Our Blog
Well...
Its all over but the packing and shipping
So before we play the last hand and give out the last 2GB flash drive, let's re-cap a little, shall we?
- We saw some stars
- We produced a lot of content, turning our booth into a second home for our on-air and online brands.
- Our NBC Universal volunteer booth staff greeted thousands of attendees who visited our Jack Morton Worldwide designed booth (complete with a 100-foot peacock-themed mobile)
- Our visitors downloaded nearly ten-thousand pieces of NBCU content from the Mediaport-powered download kiosks.
- American Express Open (powered by Peacock Productions) shot every day and created some programming magic of their own last night.
- Our fuzzy-chaired blogging station made news every day.
- Peter Frampton played for us at the Gibson guitat tent.
- Maria Bartiromo made the cover of Vegas magazine.
- And, oh yes, we got to see some cool new consumer electronics.
All of it was the result of tremendous work from a best-in-the-business creative and production team drawn from every part of the company.
So until we meet again.
Remember....
NBC Universal
Consumers. Content. Connection
It all happens here
Frank Radice
Mark Lukasiewicz
Jay Linden
PS -- We want to leave you with this image of the future. An early adopter who was one of the last visitors to our booth today. Meet Sarah Elizabeth Foulke, age 5-1/2 months, downloading some NBCU content with a little help from mom, Heather Moler.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Everything comes to an end... even CES. The hordes of convention attendees have started to thin out. The lines for things like food, taxis, and bathrooms have all drastically shortened. And believe it or not I actually got a seat on the Las Vegas Monorail this morning.
On behalf of the blogger platform, I just wanted to say thank you to the "fans" of this blog who stopped by to say hi (people were really reading this), celebrities like Damon Wayans, Jessica Kumari and David Pogue who posed for photos here, and especially the the guest bloggers below who kept the fuzzy white Austin Powers chairs warm all week.
- Frank Radice, NBC Universal
- Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC Universal
- Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
- Staci D. Kramer, paidContent.org
- Peter Pachal, DVICE.com
- Aaron Broder, Scholastic
- Jeff Gralnick, NBC Universal
- Khalid and Doug, GizmosForGeeks.com
- S. E. Kramer, DVICE.com
- Chris Jones, DVICE.com
- Jennie Baird, iVillage
- Bonnie Optekman, NBC News
- Bob Sullivan, MSNBC.com
- Scott Leon, NBC Universal
And let's not forget Rosie, who showed up on the blogger platform again this morning!
Overall it was a great show. There were lots of great electronics here at CES and the exhibitor booths looked great.
I just have one suggestion for Jack Morton Worldwide, the people who made our booth. There was something missing from the wall behind the blogger platform. Nothing major. Just a little red arrow. I fixed it in Photoshop.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
CES 2008 is winding down. Just 2 more hours to go until the convention floor closes and all the exhibitors start packing up their booths. Mark Lukasiewicz, the CES project leader for NBC Universal, is sitting with me on the blogger station right now in a white fuzzy chair. Mark is writing a blog post to sum up everything we did here at CES.
And Gia Pace is doing her best to keep the booth staff hydrated until the very end. Hey, we are in the middle of the desert right?
By Bonnie Optekman, NBC News
While I was blogging away yesterday, consulting my notes, checking my facts, my friend Jon Accarrino, I see, was blogging about me blogging!
First off, I promised to clean up the blogging station when I was done. It wasn't that bad!!!
Second, geez – did the picture HAVE to go to the floor? I mean, not just my papers, but my sneakers!
Ok – onto business – what’s worse than your Blackberry not working? Having it not work when you’re at CES and it’s your lifeline! While my technology friends got it sorted out, I relied on text messages (see my earlier blog). Other people may want to just carry around one device. I find that to be a gamble and need a backup!
One big message that comes through loud and clear here is that "Open" is the new "Black" as I heard at one of the CES sessions. Software and hardware companies and cellphone carriers must be able to talk to each other with open standards on every platform and in every technology to make life easier for us.
I bought a micro SD card and carrier software for my nephew Craig so he could download his songs to his phone. Needless to say – conflicts with proprietary carrier software as well as Macs and PCs made that fruitless and we’re still trying to figure out the easiest way to do it, if there is an easy way.
In social networking sites, Facebook led the way by making its code public and open to third party applications.
And speaking of social networking, I was astonished to see my 5-year-old nephew flying around the Webkinz site. That stuff about digital natives is really true.
Here’s Benjamin with a little entertainment.
