CES 2005 Diary: Day 3 - Show Floor Take 2

Another frigid night had passed and we were up again at 7:00am to prep for what would be our third day in Vegas and our second on the CES floor. Clint and I strolled downstairs to meet Gene and Bertha in the New Frontier's breakfast buffet. The casino floor is usually empty at this time of the day, with only a few pathetic holdouts from the night before trying to win back what they had lost. Looking at some of the sad souls at the blackjack table, I couldn't help but wonder how many of them were CES exhibitors. Maybe it's better if that question went unanswered.

We plopped down in our booth and promptly got back up to pick out our food from the buffet. I'll hand it to the Frontier, for a place that feels like it was inhabited/decorated by the road crew for Black Oak Arkansas, the food was quite good. If I was going to be on my feet all day walking the miles of convention floor, I wanted to at least make sure I had the calories to do so. Pat, who got an early start today, was absent from the table. We had him running all over town searching for a USB cable to replace the one that Clint had inadvertently left at home. Our Editor-in-Chief had a camera-load of photos and would not be able to put them on the site live from Vegas without one. Once done with breakfast, we agreed to meet Pat outside the Hotel for a ride over to the Convention Center. As we paced around the side lobby of the building, we noticed it was sleeting pretty heavily. I commented to Clint that the sleet looked an awful lot like snow to me. We convinced ourselves that it was impossible for it to snow in Vegas, but minutes later, our doubts were negated when, sure enough. the white stuff came falling. Snowing in Vegas??? If this wasn't a recipe for a bad cold, I don't know what was. The dry desert air, the artificial climate control of a smoky old hotel/casino, a convention floor with thousands of people, and now this. Snow.

We all crammed into Pat's tiny BMW and shot over to the South Hall. It was cold, rainy, snowy and just a plain awful day. Today would be arguably the biggest day at CES, and at 9:00 am, the Convention Center was absolutely teeming with people. When we finally made it in and brushed off the elements, we parted ways and headed in our own respective directions. I imagined today would be much easier and more efficient. Having learned from the mistakes of yesterday, I mentally banked on getting twice as much accomplished today. Clint, Gene and Pat were of course talking to the manufacturers most familiar to Audioholics readers, while I had to seek out the smaller yet still compelling products and companies. It would seem like an easy thing to do amidst a sea of thousands of manufacturers, but it was no small task to weed out the cream from the crap.

Today would also bring CES character #3:

Asian-based-manufacturer-rep-with-palatable-American-first-name-and-native-country-last-name Guy. Let's just call him Kenny Yamamoto for short. (Hank Wang, Stu Fujiko, or Wally Toyota were other memorable options). Anyway, Kenny Yamamoto was a rep at yet another to-be-left-nameless speaker manufacturer. I was on the lookout all week for wireless surround speakers at the behest of many of our readers and for my own apartment-dwelling self. I stumbled upon a mid size booth that was demoing an OEM transmitter/receiver as well as their own proprietary speaker line with the receiver and amp built into the surrounds themselves. After listening to a brief and uneventful demo I asked CES character #3, Kenny Yamamoto a few basic questions. It was apparent that English was not his first language and that Japanese was not mine. We definitely struggled through the most simple of inquiries. When I asked Kenny Yamamoto the price of the speakers with the built-in receiver he told me it was $10 dollars. "10 dollars??!" I said? Kenny Yamamoto nodded assuredly. "Wait, a second, you mean to tell me that I can buy a pair of wireless speakers with a 2.4 GHz transmitter, receiver and amp for $10 dollars?" Kenny Yamamoto again nodded assuredly. Naturally, I assumed that perhaps he was confused... maybe that's how much he'd sell his OEM technology to a speaker manufacturer at a bulk rate. He again assured me that the ten dollar price was indeed for the consumer, and was in fact TEN DOLLARS. I had to shake my head and laugh... I don't know why I couldn't drop it, but I had to explain to Kenny Yamamoto that something was getting lost in translation - likely a few zeros or decimal points. I told him a sandwich and soda costs more than $10 dollars (at the Convention Center, anyway). After badgering Kenny for about 30 seconds, he finally grabbed my Audioholics press badge and examined it closely as if he was trying to read the fine print. He informed me that I in fact did NOT work for his company and therefore would not know better than he - Kenny Yamamoto - what the price was. I got the picture quickly. Apparently the English language was not Kenny Yamamoto's forte, but he had a pretty decent grasp on American sarcasm. I should have put an ad in Audioholics with their contact info announcing their miraculous $10 dollar turn-key wireless speaker blowout.

OK, while that wasn't as bad as CES Character #2 from yesterday, Kenny Yamamoto may have been more annoying. I was absolutely baffled at the amount of manufacturers that did not include any English speaking reps. Why would Japanese people come all the way to the states to market to other Japanese? Anyway, this Friday was indeed more crowded than yesterday, and that IS saying a lot. The Audioholics crew was too busy for a simultaneous lunch meeting, so I repeated my mad cow Korean beef dining experience from the day before. The food court was absolutely packed, forcing me to sit down next to CES character #4: Fat-guy-trying to-overhype-his-industry-pull-to-unsuspecting-asian-men Guy. Now, this breed comes in many shapes and forms, but this particular specimen was completely repulsive. After sitting next to him for nearly an hour and listening to him yap on and on about how he is a Hollywood writer, director AND producer, I was seriously about to whack him over the head with my cafeteria tray. His Asian audience nodded approvingly with every load of BS he spewed. Finally his real intentions became uncomfortably apparent. I must have walked in on the conversation a little late, but my man, CES character #4 was pitching these old business men the idea of them sending their daughters to intern for him... "Sure, the movie business is tough to get into, but the next time your daughter is in LA, I'd love to meet with her. We could have a meeting over dinner and discuss her future and how I can help". I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and even worse, it seemed as if said Asian business men were buying it. They all grinned and nodded happily if not somewhat relieved perhaps by the prospect of their daughters making it big in Hollywood, all due to the benevolence of this carb-laden fat man in the CES food court. Meeting?? An internship requires a sit down with a fat stranger in Hollywood? Would this man be bringing his briefcase to this meeting??

Night couldn't come quick enough after another grueling day. I went back to the Hotel while the rest of the crew headed over to the Stratosphere for dinner as guests of Roger Hassing and the RBH Sound crew. I would have loved to have gone (if just for the rumored single-zero roulette wheel in the Strat's casino), but I was eager to make up for the less than productive previous night. I decided to get dinner at the Frontier instead. I went downstairs, and having had Mexican the night before, I decided on the Frontier's other dining option, Gilleys. A faithful recreation of the famous bar depicted in the film Urban Cowboy. The sign outside the restaurant advertised "Cold Beer and Dirty Girls". This was next to the illuminated "Bikini Bull-Riding" sign. I figured this would be a classy spot to get a quick burger. I've never really understood the concept of women and food as a package deal. If I am eating, I don't want to have to endure Beavis and Butthead-isms from the guy next to me as he ogles our waitress. I just want to eat. With that said, I probably could have picked a better restaurant. It was not easy to keep a straight face when a girl in a cowboy hat, g-string, bikini top and leather chaps takes your order, but I managed. I did my best to order quick and get out of that awkward nightmare as fast as possible.

Once back in the room, my work continued long into the wee hours of the night when I finally decided I would crash out. Clint and Gene rolled back into the room at 11 pm and by this point I was all but in dreamland. Once in bed, I felt an odd soreness in my throat. Usually my body's signal to me of a bad cold knocking at my door. Tomorrow would promise to be a battle.