The Las Vegas Convention Center on the eve of CES 2024 (CTA photo).
January 8, 2024
LAS VEGAS — Preparations are in the final stages for CES, the big tech show opening Jan. 9 for its four-day run.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which produces the annual show, promises more than 4,000 exhibitors, just slightly less than CES attracted in January 2020, during its last pre-pandemic run.
The show was held virtually in January 2021 and a year later returned to Las Vegas with just 2,300 exhibitors and 45,000 attendees.
Both exhibitor and attendee counts soared in January 2023, to 3,200 and 115,000, respectively.
“The CES platform is all on for 2024. No other event in the world connects the full ecosystem of the tech industry like CES,” Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the CTA, said in a press release. “This year at CES, we are excited to spotlight the critical role that technology is playing to improve every aspect of the human experience.”
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The show in recent years has veered away from its consumer electronics roots, except for the continued stream of TVs that each year seem to grow bigger, thinner and with higher resolution.
This year, however, home entertainment stages something of a triumphant return, with Netflix making its first CES appearance in six years. The streamer will unveil the trailer for its new sci-fi drama series “3 Body Problem” at its convention center booth on Jan. 9 from 10 to 11 a.m. Also on hand will be the show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and writer-producer Alexander Woo. The series is scheduled to debut on Netflix in March. Booth attendees will be able to don a headset transporting themselves into the world of “3 Body Problem.”
Netflix also will be at the Aria for private meetings with its partners and clients. The streamer also is transforming the hotel’s Easy’s Cocktail Lounge into the Netflix Speakeasy.
On the big TV front, LG Electronics will be showcasing its newest lineup of QNED and QNED Mini LED TVs, including a 98-inch screen model, which the company says offer vibrant picture quality, advanced AI-powered processing technologies and extensive personalization features. QNED TVs consist of a mini-LED panel with quantum dots.
Big screen innovations are also expected from Samsung, TCL, and Hisense. TCL is expected to make a big deal out of its new partnership with the NFL, while Hisense already has teased a giant 110-inch TV, which it says offers with 10,000 nits of peak brightness, five times as high as most premium TVs. The 110UX incorporates over 40,000 backlight zones, which minimizes backlight leakage and measurably elevates contrast, Hisense says.
In addition, 110UX “achieves an industry-leading 95% of the BT.2020 color palette compared to other leading displays that achieve 80% of the color space due to material or design limitations,” Hisense said in a news release. “110UX is powered by Hisense’s newly developed X-Chipset with AI-powered picture quality features such as AI Contrast and AI Depth. This intelligent chip recognizes scenes and content, making real-time adjustments for a clearer, more immersive, captivating display effect.”
Artificial intelligence, not surprisingly, will be the central theme at this year’s CES, the CTA says. “AI will be front and center with applications that can improve health care, sustainability, productivity, accessibility and more,” the association says in a news release. Most exhibitors, from Garmin to Walmart, will be showcasing products that incorporate some aspect of AI, prompting Lopez research analyst Maribel Lopez to tell Reuters, “It’s the year of AI in everything. If you don’t have it in your product, don’t show up.”
Walmart says it is making its “biggest-ever [CES] appearance this year, with a keynote highlighting our vision for the future and a booth showcasing how we’re pushing the boundaries of innovation and using tech to improve customer and member experiences.”
Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon will present a keynote Jan. 9 from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom. The theme: Disruptive retail tech.
At its Central Hall booth, a two-story affair with 10,000 feet of display space, visitors can “experience the path of a product as it moves through our supply chain, to our stores and clubs, and finally, to our customers’ and members’ hands,” Walmart says in a news release.
Also at this year’s CES, Advanced HDR by Technicolor returns to demonstrate the latest innovations in high dynamic range (HDR) technologies for broadcast and streaming distribution operations.
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