By Jeff Gralnick, NBC Universal
And after several days of criss-crossing the display floors, you keep running into things that make you think what WERE they thinking?
Case in point: The company that decided to hawk its service with perky young women wearing t-shirts that said: What's In Your Cardslot?
Yes. It's all about marketing here and it's all about getting noticed in this sea of next big things, but really.
Then there was the young woman playing the harp which was a nice touch in this sea of noise but what were THEY thinking?
Harp. Camcorders. Of course. How silly of me.
But wait, there's more.
Whoever dreamed up those three young women dressed in skimpy outfits that glittered like disco balls as they ran through an overly-choreographed dance routine while playing new wave music on digital violins as one company's latest and greatest in cell phones was being pitched?
And they were thinking?
Sex sells cell phones. How could I have missed THAT?
But did anybody hear a word of it?
So if they've thought all this up for this year, whatever will they do for next year?
One can hardly wait.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Almost every booth here at CES is giving away some cool promotional item or "swag" as we like to call it. I've seen flashlight pens, t-shirts, luggage tags, and even inflatable pool rafts.
But here in the NBC Universal booth, we aren't just giving away 15,000 SanDisk USB memory sticks, but free downloadable content (like TV shows and games) from any of the 10 Mediaport kiosks located in and around our booth. Nearly 10,000 downloads have taken place already.
Lynne Wisnefski, from The NBC Agency, has been handing out these 2GB SanDisk USB flash drives all week. She was kind enough to do a video demonstration on how to use the Mediaport kiosks.
Enjoy.
By Jeff Gralnick, NBC Universal
CES is what NAB was.
Millions of square feet of what the developers and sellers hope are the next big idea. It's psychic, sensory and selling overload on the grandest of scales. It's every bit a carnival midway where all those barkers want to do is get you into the tent.
At NAB it was virtual studios and techless control rooms that were being pitched along with next generation minicams and the newest in transmission portability.
And what's changed? Not much. Now it is virtual everything that is on offer along with next generation DV cameras and camcorders and the total portability that current and next generation wireless technologies are producing.
21st century CES, like 20th century NAB before it, is an open door on the future of our business. Smaller. Faster. Lighter. Cheaper. Those were the hallmarks of what we looked for at NAB and are the hallmarks of what all 140,000 of us are looking for now.
It's the future we're finding ways to hurry into and that's why we're here.
By Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
Stage Two at the NBCU booth was the place to be right after NBC Nightly News this afternoon. Brian Williams did a quick update on the broadcast (Bill Richardson dropped out of the presidential race) and dashed from Stage One to officially launch the new nightly.msnbc.com. Brian was joined by his Executive Producer Alex Wallace, MSNBC.com President & General Manager Charlie Tillinghast and East Coast Deputy Editor Randy Stearns.
Randy Stearns, Brian Williams & Charlie Tillinghast
"We're happy to be at CES. We are very excited about our new website," announced Williams. Not only can you see the whole broadcast on the site, you can see plenty of additional web-only video, produced every day by the NBC Nightly News team. They only have 22 minutes of airtime, but now you can see a bigger newscast online. You can create your own playlists and watch what you want to watch. It's all about video and it looks great in the new video player.
Randy Stearns did the demo and summarized the philosophy of the site, "We put video front and center."
by Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
Yesterday I mused that Brian Williams might have a tough time competing with the standing room only crowd attracted by the double whammy of Maria Bartiromo and Nancy O'Dell on Closing Bell.
Well it was put up or shut up time today when NBC Nightly News took the stage. The crowd gathered for Nightly was HUGE. Did Brian accomplish a stunning comeback? Estimates and exit polls vary, but as of this writing NBC News Stabdards has told us it is still too close too call.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Staci D. Kramer, the Executive Editor of paidContent.org visited our blogger station. She was in the middle of breaking a story so we didn't publicly display the video output of her laptop on the flat screen.
Rumor has it that she even joined the NBCU blogging crew and rocked out to Peter Frampton over at the Gibson tent Tuesday night.
Her colleague, Rafat Ali, wrote about what NBC Universal is doing here at CES and called this blog "impressive for a corporate blog."
If that's a compliment, I'll take it. Thanks Rafat.
By Bonnie Optekman, VP NBC News Technology
I feel vindicated.
