After nearly a week at CES, almost everyone is asking me – what was the big thing? I’m excited to say that there was no one big thing. The show is so huge that there were many big things! If anything, the show itself was the big thing. It was so huge and had something for everyone! There was absolutely no way to see it all. Spread among 2.2 million square feet of exhibit space with more than 3600 exhibitors, if you were to see all 3600, you’d have less than half a minute at each (and that doesn’t count travel time). And that probably doesn’t count all of the suites, where a lot of the action actually occurs. Cadence once again had its meeting place with a large demo area and three meeting rooms. We met with the leaders in digital TV, Internet of Things, smartphones, and many other industries. See Richard Goering’s blog for details on our exciting demos. And have a look at Brian Fuller's live blog , where he shared photos and videos from the CES show floor. Here’s my list of top 10 observations from CES: New industries create tons of copycats, each trying for 5-10% of the market. Look at wristband wearables, games, and even drones. So many companies with nearly identical products. There's fierce competition, with very little product differentiation. Because the hardware is so similar, the big differentiation will come from software. Expect a lot of software to be buggy as it is new and still being debugged. Software capabilities will be greatly oversold for a while. Check online reviews for anything you are considering purchasing! I would love to have a penny for... The incredible wireless bandwidth being used at this show. Imagine 160,000 extra cell phones plus lots of tablets and computers, all online at the same time. Cox provided Internet service for the convention center, and I'm glad I don't work on their support team.The wireless keeps going up and down. Automotive electronics are huge, and getting better all the time. I just got a 2014 Mercedes, and am getting used to all its features. New electronics, not horsepower or even style, will accelerate people's desire to get new cars. It’s all about safety plus an enhanced user experience. 10 years ago CES was all about putting audio everywhere. Now that’s well established, and Cadence is leading in audio DSPs for SoC design. Now the innovation is about imaging. Cameras are everywhere, and the challenge is processing all the data coming in from the cameras. Face detection, sign detection, image stabilization, low-light enhancement…so many applications. I expect leaps in imaging capabilities at the next few CES shows. But don’t forget about audio. The software that will allow traditional 2-speaker stereo headsets to faithfully reproduce surround sound was a big hit in our booth. We also introduced the HiFi 4 DSP IP core, which provides the processing power required for object-oriented audio. Have you heard object-oriented audio in the theaters? Objects are “placed” around the room, and the audio sounds so real. The innovation in audio continues. IoT means lots of things to lots of people. To some it’s connected coffee pots and refrigerators, to others its GPS-enabled pet trackers. The possibilities are endless. The semiconductor industry should be healthy for a long time supplying low-power parts that make these dreams become reality. I’m certain it will happen, and mostly worried about getting all the software to work effectively so my Mom and Dad can easily install it. Robots have a long way to go for consumer use. OK, they’re fine for cleaning the floors. But it will take a long time before the “Jetsons” robots are invited into my home. Yet people are working on these. I think the first applications will be (and already are) industrial, and it will take a long time to get into the home. So many drone companies, so little time to evaluate which one is best! Our booth was down the hall from the gamers and drones. A few years ago Parrot stood out with their cage full of drones that would dance and battle. Now everyone with enough room has a cage to show off the capabilities. Drones with cameras will make it much harder to stop your neighbors from peeking in the windows. CES is healthy and booming. Anyone who thought CES might go away or get boring should give up after this year. If anything, Las Vegas is too small for CES. The streets were packed with limos and buses inching along, the Monorail was packed, and I was grateful to stay in the old Las Vegas Hilton. As old and probably moldy as it was, avoiding the huge transportation lines made it bearable. And there was a shuttle every 10 minutes around the Las Vegas Convention Center, making getting around outside so much easier. Paula Jones![]()
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