each year, yer workin’ press bellies-up to a-typically-sumptuous ‘Vegas chowline.
For those of us jet-lagged and timeshifting from Eastern Time, “More Starbucks, puh-LEEZ.”
Say it with me…
“The HAW-puh”
At a Dish Network session, CES-ers were starstruck by those guys from The Hopper TV commercial.
Yahoo!’s newest star Katie Couric, introduced by CEO Marissa Mayer:
“Anyone today with a cell phone and a #Twitter handle can become a reporter.” But “Linking has too-often replaced reporting.” Read: more.
Lots of noise about “The Connected Car” at CES.
But, as a practical matter, is it moot?
With all these new in-car choices — and no matter how many different dashboard apps play your station — why will drivers choose you?
HERE’s the car story that caught my eye at CES…
Would you buy a car that costs $6800, gets 84MPH highway, and seats two?
You can’t…yet. There’s only one, this prototype, of the Elio. Buyers are already lining-up online. It’ll be made in Shreveport USA, in a plant GM closed.
This was a first. I’ve been attending CES since the 1990s, and, for-the-first-time-ever, I was first-in-line for the Press room box lunch stampede.
YouTube? You should!
Stats from a CES session:
- 1 billion unique viewers per month
- 100 hours of new content uploaded every minute
- Nielsen: YouTube reaches more adults than any network
- Almost 40% of global watch time is on phones.
- “Authentic,” not slick, professionally produced
- “content about something very specific. Niche and searchable.”
- Mainstream celebrities often DON’T work on YouTube.
- That WestJet Christmas stunt was huge…some 35 million views. Watch: this remarkable video. If you don’t tear-up you’ve got a wooden heart. RADIO CAN DO THINGS LIKE THIS.
I always wince when I hear someone on radio say “remote” (meaning “live broadcast”), because, to listeners, a “remote” is a TV channel-changing device. Or “PSA” (a Prostate Cancer test). Yahoo! Tech, launched on-stage at CES, vows “no lingo!”
You’ve seen those E-cigs? They’re electronic cigarettes, dispensing nicotine vapors, used by “vapers,” not smokers, since they’re smokeless. Always on-the-cutting-edge, Into Tomorrow‘s Chris Graveline demonstrates the E-cigar.
Couldn’t be there? Hear here:
Television, UTTERLY re-defined
“Wearable Technology”
The BEST camera?
NOT just gadgets
Now THAT’S innovation!
The Bottom Line for Radio?
As a long-ago boss of mine used to say, “Two things…:”
Listeners need to think their day will go better if radio is part of it, and on-air imaging has to explain this succinctly:
We can’t just program transmitters, if listeners are using other devices.
Devices-for-their-vices, as this analogy demonstrates. Here’s my room keycard from the Flamingo. When you can’t, physically, be in their casino (“analog”), you can still wager in their virtual casino (“digital”):