The last time I blogged about cell phone texting (SMS) for the NBC Nightly News blog I talked about my feeling that the cell phone is quickly becoming the "second" screen to TV's "first" screen and that the PC is really the "third" screen. Well, sitting in the audience for the Bill Gates keynote speech on Sunday night, I heard the man say that phones outsell PCs by four to one. Four to one!
And at CNET's "Next Big Thing" session, I heard that one billion people will access the internet from their phone instead of their computer.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that we can do away with our desktops and laptops. But I am saying that the phone is always with us and the more our technology focuses on social interaction and keeping people connected, the more we will use our phones for phone calls - the ultimate social network - and more.
Here's some quick stats:
- Americans sent 240 billion text messages in 2007 as of December 18th, which is five times more than they sent in 2005. This is per CTIA, The Wireless Association.
- According to the MMA, 3 of 4 mobile phone users text message at least occasionally.
- Texting is at least a weekly event for half of all mobile phone users. And yes, full disclosure - some of those text messages are coming to NBC News.
Pardon? You want to know more?
- Well, if you text the word "first" to 622639 (NBCNEW) you will receive text messages that directly from NBC News' political director, Chuck Todd, keeping you up to the minute with what's happening on the campaign trail. Chuck sends these out at the same time he writes his First Read column for firstread.msnbc.com.
- And you can text to the same number with following: NN, TODAY, MTP, DL, to find out what we're working on for our broadcasts.
- You can also text "buzz" to 46833 for breaking entertainment news from NBC Mobile's and NBC2GO's own Seth Goldman. You can catch Seth's video BUZZ and other news and features on msnbc.com and right on your cell phone too at nbcmobile.com.
Oops - I think I have to say somewhere here that standard text message rates apply.
Texting is all about being personal and, for us, letting people in on what we're doing. During MNSBC's October political debate, we did a text survey and Chris Matthews talked up the results with Chuck Todd and others.
Check it out...
I'm about to get thrown off the blogging station by Jonathan so let me take a break. I'll get back to you with another post tomorrow.
By Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC News
It's day 3 of CES and later today at 3PM PST we welcome Brian Williams and his NBC Nightly News team to the NBC Universal CES booth.
Fresh from the amazing story in New Hampshire last night, Brian will break it all down on tonight's broadcast, anchored from the booth in a few hours. And right after the live broadcast, he'll introduce the brand new web experience for NBC Nightly News, which you can find at Nightly.MSNBC.com.
The new Nightly online experience is a revolutionary approach and we think you'll love it. Among the new features, we're giving bloggers the ability to embed our video directly from Nightly.MSNBC.com.
Brian's introduction -- in our new embedded player -- is right here:
By Frank Radice, NBC Universal
Last night was incredible at CES. NBCU, Gibson musical instruments and Vegas magazine threw a party for a few (400 or so...) friends.
Peter Frampton came alive (get it?) And played one of the hottest sets you could imagine.
Maria Bartiromo gave a shout out (and showed everyone why she is on the January cover of Vegas magazine).
The Patron was flowing (they had tequila cosmopolitans... sort of New York meets the desert).
And I got to hang out with legendary guitarist, Skunk Baxter.
This is really a great job!
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of "The Doobie Brothers", Maria Bartiromo of CNBC's "Closing Bell", Frank Radice, Executive Vice President, The NBC Agency
Now we are getting ready for Brian Williams (hot off the New Hampshire primaries) to shoot NBC Nightly News, live from our booth.
And as hot as the 15000 jump drives we gave out (SanDisk partned with us)... there were some NBCU poker chips (in peacock colors) that flew out the doors (but hopefully not to the casinos...they may look real... but they aren't!).
Like the slogan says: It All Happens Here.... really.
By Aaron Broder, Scholastic Kid Reporter
Hi! My name is Aaron Broder, and I am a 14-year-old Scholastic Kid Reporter from Nashville, TN here in Las Vegas to report on the Consumer Electronics Show for the second year running. I mostly write about products that appeal to Scholastic’s demographic (the teens and tweens) but I also look at anything that grabs my attention. Now, back to the point.
CES is big. Really big. The first thing that hits you when you walk into really any of the convention space is how many people there are surrounding you. You get used to it pretty quickly, but then it hits you about half an hour later – this is only a small part of it. On the another part the Strip, there is another convention area that is also filled wall-to-wall with people.
Now, I am no stranger to that sensation. At my school, it is near impossible to walk from class to class without being shoved into at least one wall, and without running into at least two or three people. But when you take into account the fact that these hallways are about four or five times wider than my school’s hallways, it is a frightening prospect.
