TV Technology Unveiled at The Consumer Electronics Show Pic

That’s not to say CES this year wasn’t full of innovation. New in-car information and entertainment systems, robotic labour saving devices, NFC connected devices, wireless speaker systems, cooler mobile chipsets, even WiFi connected guns – CES was brimming with innovation.

UHD TV or 4K TV as it is also known had emerged in late 2012 with Sony and LG releasing massive 84-inch models in Australia before Christmas for $25,000 and $16,000 respectively but this year’s CES is where the form factor is finally taking off.

Sony this year announced the world’s first 4K movie library, to be initially available to users in the US. Sony, a major media content producer, is the one vendor capable of outputting a big range of 4K content and is showing its intention to do so.

Samsung and LG showcased OLED TVs at CES a year ago, but they didn’t widely manifest in the market. OLED displays look crisp and bright, they can be razor thin, and offer better contrast. Being new to market, little is known about their durability after years of use, but Sony is confident OLED displays are long-lasting given their use over 2-3 years commercially.

UHD TV and OLED aside, CES was an event packed with innovative new gadgets that didn'tt fit the revolutionary category but were exciting nonetheless.

Some of the biggest steps forward in technology had occurred in the past year outside of CES. Case-in-point was Microsoft’s release of Windows 8, and with it dozens of new touch sensitive notebooks, all-in-one TVs and tablets, including Microsoft’s own Surface tablets. This was a big innovation, and these devices were everywhere to be seen, especially at the enormous Intel stand, but the show wasn’t themed around them.

The CES venue is huge. Take two stories of the Las Vegas Convention Centre, each equivalent in scale to a large event space at Sydney’s Convention and Exhibition Centre, add two more equally big convention halls to the north and south, throw in the Las Vegas Hotel, four convention floors at the Venetian Hotel, the Mandalay Bay convention centre and display areas at other hotels, you see the event’s enormity.

It is impossible to see every exhibition by walking the show from start to end. You have to target your interests.

Chipset makers made an important contribution to CES this year, with Paul Jacobs, the chief executive of Qualcomm, delivering the event’s keynote.

Chipset makers have relatively little public profile generally, but are turning their mind to one of the mobile world’s biggest issues – ensuring the latest mobile devices with huge energy-depleting screens, and power hungry 4G LTE radios, Near Field Communication (NFC) chips and a plethora of onboard sensors have enough battery life.

Samsung released its Exynos processor designed for high-end smartphones and tablets, the joint venture company ST-Ericcson unveiled a mobile device chipset that offers 25 per cent less power consumption while Intel, which recently announced its cheap Clover Trail processors for the mobile market, soon will release “Haswell” processors which offer big power savings on laptops and notebooks.

In the end, the improved battery performance of mobile devices may mean more to consumers than the more aspirational UHD TV, which cost-wise is currently expensive.

CES offered a treasure trove of new gadgetry as it always does. There were robotic devices that clean gutters, windows, around toilets, and even massage your back, there was a WiFi connected rifle that downloads shooting data to Facebook and Twitter, a device called the YotaPhone that uses an e-ink display, similar to an e-reader display, to save battery life, Android-run entertainment systems for cars, speakers you tap to play your phone’s music, and the presence of crowd-funded devices such as the cloud-connected Pebble wrist watch.

There were too clearly discernible market trends. Samsung, LG and Sony for example see themselves as the doyens of cutting edge technology with Sony boss Kazou Hirai declaring the company in recent years had dropped the ball but was back on track.

Already dominant in so many markets, Samsung is seeking to gobble up sections of the camera market with a series of reasonable cheap internet-connected cameras, some with quality sensors and changeable lenses.

Samsung and LG both showcased connected home appliances such as washing machines and fridges; but smart fridges still have a way to go to be genuine labour saving devices rather than technology curiosities.

CES also was about connectivity: phones that link to TVs and speakers and devices that link to the internet using WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC were everywhere.