The Las Vegas Convention Center is particularly big. Probably one of the areas there is equal to or bigger than the Sands, and there are three of them – the South Hall, the North Hall, and here in the Central Hall, where NBC Universal is. And no matter where you look, there is always something to see. If I look in one direction, I see a display that informs me of how fantastic Blu-ray is. In another direction, Toshiba says how HD-DVD is the best kind of HD media.
I think I’m getting mixed signals here...
Aaron Broder (Scholastic) & Jon Accarrino (NBC Universal)
So far, I have been really lucky in terms of finding interesting things by complete flukes. Take yesterday for example. My mom and I were having trouble finding where the Sandbox Summit was (a conference about the way that technology is altering kids and teens lives). We thought it was going to be in the Sands, but we were directed to somewhere on the 4th floor of the Venetian. We didn’t see it there, so we ran back down to the Sands, and were told to go back up. When we finally did make it, there were no seats left, so we stood against the wall. We ended up standing next to someone from Sesame Workshop, and I got a chance to interview Elmo. Speaking with him was definitely one of the many highlights of this trip, and I couldn’t stop cracking up whenever he spoke. Or tried to eat my microphone.
Anyway, it’s about time that I hit the show floor again. Thanks for reading the blog!
Bye.
By Jeff Gralnick, NBC Universal
There you are. Somewhere in the middle of those 3.2 million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) trying to figure how to get from there to... where?
And then you see it.
There's the big You Are Here sign with the big easy to read map that takes the "you're lost again you idiot" out of the equation.
Those signs may be the most user friendly things at all of CES.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
In case you were curious, this is what the NBCU blogging station looks like at night. The blue stanchions surrounding the platform are obviously a mistake. Next year we should get red velvet ropes and a bouncer to hold back the hordes of CES blogger aficionados.
We got the stanchions removed this morning just in time for our first guest blogger - Bonnie Optekman, NBC's VP of News Technology.
Bonnie claims to have already written what she's going to blog about today... in her head. She has a stack of pencil scribbled notes that she's taken while walking around the convention floor. Her notes are now all over the blogger station platform. I might need Rosie's help to clean this mess up.
By Jeff Gralnick
The pitch here at CES is many-flavored thing but there seem to be a set of basics you keep running into as you cross the floor.
There's mine is bigger than yours which all about the flat-screen wars. The 150" monster seems to be this show's winner.
Then there's the corollary mine is smaller than yours pitch. In this category DV cameras, camcorders and MP3 players which are heading toward postage stamp size.
If big or small aren't your pitch, there seems to be the mine is odder than yours group of products like the sweep arm LED powered lap top lights; the standing lamp that doubles as a wireless speaker and equals in clunkiness its lack of aesthetic appeal; and something no home is complete without, a 40 million candlepower flash light.& 40 Million with an M. Honest.
And finally there's a great group of who'da thunk products that dot the floor. For the pre-tweens there a set of digital Crayola products; a range of things that come in cute and pink clearly aimed at the growing universe tween girl techies; and finally my favorite from the good people who've brought us the ever-useful Fro Dummies primers. It's not a book this time but a kit for the inept geek: The For Dummies TV Wall Mounting Kit.
Who'da thunk indeed.
By Jennie Baird, iVillage
I spent several hours today at "The Sandbox Summit: A Playdate with Technology."
The sessions were focused on the impact of technology on children and families, and though I arrived in the middle of a session, I knew I had come to the right place. Dr. Warren Buckleitner, the editor of Children's Technology Review was making a plea to the developers of children's digital media: "Don't exploit tired, frustrated parents!" He urged digital businesses to create a code of ethics for Web sites and games aimed at children that would include standards around clear advertising and marketing. He urged developers to give children and parents control -- in particular a high level of control in letting children take "breaks" in their games.
Wow! That's a concept that would change my life! How many times have I called my son to dinner -- but he just needs to finish this game? Or this level?
The next session was called "The Digital Family: Are We Speaking the Same Language?" The panel went pretty off topic, covering a variety of issues around children's consumption of digital media. One of the key points I took away was the tendency of parents and schools to outright "block" sites that they consider potentially questionable. One of the panelists made the point that blocking sites like YouTube, for example, prevents children from learning for themselves valuable safety lessons of the Internet. She made the comparison to crossing the street -- we don't tell our kids to never cross a street. We teach them to look both ways before crossing. Parents need to use the Internet as a mechanism to teach their children their own family's values and to guide them through the decision making processes that they will need as they grow into independent young people.
On the third panel, "What Is Technology Really Teaching Our Kids?" I learned a few of things:
1) 3-5 pm is the most stressful time of day for working parents (This according the CEO of Tutor.com, a service that provides individualized online homework help).
2) Video games teach children that experimentation and failure is an important part of mastery and critical to their educational development.
3) Technology is having a huge impact on the ways our children learn, both inside and outside the classroom. As a society we need to start addressing whether the curriculum needs to adapt.
By Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
The CES hordes just converged on the NBCU booth as Access Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell joined CNBC's Maria Bartiromo on booth Stage One for a live hit on Closing Bell. It's been busy here at the booth, but this one really brought 'em in. They even got a standing ovation. I guess everybody was already standing, but you could feel the love as applause rocked our whole booth.
"All of a sudden you cannot move around the anchor desk we're calling booth Stage One. What's the draw for the crowd that wasn't here nano seconds ago? It's Maria Bartiromo who's anchoring CNBC's Closing Bell from the stand and is proving once again the value of the stars in our universe. You can have the product and business news has certainly proven its value; and you can have the best brand which arguably CNBC is; but you need the star to pull it all together. And Maria is demonstrating it all over again." ~ Jeff Gralnick, NBC Universal
I wonder if Brian Williams will draw the same crowd tomorrow night when he announces the new NBC Nightly News website..... hmmm.
Access Hollywood launches their new website later today and Maria is hosting a big blowout with 70's rock legend Peter Frampton tonight at the Gibson Guitar tent (CP1). Show us the way, Peter!
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
DVIVE.com blogger, S. E. Kramer, is here at the NBCU blogger station with Craig Engler and Matthew Chiavelli from Sci Fi. S. E. is writing about some of the interesting things she's seen on the CES show floor including Phantom Chess Sets and expensive necklaces with built-in SanDisk USB hard drives.
The Phantom Chess Set is great for people who get bored playing chess on a computer and prefer to knock their opponents pieces over in person. S.E. added a video to her post if you want to see the chess set in action.
You can read more about Phantom Chess Sets and the golden SanDisk USB gold and diamond necklaces on DVICE.com.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
CNBC has completely taken over ever inch of our CES booth.
Both our booth TV studios are broadcasting. Camera crews are all over the place (even in the hallways) and at one point CNBC contributor David Pogue had to get his makeup done under a stairwell because the greenroom was full.
Check out this video that CNBC Executive Producer Ramona Schindelheim shot on her video camera. Over in booth studio #1, Bill Griffeth, anchor of CNBC's Power Lunch is interviewing General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner live on the air. And at the exact same time Maria Bartiromo is interviewing Paul Jacobs Qualcomm CEO for her CNBC show Closing Bell.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Later today, Access Hollywood is re-launching its web site, AccessHollywood.com, with a press conference and demonstration of its new hybrid blog and magazine-style design.
Come join co-host Nancy O’Dell and Executive Producer Rob Silverstein for a demonstration and champagne toast at 2PM PST here in the NBC Universal booth.
AccessHollywood.com Press Conference
NBC Universal Booth (Central 12533)
Tues, January 8th 2PM PST
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
This afternoon Khalid and Doug from GizmosForGeeks.com invaded the NBCU blogger station. They posed for a few pictures, updated their web site, downloaded some videos from our MediaPort kiosks and took our fuzzy white blogger chairs for a test drive.
The blogger station will never be the same again.
By Mark Lukasiewicz, NBCU at CES Project Leader
At one point this morning, even before doors opened, we were originating 5 separate live broadcasts, simultaneously, from the NBC Universal Booth: NBC's TODAY SHOW, CNBC's Squawk Box, NBC NewsChannel, Telemundo and MSNBC's Morning Joe. By 11am, one hour after the doors opened, the booth was packed with visitors and has remained packed ever since.
One of our visitors just a few minutes ago was Gary Shapiro, President of the Consumer Electronics Association and his wife Dr. Susan Malinowski.
Here they are with Frank Radice, another one of our project leaders here at CES, downloading an episode of Project Runway. These Mediaport download kiosks are very popular with our visitors.
By Chris Jones, DVICE.com
The “Don’t tase me, bro!!” video clip was one of 2007’s biggest hits on YouTube. In 2008, you might see even more of these scenes playing out, right in your very own hood.
Taser International is marketing its new Taser C2 as a consumer-friendly device that will drop someone on their back from a range of 15 feet. It’s the company’s mission to make tasers more “trendy and fun,” especially for women, and so the C2 comes in hip, fashionable designs – leopard print and hot pink for starters. There is even an MP3 player that attaches to the device. So if someone comes creeping up on you while you’re jamming the latest 50 Cent track, you can deliver a quick dose of NMI – neuromuscular incapacitation. And yes, this is all perfectly legal…so long as you’re not using it to stun that jerk who cut you off in the Starbucks parking lot.
The Taser C2 discharges two small aluminum darts that have fish-hook type points to penetrate the skin of a would-be attacker. There is an electrical line attached to the darts, so once you’ve hit someone, the charge stays active for 30 seconds -- giving you time to run like hell. Or, I suppose you could stick around and deliver another zap using the C2’s “drive-stun” direct contact mode. Or would that just be mean? Tell us what you think at DVICE.com.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
David Pogue was in the NBC Universal booth doing a segment on CNBC. In addition to holding the title of "NY Times tech guru" and having over 3 million books in print, he's now a contributor on CNBC.
I told him I was a huge fan. I think he thought I was kidding until I started naming my favorite moments from his his podcast. Let's face it - David is nerd royalty. Right now over 140,000 gadget geeks and freaks are here in Las Vegas and David is the King.
Maybe I should have shaved this morning.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
OK now things are picking up (at least a little). After I blogged about Rosie the vacuum, someone came and took her away. I was sad at first.. but then I realized that people are actually reading this blog.
Plus Channel One reporter Jessica Kumari came over to hang out. I told her the white fuzzy blogger chairs were props from Austin Powers' airplane. I think she believed me.
In the background behind Jessica are Patrick Larsen and Jim Fenhagen from Jack Morton Worldwide. They designed and built the beautiful NBC Universal booth.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
It's a little after 9AM PST and people have started trickling into the Las Vegas Convention Center already. I'm all dug in at the NBC Universal "blogging station." If you were ever under the false impression that blogging was glamorous, then take a look at the picture below. I'm sitting in a cheap white fuzzy chair on a tiny riser and blogging next to a vacuum. I guess the cleaning crew left it behind to keep me company. I've already named her Rosie after the maid from the Jetsons cartoon.
CNBC's Power Lunch is broadcasting live about 30 feet away from me and David Pogue is in the booth. I subscribe to his podcast and force my girlfriend Lauren to watch it on our Apple TV. I'm gonna go ask his producer if I can get a picture with him.
Well, here it is Sunday morning. And as I write this...the desert winds are blowing cold
By now the set is almost finished. The Today show has already broadcast here from what we call "stage 2" and it went fine.
The rest of the day we will host a lot of live shots, feed a lot of tape, and put the finishing touches on the booth.
One piece of news...Brian Williams will now be here on Wednesday night sted Monday.
He will do his show and then make the announcement of the new Nightly News website.
Here are a few scenes from this morning to whet your appetite.
Check out the iWall!
Check out the download kiosks!
Everything starts tomorrow here in Las Vegas.
It all happens here.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Are you a sci-fi fan as well as a gadget/tech lover? Honestly, most of us are. Well squeeze this into your busy CES calendar.
On Monday, January 7th at 12:00PM, DVICE.com, SCI FI Channel’s new Website for the gadget and tech-obsessed, will sponsor a CES panel discussion on the influence of science fiction on technology (Session HLE17 / LVCC North Hall / Room N256).
Moderated by SCI FI Channel Executive Vice President and General Manager Dave Howe, the panelists include the Wall Street Journal’s personal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, actress Lucy Lawless (Xena, Warrior Princess and Battlestar Galactica), Segway inventor Dean Kamen and author Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash).
Dean Kamen & Lucy Lawless
For more information visit:
http://cesweb.org/attendees/conferences/search/session_detail.asp
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/01/ces_2008_dvices.php
By Frank Radice, NBC Universal
Hello from semi sunny Las Vegas... it's a little after noon on the 4th of January and this feels more like the hours before a major rock concert than the days before an electronics convention.
Hundreds of people have come together to put the finishing touches on the NBCU booth and get it ready for the onslaught of techies from all over the world.
Our people started arriving here on the 27th of December with 5 Trucks loaded with different pieces of the booth. The 2 trailers for the TV offices and uplink vehicles got here on the 28th.
...With set pieces coming in from Illinois and New Jersey.
Mediaport's trucks came in from Salt Lake City, and people converged from all over the country to build and operate all this stuff.
Construction itself started on December 29th and as you can see, we are well on our way. We should have tech checks on all non broadcast stuff by later today.
One interesting side note: One of the VP's from CEA dropped by our set up and marveled at the iWall... it's sure to be one of the most talked about things at the convention.
Later this afternoon the cameras should be in and we can start checking them out.
We will be ready to go on the air on Sunday night. The big kick-off is Monday morning.
See you at CES.
By Scott Leon, NBC Universal
It's a symbiotic relationship: Consumer Electronic manufacturers develop the new technology; Hollywood and the Sports industry provide content. That's why this year more celebrities and sports figures will be attending CES than ever before.
High Def is definitely on Hollywoods agenda, be it Blu-ray or HD-DVD.
On Sunday "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner will help Panasonic unveil their new product line. Actor and Producer Michael Douglas helps unveil XSTREAMHD's home streaming innovations Thursday at the Venetian. SONY, which has a major presence at CES will host Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey and Vanna White Monday.
The sound of music will be rocking the show throughout the week. An updated, state of the art JOHN LENNON EDUCATIONAL TOUR BUS will be unveiled. It's a recording studio on wheels to help school kids learn about the recording process. Yoko Ono along with recording artists Natasha Bedingfield, will i. am of the Black Eyed Peas and Pat Monahan of Train are all getting on the bus.
Show attendees will also be able to hear some great performances. Hit maker Mary J. Blige performs along with Sheila E. at the Monster Cable Concert Tuesday night at the Paris Hotel. The legendary Tony Bennett will be another star at the Sony booth Monday. And checkout actor Kevin Costner's musical side when he performs with his band, Modern West, Monday at the Gibson Guitar tent at the LVCC.
The world of sports will be well represented. David Ortiz of the World Series champions Boston Red Sox is a guest at the SHARP booth Tuesday. GoDaddy.com has both Olympic Gold medalist Amanda Beard and the hottest woman on the race car circuit Danica Patrick appearing at their booth.
Of course... let's not forget the stars of NBC News covering the convention! Stop by our NBC Universal booth (Central 12533) to see folks like Al Roker, Brian Williams, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and Acesss Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell televising their shows live.
By Frank Radice and Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC Universal
So you might be tempted to ask: "What's a content company like you doing at a technology show like this?"
The answer is as plain as the screen in front of you. "Consumers. Content. Connection." It's what NBC Universal has always been about, and it's our theme for our first-ever booth at the International Consumer Electronic Show. The fact is, the content that plays on all those cool screens and cutting edge devices at CES has become just as important to CES as the devices themselves.
How NBCU got to CES is, in itself, a remarkable story. It began at last year's show. While Jay Linden and Beth Comstock were walking the floor, they stopped at the Intel booth, where Intel's VP of Business Development said something like, "... you know, this show's no longer about us, it's about you." Later that day, Jay joined Mark Lukasiewicz, Darren Feher, John Eck and other NBCU leaders for dinner and they began talking about how we might get to CES for 2008 – all agreed it was high time for NBCU to be at the show.
Last Spring, the effort began in earnest when NBCU's Jay and Mark (two of the people at that "founding dinner") approached CEA to talk about their idea for a special exhibitor/broadcast role for NBCU. Before long, and with the enthusiastic approval of NBCU's Jeff Zucker, Beth Comstock and Lynn Calpeter, and the leadership of CEA, NBCU's place at CES was secured. Frank Radice and Lisa Kraynak joined the NBCU project leadership team and the booth project was fully underway with some "firsts" already under our belts.
We will be the first pure content company to present at CES, and we're the first "official broadcast partner." It's also the first time anyone has ever gathered the nearly 300 brands of our company in one place. Our booth at CES will include 290 web sites, 61 presentation tapes, 18 downloadable pieces of content, and 14 interactive sizzle reels on what's called the iWall (you have to see this thing!)
Every division is represented... from TV to Theme Parks, from Film to International, from Sports to Home Video... It's all here!
And we wrapped it up in a unique booth design, topped off with a 100 foot peacock feather mobile suspended 50 feet in the air, created by the Jack Morton company, who designed and created our booth, an exciting look that allows us to present in the high tech playground that is CES (we lovingly call it Nerdstock) on our own terms.
Even better, our booth design includes 2 separate fully functioning studios for 4 days of live broadcasting by NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, Access Hollywood, Telemundo, NBC News Channel, and more. (No small task given the New Hampshire Primary happens at the same time as CES... and that means a second huge broadcast commitment running simultaneously.)
Our CES message is clear... NBC Universal... Consumers. Content. Connection... It All Happens Here.
And It takes a small army to pull it all off.
First we broke up into teams. Mark Lukasiewicz was in charge of the project overall, and worked with his team from NBC News to take charge of the TV production in the booth. NBC Agency EVP Frank Radice, took charge of all the non-broadcast booth content and marketing. Lisa Kraynak worked on the messaging, and Jay Linden worked with CEA on our role, and also secured a sponsoring partner in American Express OPEN.
Mark brought in Heather Allan to oversee the massive broadcast operation with Phil Parlante from Stacy Brady's team at Long Island City, with Dave Naggiar, the Today Show's production manager and Tracie Winbigler handling the finances, to round out the group. MSNBC's Scott Leon is hard at work as info central (he's the go to guy for content on the broadcasts.)
Mark Norris joined us to coordinate digital content (a huge task given the short time period and the vast number of company web sites) and Peter Schneider came in to run the booth itself (everything from scheduling the meeting rooms, to dealing with credentials, all the headaches of one of these events.)
NBC Agency SVP, Bill Hartnett and Digital Marketing Manager, Jon Accarino are working with our coordinators, Melissa Kondak and Lynne Wisnefski, to pull together all the brand presentations, with Skip Stuart and Jonathan Small producing many of the tapes.
David Vogler and Ivan Baker along with Bill and Jon are creating our booth website, http://NBCUatCES.com, and will set up the Live Blogging Station on site (This is sure to be one of the most news breaking places on the floor.)
Jay worked with John Kelly's News Sales organization to bring in AMEX as a client and Strategic Partnership Group VP Gary Freilich worked with strategic partners (and booth neighbors) like Samsung to help get our content on high end HD displays.
Cory Shields team includes Kathy Kelly-Brown, Amy Zelvin, Alison Kubaska, Brian Steel and Allison Gollust (so expect some great press to come out of this effort).
Mark Lukasiewicz brought in Gretchen Eisele from Peacock Productions to facilitate our role as the first official broadcast partner of CES. And Stacy Melle worked with SanDisk, (our new business partner), to donate 15,000 two gig memory sticks as giveaways to attendees for downloading our content (These are sure to go fast).
We asked a new and emerging digital delivery company, Mediaport, to come up with the download solution so people could come to our booth, interact with our content, and walk away with a sample (Using the SanDisk sticks or one of your own).
The end product included hardware, kiosks and software with a custom DRM.
So come by Central 12533 and watch some live TV, visit our live blogging station, download some cool content, check out our websites, screen our sizzle tapes, be the first to learn about some exciting new company announcements, and maybe even see some stars (virtually or in person) like Brian Williams, Al Roker, Maria Bartiromo, Nancy O'Dell, and Donny Deutsch.
If you're in town for CES, come watch Peter Frampton perform at our party on site at the Gibson Guitar tent and see the new cover of the January issue of Vegas Magazine featuring Maria Bartiromo.
Remember folks, It all happens here!
Cya soon at CES.
By Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
Before products become common household names, they usually make their first appearance at CES. For example, HDTVs are everywhere these days, but the first HDTV made its debut a decade ago.
Here are some more notable products/services that debuted at CES:
- Videocassette Recorder (VCR), 1970 [pictured]
- Laserdisc Player, 1974
- Pong home console by Atari, 1975
- Camcorder, 1981
- Compact Disc Player, 1981
- Commodore 64, 1982
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), 1985 [pictured]
- Digital Audio Technology, 1990
- Compact Disc - Interactive, 1991
- Mini Disc, 1993
- Radio Data System, 1993
- Digital Satellite System, 1994
- Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), 1996
- High Definition Television (HDTV), 1998
- Hard-disc VCR (PVR), 1999
- Digital Audio Radio (DAR), 2000
- Microsoft Xbox, 2001
- Plasma TV, 2001
- Home Media Server, 2002
- HD Radio, 2003
- Blu-Ray DVD, 2003 [pictured]
- HDTV PVR, 2003
- HD Radio, 2004
- IP TV, 2005
- Blu-Ray and HD-DVD dual format player, 2007
How many of these products did you buy? I'm guilty of owning most of the stuff on this list. Loved the NES. Not sure I ever got my money's worth out of my Mini Disc recorder. And I'm kind of happy I never owned a VCR with physical switches and dials.
I wonder what announcement will be the talk of the show this year...
